{"id":601968,"date":"2024-04-18T13:28:34","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T17:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/?p=601968"},"modified":"2026-03-25T10:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:07:11","slug":"the-echidna-enigma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/podcast\/the-echidna-enigma\/","title":{"rendered":"The Echidna Enigma"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"143\" src=\"\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/PageTitle-Season7_2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-601971\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/PageTitle-Season7_2.png 800w, https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/PageTitle-Season7_2-300x54.png 300w, https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/PageTitle-Season7_2-768x137.png 768w, https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/PageTitle-Season7_2-150x27.png 150w, https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/PageTitle-Season7_2-696x124.png 696w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Today\u2019s burning question is: \u201cAre there Mammals that lay eggs?\u201d<br>You bet, and where in the world could we find such a creature? Australia of course.<br>Earth Ranger Emma is back in the outback to investigate this new animal mystery&#8230; Get ready to meet some perfectly precious puggles.<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/art19.com\/shows\/7619e4c6-5de6-4851-af07-0e3d42e75f7d\/episodes\/f8e7b93b-869d-4072-9e2b-96942e76667d\/embed?theme=light-gray-blue\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px; border: 0 none;\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Howdy Earth Rangers, we\u2019re out in the Down Under (that\u2019s Australia and New Zealand) today to solve a new mystery\u2026 but not just any mystery \u2013 an animal mystery!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"591\" src=\"\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visual1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-601959\" style=\"width:762px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visual1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visual1-300x177.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visual1-768x454.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visual1-150x89.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visual1-696x411.jpg 696w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Australia is filled with strange animals. There&#8217;s the &#8220;Tasmanian Tiger&#8221;, which isn&#8217;t actually a tiger &#8211; but the now-extinct Thylacine! There&#8217;s also the Tasmanian Devil that&#8217;s the largest surviving carnivorous marsupial to date. This isn&#8217;t even mentioning all the big insects found there. So what can we find in Australia that may answer today&#8217;s question?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong><em>THE QUESTION OF THE DAY:<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong><em>Are there Mammals that lay eggs?<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"774\" src=\"\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visuals-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-601969\" style=\"width:500px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visuals-4.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visuals-4-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visuals-4-768x594.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visuals-4-150x116.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visuals-4-696x539.jpg 696w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The echidna is a mystery of its own\u2026 is it a bird? A mammal? Is it like an anteater? Just what is it? The echidna lays eggs, like a bird, it also has a long snout-like beak, like a bird. But this nose is more like an anteater\u2019s, with a long tongue used to slurp up ants and termites. It also feeds its babies with milk, just like a mammal! But unlike a mammal, they have spikes instead of teeth!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"777\" src=\"\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visuals-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-601970\" style=\"width:686px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visuals-5.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visuals-5-300x233.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visuals-5-768x597.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visuals-5-150x117.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Podcast_Visuals-5-696x541.jpg 696w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><em>Whew! <\/em>That\u2019s a lot, isn\u2019t it? But just what <em>is <\/em>the echidna?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Echidnas are <strong>monotreme<\/strong>, mammals that lay eggs. Echidnas are one of the only two animals IN THE WHOLE WORLD to belong to this order\u2026which makes them super-duper special! The only other monotreme (besides the echidna) is the platypus\u2026which is a whole different mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Who would have thought that there was a one-word answer to this question? Going to Australia, and seeing baby echidnas (called puggles, isn&#8217;t that cute?), the adventure was worth it! We&#8217;re on our way to answering our next set of questions, but don&#8217;t hesitate to send us more of your own!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"270\" height=\"88\" src=\"\/EN\/CA\/wp-content\/uploads\/Save-A-Message.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50049\" style=\"width:225px\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Do you have a fun animal mystery you want us to explore?<br>Let us know in the comments in the Earth Rangers App.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s burning question is: \u201cAre there Mammals that lay eggs?\u201dYou bet, and where in the world could we find such a creature? Australia of course.Earth Ranger Emma is back in the outback to investigate this new animal mystery&#8230; Get ready to meet some perfectly precious puggles. Howdy Earth Rangers, we\u2019re out in the Down Under [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179644,"featured_media":601972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1187],"tags":[1612,1101],"class_list":{"0":"post-601968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-podcast","8":"tag-emma","9":"tag-podcast"},"pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179644"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":612323,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601968\/revisions\/612323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}