Short-Beaked Echidna

Hello! I don’t need to dig and hide, do I? No! Oh, that is good. I suppose you need to know a bit about me. I hatched from an egg, though I am a mammal, and I have a super long tongue for slurping up tasty bugs and I can dig so fast you better not blink or you may miss it all. Oh, those spines, well they are just tough hair. I think I am cute, but what do you think? I am sure if you wanted to pet me it would be alright.

Now that we know each other better, I feel quite outgoing. If you want to play games with me, you will have to be a night owl as I usually prefer the nighttime, but I could be tempted to join you in the day if you have a tasty treat of ants or worms.

I am somewhat of a dirt connoisseur. I eat dirt to help with the digestion of my food. I am sure you don’t eat dirt, but I have to tell you that dirt tastes different depending on which area you find it in, so I would be pleased to sample your dirt, and maybe I can even help you with your soil needs as to growing flowers and crops by letting you know what the dirt may lack or have too much of. We will have a wonderful friendship, I feel.

Since we are the best of friends now, it would be fun to spend the day rolling down this hill and then have a picnic. The weather is glorious this time of year and we should spend as much time as possible outside. I know it is daytime, but I make an exception for my best friends.

This hill is perfect; it’s not too steep and cushioned with lovely grass. Have you ever rolled down a hill? I don’t imagine you can roll up into a ball like I can, but you can roll down sideways. You did not just eat, did you? No? Oh good, because if so we would have to wait. Ready?

Your pet becomes an expert at finding its own food!

As long as there have been moles, there have been opal miners (opals being their chief goal, but by no means their only one).

Each mole community has their specialty, of course, and the town of Molington was certainly no exception. As neighboring mole communities usually specialized in such pursuits as worm digging and tunnel building (a skill quite different from opal mining, as any mole can tell you that has had the unpleasant experience of dwelling very long in an abandoned opal mine) the citizens of Molington seldom saw the need to train their pups in any other pursuit besides mining the rare and beautiful opals that were hidden beneath the rich countryside they called home. All other tasks were happily taken on by their neighbors, who were quite willing to trade their hard work for the beautiful opals of Molington.

As the mines of Molington became deeper and deeper, the task of transporting their finds to the surface became more challenging. Each mole took great pride in their daily tally of opals found (and every mole could identify every opal they had ever found, even years later). Transporting them became a matter of passing them up to the surface, mole to mole. As each mole hated to quit until absolutely necessary, they began tossing them so that less moles were needed to get them to the surface. Soon it became a game to see how far they could get their daily bounty, and to increase their skill in this, they began holding yearly contests. Moles from miles around would come and compete for the title of Champion Opal Tosser.

Favorite food:

Green Wormie

See below for your free foods!