- What's going on, Coyote Pack? Are you ready to meet one of
the most bizarre creatures to call Australia home? Let me give you a hint as
to what you're about to see, it has no teeth, it has
hair and it also lays eggs, any guesses? If you don't know what
it is, stay tuned, 'cause we're about to
enter into its enclosure. No gloves, I'm gonna try
to do this without gloves, without getting spiked. Oh, oh, oh, super spiky. (upbeat jungle music) Wow, look at that arachnid. Australia's famously
known for its iconic mix of unique animal species, many of which can not be found
anywhere else in the world. Some of them, like the kangaroo
are incredibly plentiful and it's not
uncommon in the least to see them quickly
hopping across the outback. When it comes to
recognizable reptiles, when you think Australia, you definitely think
about crocodiles, however, to my surprise, they were actually rarer
than you may think, as both the freshwater
and saltwater varieties inhabit mainly the
Northern Territory, but what about the animals
that aren't considered icons, the ones who are seldom seen,
due to their elusive nature and who in many cases, are also considered to
be nature's oddities? Today we're back at the
Billabong Sanctuary, located in Nome, a
small town just south of Townsville, the
North, Queensland, proudly listed as
one of Australia's top ecotourism attractions, this family-owned and
operated establishment is home to over
50 native species, including what I consider to be the continent's
undisputed champion, when it comes to the
title of most bizarre. So if you are ready, let's see if we can get
up close with the echidna. Alright, come on, guys. Now the keepers have left
the door slightly ajar, let's go inside
and be extra quiet and see if we can find it. (light suspenseful music) Oh, it's right here, come
in, come in, come in. You have to be careful
where you step, when you're in this enclosure, because look at that, almost like a
biological landmine, you may think that this
is some sort of cacti, but that is in fact an echidna. - [Mark] That's an animal? - That's an animal and it
is buried down in the dirt, you guys wanna see it,
I've gotta dig it up and that's about it, kinda
looks like a sea urchin, right? - [Mark] That's it? - That's it. - [Mark] It's just
a ball of spikes. - A ball of spikes, looks
like porcupine quills and it's not something
you wanna come in and sit down to
have a picnic on, so you're just gonna sit
right here next to it. Whoa, now it's really
starting to move, hey buddy, how ya
doing in there? Now, actually it's a
lot bigger then that, it is buried down in the
dirt and what we're seeing right here is an
incredible, defensive pose, now this creature is
incredibly speedy, when it comes to digging
and all he needs to do is sense something dangerous
in its environment, like a dingo and
they will immediately use their claws and
their powerful legs to dig down into a
little burrow like that and rack these
spines up in the air and it's very tough
to eat something that is covered in
spines like that, but-- - [Mark] So will those
come off into your fingers? - No, its quills do not
release from its body like that of a porcupine, in fact, they're not
related to porcupines at all and I know you guys really
wanna see this creature and to do that, I'm
gonna have to dig it up and no gloves, I'm gonna try
to do this without gloves, without getting spiked, now,
these spikes are non-venomous, but if I'm spiked by them, it
is gonna cause some irritation and it's gonna be very itchy. - [Mark] Are they sharp? - They're razor sharp, here,
bring your hand in here and just kind of prop
down on top there, it's like a pin cushion, right? - [Mark] Argh! - [Coyote] Yeah, like every
time you touch it, it moves and even that, imagine
if you were a dingo and you come into the
environment to sniff this, even that little
movement can give you a good poke right in the nose. - [Mark] Yeah, you can feel
as it kind of laid down, when it budges, they get like... - Hm-mm.
- really stiff. - [Coyote] Yep, they can lay
flat and then they can also be racked like that to
protect the creature, when it's buried down
underneath soft soil. - [Mark] Wow, are you
sure you wanna do this? - Well yeah, you guys wanna
see it up close, right? - Sure, I wanna see it.
- Alright. - [Mark] But only
if you're willing. - Oh yeah, well, let me see, my tactic here is gonna be to
try to get to its underside, now their bellies are much
softer than the top side, so if I can get my hands
sort of underneath it, I can pull it out and
what it's gonna do is curl up into a ball. Here we go, oh, I got it, I got it. Oh, here comes the face, is
that his head right there? No, that's the rump end. Oh wow, he's incredibly
strong, here we go, ah, I got ya, I got ya, got it, there it is, that's an
echidna right there, oh, oh, oh, super spiky, can you see its
face on that side? - [Mark] Yeah. - There's a little
face right there. Actually if I sit down here,
I'm gonna plop it on my lap, it's a dangerous
little maneuver, but I wanna hold it like this. - [Mark] Wow, look at
the spikes sticking out. It looks just like a sea urchin. - [Coyote] Hold on, I've
gotta get by the belly. Ow, ow, ow, ow. - [Mark] Actually,
you know what, Coyote? - Yeah? - [Mark] You know what
that animal reminds me of? - What's that? - [Mark] That video
game we used to play? - My favorite video game?
- Yeah. - Sonic the Hedgehog? And actually what's really
cool about the echidna is that the echidna was a
character in the Sonic series, you guys remember
Knuckles, the red one? He had those boxing gloves,
he was actually an echidna, based off of this animal and
look at that cute, little face, you see that elongated nose? That is specialized
for catching insects, now they're insectivores,
which means they primarily feed on bugs and they specialize
in eating ants and termites and similar to an anteater,
they don't have teeth, but they have a
long, sticky tongue, they use that tongue
to kind of feel around inside of old, rotting
logs, underneath rocks and around in termite
and ant nests, what they will do
is just kind of suck those creatures up
into their mouths and grind them up against
the roof of their mouth and then they have a meal. Hi, bud, oh, you're
so cute and dirty, look at that little foot,
look at those paw pads and they feel just like Latex and look at that big claw
upfront, it's like a shovel. It's interesting
how the front legs are very similar
to the back legs, 'cause these are the
little back legs here, see how stout they are? - [Mark] Little, chubby feet. - Yeah and little
pads feel like Latex and the front feet, you actually
can't see the front feet really well, but they kind of
look like the foot of a mole, it's interesting, this
animal's like the combination of so many different creatures and I find that that
seems to be the case with many of the animals
here in Australia, they're like this weird mix of all these
different creatures, that we're used to seeing
in the United States. - [Mark] What does the
echidna smell like? - Oh, I'm not sure
I wanna get my, ooh, musky, a little musky, I don't know if they
secrete any sort of musk or if that's just from the dirt that it's been
burying around in. - [Mark] Do they
shed their quills? - Yes, they can shed their
quills, just like hair and they do actually have hair, little, coarse, bristly hairs
in between all of these spines and their skin is
incredibly leathery. Now, other than the platypus, this is the only
mammal, that lays eggs and the female will actually
carry the egg inside of her for several months and
then when she lays it, it takes about 10
days for it to hatch. So bizarre, a mammal
that lays eggs. - [Mark] And how many
eggs do they lay at once? - Just a single egg, that's it, one egg is all this
animal will lay. Let me see if I can set
it down for a second, if it'll start to walk. Here we go, watch this, you guys wanna see it
dig into the ground? Watch how fast it's able
to burrow down, watch this. (patting ground) Any sort of disturbance
in the environment, look at that, they actually
push the dirt out to the sides and those stout,
little legs and claws allow them to do this, so they don't necessarily
dig down forward to protect themselves,
they dig straight down, so that then they can create
that pin cushion defense pose and they have incredible
camouflage too, I mean, any sort of environment that's made of sticks
and leaves and dirt and this thing is gonna
blend in perfectly. Now look at that, it's
already buried back down, alright, let me see if I
can get him back up here. - [Mark] I'm surprised
you put it back down, after it took you so
long to dig it up. - Yeah, I didn't really
think about that. Okay, they're so like, this is
me trying to lift the echidna out from under the ground
and it is locked in place, now you can imagine
if it nestled itself up against a log or
in between some rocks, it'd be absolutely impossible
for a predator to dislodge it. Alright, let's see if
we can bring the echidna back up from under the dirt. Come here, buddy, oh, so strong. - [Mark] Dangerous kind
of operation there. - [Coyote] Whoa. - There's his face.
- Get the dirt off. - There's the little
nose, alright, bud? Oh, pretty cool, huh? - [Mark] That's really cool. - You wanna pet its back? - [Mark] I kinda
wanna try to hold it. - You wanna try to hold it? - [Mark] Do you
think that's okay? - Ah, yeah, you just gotta
get it from underneath here, here, go ahead and set down
your camera real quick. - [Mark] Okay, put my camera. Alright. - Just be really, really gentle. - I was told if I
keep my hands flat. - Yeah, actually if you
put your hands flat, I can kind of lay
it on you like that and then kind of
feel for the belly, there you go, there you go. - [Mark] It's got me. - You got it? Spiky, right?
- Oh, it's super spiky. I got ya, I got ya, buddy. - Pretty cool, huh? Hi.
- That's pretty cool. - Now, what most people
probably don't know is that Knuckles
was your favorite Sonic the Hedgehog
character, right? - He was. The underside is really soft,
- Right. - and fur-coated.
- Yeah. - You would never think
that by looking at the top. - Well, you can have a
really soft underbelly, I guess if you have back hair
and spines like this guy, - It's got me. (laughs) - Alright, I'll just
set it on my knee. - [Mark] He's got me, hold on. Got it?
- Yeah, I got him. - [Mark] They have
a strong grip. - [Coyote] Yeah, they really do. - Quite the handshake. (laughs) - Those little stubby feet
really can grab on to you. - [Mark] It's really warmed up. - Yeah, at this point, I feel like we're pretty
comfortable together, I'm not getting spined too
bad, we're just hanging out. - [Mark] You know, I found out
what that echidna's name is, you wanna know? - Yeah, what's his name? - Spike.
- Spike. (laughing) That's a good, original name
for an echidna like this. Well, this was pretty cool, getting up close to one
of the only monotremes that's here in
Australia, the echidna. I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild, we'll see you
on the next adventure. Alright, set him
back down in the dirt and he's gonna
disappear, you ready? And there he goes,
oh, yummy, good. Echidnas truly rank as being one of the planet's most
uniquely bizarre animals and while their spike-covered
bodies may give them an outwardly aggressive
looking appearance, these ambling little monotremes are as kind-hearted as it gets. If you ever encounter one
of these egg-laying mammals in the wild, do not
attempt to pick it up, trust me when I say, you
will regret those spines. However, if you simply admire
it from a respectful distance, I promise that an
encounter with an echidna is something you
will never forget. Hey, Coyote Pack, I
have some exciting news, I'm proud to announce
that the crew and I will be back on tour in 2018
with Brave Wilderness Live, visiting cities all
across North America. Our first shows are in Anaheim
and San Diego, California, from there we head
to Phoenix, Arizona, beyond that, we will be visiting
San Francisco, California, Portland, Oregon,
Seattle, Washington and Boulder, Colorado
with many more shows to be announced in
the coming months. Tickets can be purchased at
the Brave Wilderness website, so make sure to reserve
your seats today and don't forget,
subscribe, so you can join me and the crew on this
season of Breaking Trail. I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave! - [Audience] Stay wild! (light jungle music)
TIL Echidnas lay eggs. Phineas and Ferb lied to me.