Babbin baby echidna in December. Picture: Supplied Source: PerthNow
Babbin the baby echidna at Perth Zoo today. Picture: Supplied Source: PerthNow
THEY weighed less than a gram when they hatched, but Perth Zoo's two baby echidnas are growing into their spikes.
The baby short-beaked echidnas now tip the scales at more than a kilogram but they have plenty more growing to do and could reach up to seven kilograms, zoo keepers say.
Babbin and Nyingarn gained world attention late last year as the first young - or puggles - successfully bred from zoo-born echidnas. Their four-year-old mothers, Mila and Chindi, were also born at Perth Zoo.
The puggles spent their first two months in their mothers' pouches before nestling into their nursery burrows and are just starting to venture out to explore their surroundings.
The zoo has 15 echidnas, eight of them born at the facility.
Echidnas have no major predators in the wild due to their spines, but dingoes sometimes eat them.
Perth Zoo Australian fauna supervisor Belinda Turner said the zoo's successful echidna breeding program was helping experts learn more about echidna behaviour and breeding.
An international echidna workshop is currently being held at Perth Zoo to discuss their reproductive behaviour and increase their breeding success at other zoos.
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