Echidnas in UK zoos

PrimateKid

PrimateKid

Well-Known Member
Hello everyone!
Are there any Echidnas in Uk zoos? If so how are they kept?(indoors? or outdoors?) Have they ever bred? And what diet are they given?

Cheers. PK
 
Paignton keeps a pair of short-beaked echidna in an outdoor with red pandas. I think they are fed a cocktail porridge like anteaters, though I might need clarification there.
 
Paignton's pair are kept next to, rather than with, the red pandas and yes, they are fed a porridgey mixture. They have a couple of small 'kennels' and a shelter with heat lamps.
 
Is it just me or do they never seem very active at Paignton? I've only ever seen one of them on one occasion.
 
Shame, was that the only zoo in the UK to keep them?
 
I've never seen Paignton's echdinas.

Echidnas at Chester were fed once a day on a mixture of minced meat, Farex, Ideal milk, raw egg and very finely chopped vegetables. All these ingridients were mixed with fresh blood. Food had to be small enough to be taken up by the echidna's very narrow
snout.

Food was originally placed in open dishes but became stuck on the echidna's spines above the eyes and necessitated frequent washing by the keepers. Food was then provided in covered dishes with holes drilled in the lids The echidna could insert the snout and take up the food without food smearing the face.

Chester found the best floor covering for indoor enclosures was sand. Previous attempts using dried leaves and peat were unsuccessful because urine lay in the floor covering and when their bellies came into contact with it, an eczema-like condition resulted. Sand allowed the urine to drain away better.

The enclosure was furninshed with a rock pile and a log.

my photo of the 2nd echinda enclosure at Chester
http://www.zoochat.com/photo/australian-echidna-chester-zoo-11-february-2682-t.jpg

Maguari's photo of Paignton outdoor enclosure
http://www.zoochat.com/photo/echidna-enclosure-paignton-zoo-2007-10936-t.jpg
 
I agree ive never seen them out at paignton but they are pretty unique animals!
 
Tigerlemurguy said:
I agree ive never seen them out at paignton but they are pretty unique animals!
Click to expand...

The best time to see them is when their food's been poured into holes in a log. Otherwise they can just lie under their heat lamp looking like road kill, or hide away completely. I haven't been up to their enclosure for a while so haven't seen if one's missing.
 
One of Paignton's large snakes (Burmese Python?) in the Croc Swamp recently died and we wondered how they knew ;)
 
I don't think they realised one of the Pandas in Berlin was dead until they had a lot of people notice either.
 
Johnny Morris. said:
I've seen them moving. At least i think i did.

Now, Bristols Crocodiles haven't moved since at least 1988.;)
Click to expand...
Sorry got to dis agree with you on that as they had Nile Crocs in the first enclosure you come to in the house back then,seen as they are no longer there i suspect they West African Dwarfs have moved since 1988!!!!!!!!!!!
 
zoogiraffe said:
Sorry got to dis agree with you on that as they had Nile Crocs in the first enclosure you come to in the house back then,seen as they are no longer there i suspect they West African Dwarfs have moved since 1988!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

I can only remember Dwarf Crocs being in there, but my post wasn't meant to be taken seriously. Unless they were stuffed Nile Crocs.;)
 
Back to the echidnas...
I don't imagine that Paignton will be able to replace them when they are gone. The regulations for exporting wildlife out of Australia are notoriously tough, and was/is the case that you could only send F2 captive generation individuals. As it stands echidnas are rarely bred in Aus zoos, although Perth and Adelaide have succeeded in recent years.
 
johnstoni said:
I thought the Short-beaked echidnas came from New Guinea?
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Do you mean the species or the individuals? Both long and short-beaked echidnas are from New Guinea. I don't believe that it would be much easier acquiring new specimens from either Papua New Guinea or Irian Jaya/West Papua.
 
It is not all that jazz ..... and bad out there! ;)

If a credible consortium of European EAZA aligned zoos where to invest in a coop echidna management and breeding plan, echidnas would be forthcoming from the ARAZPA region.

Just have a look f.i. at the wombat arrangements where zoos interested in and having experience of an Antipodes themed mega exhibit (Duisburg, Planckendael et cetera) have been able to import new founders from Australia. Similar plans exist for Tassie devils at selected establishments. Various zoos have had long term success at maintaining echidnas, including Zoo Frankfurt, Blijdorp, Rotterdam and Planckendael.

Incidentally, it would be nice to set up colonies of the rarest Tachyglossus aculeatus ssp. in Australia itself. At present most colonies consist of T. a. aculeatus only?

On another note: why do some zoos maintain a singleton of a rarely kept ssp. (like LA and St. Louis Zoos)? These Kangaroo island echidnas would be better off at the Adelaide Zoo (where a singleton male is kept)!

On even another note: why do some zoos maintain non defined echidnas whereas all have been wild-caught and should have been forthcoming with explicit consent from the Australian government ...? :confused:
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
It is not all that jazz ..... and bad out there! ;)

If a credible consortium of European EAZA aligned zoos where to invest in a coop echidna management and breeding plan, echidnas would be forthcoming from the ARAZPA region.

Just have a look f.i. at the wombat arrangements where zoos interested in and having experience of an Antipodes themed mega exhibit (Duisburg, Planckendael et cetera) have been able to import new founders from Australia. Similar plans exist for Tassie devils at selected establishments. Various zoos have had long term success at maintaining echidnas, including Zoo Frankfurt, Blijdorp, Rotterdam and Planckendael.

Incidentally, it would be nice to set up colonies of the rarest Tachyglossus aculeatus ssp. in Australia itself. At present most colonies consist of T. a. aculeatus only?

On another note: why do some zoos maintain a singleton of a rarely kept ssp. (like LA and St. Louis Zoos)? These Kangaroo island echidnas would be better off at the Adelaide Zoo (where a singleton male is kept)!

On even another note: why do some zoos maintain non defined echidnas whereas all have been wild-caught and should have been forthcoming with explicit consent from the Australian government ...? :confused:
Click to expand...

The Marsupial and Monotreme TAG for BIAZA (UK & Eire) have been working with ARAZPA in some capacity for several years to orchestrate an import of species to the UK. Unfortunately there has never been the commitment from enough zoos to follow through with the paperwork ie. too hard basket. Also the BIAZA zoos seem to be unaware of what is realistically available. Amazingly koalas would be (probably) easier to import then Tas devils, but obviously more difficult to maintain.

I think the European examples that you gave regarding maintaining echidnas is due to good husbandry, some luck with breeding and relative longevity of the species. As I mentioned before Aus zoos have rarely bred echidnas, certainly not on a regular basis, largely due to the fact that the species is common and they are somewhat difficult to breed.

Don't get too hung up on the subspecific splitting of echidnas. Most Aus zoos that house echidnas, maintain colonies of local animals. So you would expect examples from Kangaroo Island at Adelaide Zoo, but not at others. I'm not sure how clearly defined the subspecies are. The only subspecies that I have ever seen being noticeably different are the heavily-furred Tasmanian subspecies. I would imagine that the those from New Guinea might also be different, but I am talking about gross phenotype here and not from any scientific observation.
 
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