Ten Things I Like About... Podcast

Echidna: Social Structure

Summary: Do echidnas ever get on each others nerves? Join Kiersten as she talks about the social structure of echidnas to find out!
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes: 
Short-beaked Echidna. Bush Heritage Australia, https://www.bushheritage.org.au
Eastern long-beaked echidna, Animalia, https://animlia.bio
“Home Ranges, Movement, and Den Use in Long-beaked Echidnas, Zaglossus bartoni, From Papua New Guinea,” by Muse D. Opiang. Journal of Mammalogy, Volume 90, Issue 2, 14 April 2009, pages 340-346. https://doi.org/10.1644/08-MaMM-A-108.1
Music written and performed by Katherine Camp
 
Transcript 
(Piano music plays)
Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.
(Piano music stops)
Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 
This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.
This episode continues echidnas and the seventh thing I like about them is their social structure. 
Overall, all species of echidnas are solitary animals. They spend the majority of their lives alone, only coming together during breeding season. Then mothers will remain with the puggles until they are about 7 months old and they are able to leave the den and forage for themselves. Outside of breeding season and puggle-raising duties, echidnas live solitary lives.
We do base this information on what we currently know about this enigmatic creature which, sadly, is not a lot. They are hard to study in the wild because they are typically nocturnal and they often dig dens that they stay in during the day. Researchers haven’t given up and do continue to try and learn as much as we can about their everyday lives. 
A study published in 2009 looked at the home ranges and movement of the eastern long-beaked echidna, Zaglossus bartoni. The study showed that mature adult home ranges did not overlap with each other, but juvenile echidnas occasionally overlapped with female echidna home ranges. It is possible that these juveniles may have been the offspring of the females, but that was not proven.
Home range size was estimated for 11 individual echidnas. Seven were positively identified by sex and 4 were estimated, giving a total of seven females and four males with three juveniles. Researchers strapped telemetry anklets to the subjects to document as many points as possible to estimate home range size. By the end of the research period, home ranges sizes varied from 2.2 hectares to 168.2 hectares. 
If you’re thinking that’s quite a large difference in home range sizes, you’d be right. Let’s look a little closer at these results. The individual with the smallest home range size only had 4 points of reference, so we’d probably throw that one out because of lack of data. The largest home range of 168.2 hectares was a juvenile with 43 points of reference, so most likely this is a good estimate of the home range. Because it’s a juvenile, the researchers believe that it was still trying to decide on a home range and that’s why it was wandering so far and wide. Most likely this is not indicative of a typical echidna home range size. This individual was also the one that overlapped with other home ranges.
The more median size home range is what we’re really interested in. This gives us a better idea of the typical home range size of the average eastern long-beaked echidna. If we add all the home ranges together and divide we get and average of about 25 hectares. This is a pretty good size home range, lots of area to find insects to munch on and a nice place to find a den.
Interestingly, the home range with the most points recorded was a size of 75 hectares for an adult female. Considering this individual was recored with 65 points of reference this might be a more typical home range size, but it could also just be this individual’s preference. This study was incredibly interesting and a great start to mapping out the needs of the eastern long-beaked echidna.
So what makes a good home range? There are a few necessities that a good home range must contain. Food is definitely important. You must have enough food to sustain yourself before you settle down. Water is also important, but echidnas do not rely on standing bodies of water as much as other mammals. They can get water from the food they eat. The last thing that is incredibly important in a home range is a place to make a den.
During this study, 223 dens of long-beaked echidnas were found. 209 of them were underground dens. Of the ones found above ground, it appears that most of them were utilized by juvenile echidnas. Maybe there is a learning curve for how and where a great den is created. Or the juveniles hadn’t established a permanent home range, yet.
When creating a den the echidna will dig out a main resting place with two separate entrances. That’s good thinking there, always have an escape hatch. If at all possible these dens will be located on the side of sloped earth. It may be easier to dig into a sloped mound and it can also help keep the den from becoming flooded. Boy! These echidnas really know how to build the perfect house!
Whenever I find out that an animal that mates with others of the opposite sex leads a solitary life in a fairly large home range, I know I always ask How do they find each other when it’s time to make babies? I asked this question about the echidna. So how do they find each other? Through scent. When breeding season begins both males and females emit a scent that attracts the opposite sex to them.
Most of the responsibility of finding another echidna lies on the male, and as we discussed in the reproduction episode, he’ll travel quite the distance to ensure that he’s the mate for her. The spur that all echidnas have at some point in their life may have originally been used for venom like the male platypus, but now it’s used for secreting a substance that may attract females during mating season.
The last thing we need to discuss about echidna’s social lives is what happens when they encounter each other outside of breeding season. And that appears to be not much. No sources that I’ve used for this series have said anything about echidna on echidna aggression. It seems that when they do encounter each other outside of the breeding season, they just kind of avoid each other. During breeding season, the worst a male will do to another male is push them out of the love train. No blood and guts death matches for echidnas. 
That’s it for the social structure of echidnas. Thanks for listening to this episode because the social lives of echidnas is my seventh favorite thing about them.
 
If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change. 
 
Join me next week for another episode about echidnas.    
 
(Piano Music plays) 
This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Echidna: Spines

Summary: Ouch! Echidna spines are no joke! Join Kiersten as she discusses this amazing echidna anatomy.
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes: 
Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeates) Fact Sheet: Physical Characteristics, San Diego Wildlife Alliance Library. https://iecl.libguides.com
“Observations on Fur Development in Echidna (Monotremata, Mammalia) Indicate the Spines Precede Hairs in Ontogeny,” by Lorenzo Alibardi, and George Rogers. The Anatomical Record, Vol 298, Issue4, p. 761-770. 
https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.23081
Music written and performed by Katherine Camp
 
Transcript 
(Piano music plays)
Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.
(Piano music stops)
Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 
This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.
This episode continues echidnas and the sixth thing I like about them is their spines. Last episode we talked about how they defend themselves from the very few predators they have and one of those defense mechanisms was the spines they have on their backs. Today we’re going to take a closer look at these spines and find out what exactly they are and how they work.
All four species of echidnas have spines. You may be asking what exactly is a spine, and this is a great question, listeners. You actually have spines all over your body right now! Not exactly, but spines are modified hairs. They are made out of keratin just like all mammalian hair, including human hair and nails. 
Spines grow out of the skin just like thin hairs. So spines are made up of a medulla, which is the innermost layer of hair. It’s the softest and most fragile layer and functions as the marrow of the hair. The medulla is surrounded by a cortex. This is the thickest layer of a hair and contains most of the pigment, when hair has pigment. The outermost layer is the cuticle which is made up of dead cells. This is also the same anatomy of the softer hairs most mammals carry, including the   echidna.
Underneath the skin the canal that the spines grow out of holds a thick inner root sheath made of cornified cells which surround the growing shaft. This shaft will eventually exit the skin with a sharp, pointed end and grow into the spine. 
Echidnas grow spines on the dorsal, that’s the top, and the lateral, that’s the sides of the body. The number of spines taper off toward the underside of the echidna where you find only softer hairs. Echidnas do have softer hairs on their back and sides, as well as the spines giving them a slightly fuzzy appearance. Echidna spines will vary in size depending on where they are on the body. Some will be longer and some will be shorter so they fit nicely along the body. 
The spines of echidnas have long roots that are embedded in a special layer of muscle. This layer of muscle allows the echidna to move each spine individually. Could you imagine be able to move the hairs on your body individually? That would be so cool! 
This of course aides the echidna in using its spines to protect itself from harm. The spines can be moved individually or as a group depending on what the echidna is doing. 
When used for protection against a predator, the idea is that the predators will get a nose or mouth full of sharp spines that will hopefully make them think twice about trying to continue eating this echidna. You may be thinking of another animal that does the same thing with quills, the North American porcupine. They use their quills to defend themselves just like the echidna with one little difference. When a North American porcupine encounters a predator they will back into the predator’s muzzle or whatever portion of their body that is exposed and the porcupine’s quills will release and stick in the animal’s body part. Definitely gets their point across.
This is not what happens with the echidna. When a predator bites at or swipes at an echidna, their spines stay put. They are not hooked at the ends like the North American Porcupine’s quills and they are made to stay attached until they are naturally shed with age. The spines of an echidna can stay attached for years. 
This may have brought up another question from my intelligent listeners. What is the difference between a quill and a spine? To be completely honest I can’t find a great answer to this question. I can tell you that spines are used to refer to a broader group of modified hairs where quills are a specific type of spine. You often hear the term quill used when talking about porcupines. When doing research for this podcast all the sources I referenced said echidnas have spines. 
In a scientific paper published in 2014 titled “Observations on Fur Development in Echidna” the authors question whether spines are actually modified hairs. They looked at various ages of preserved specimens of baby echidnas to determine if the spines grew from modified hair follicles or different follicles altogether. Turns out they form from different follicles than those of hair, so maybe the spines are not modified hairs at all, but something unique to itself. 
It will be interesting to see what further research reveals.
Thanks for joining me for this pointed discussion of echidna spines because it’s my sixth favorite thing about this amazing monotreme.
 
If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change. 
 
Join me next week for another episode about echidnas.    
 
(Piano Music plays) 
This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Echidna: Defense

Summary: Echidnas don’t have a lot of natural predators but they do have some great defense strategies. Join Kiersten as talks defense in echidnas.
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes: 
Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeates) Fact Sheet: Behavior and Ecology, San Diego Wildlife Alliance Library. https://iecl.libguides.com
Eastern long-beaked echidna, Animalia, https://animlia.bio
Music written and performed by Katherine Camp
 
Transcript 
(Piano music plays)
Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.
(Piano music stops)
Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 
This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.
This episode continues echidnas and the fifth thing I like about this monotreme is how they defend themselves.
Echidnas don’t have many natural predators but they do have to worry about feral dogs trying to take a bite out of them. So, if something like this happens an echidna has four options.
Option one is to run. Let’s do a little comparison of anatomy quickly. Many breeds of dogs have legs that are made for running. Of course, there are those that have gotten the short end of the genetic stick and have the short legs that don’t take them very far very fast, but most breeds can run fast. 
I wouldn’t say that echidnas legs are shot but they are not as long as most dogs, and their bodies are a bit wobbly and round. They certainly don’t have the fastest gait and they will not be out running a feral dog. So option number one, may not be the best choice. 
The second option is to dig. Now digging would certainly not be my first choice to protect myself from a predator, but I don’t have large claws made for digging. Remember from the habitat episode that we found out echidnas favor environments that have softer, looser soil. This allows them to find food but it also allows them to dig quickly down into the soil. 
So, option number two is to dig quickly down into the soil deep enough to cover their vulnerable underside and then pop up their spines. Hopefully, the dog will get a snout full of ouchy spines and decide to pursue another meal. 
Option three is hide. If they can find cover quickly they may be able to wedge themselves into a rock crevice or hollow long. They’ll squeeze in far enough to cover their face, legs and belly leaving their spines sticking out. This makes it pretty difficult for a predator to get a good grip and pull them out. 
The fourth option is similar to the last two but without all the digging. That statement probably gives it away, so listener, you’ve probably figured out that their spines are their fourth option. If they cannot dig or run, they will simply curl up into a ball and pop their spines out. 
The short-beaked echidna is one of Australia’s most abundant mammals, so these options must be working out for them. 
  That’s all for this episode on defense. Thanks for listening because this is my fifth favorite thing about echidnas.
 
If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change. 
 
Join me next week for another episode about echidnas.    
 
(Piano Music plays) 
This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Echidna: Reproduction

Summary: Making baby echidnas is weird! Join Kiersten as she talks echidna baby-making.
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes: 
“Echidna penises: Why They’re so Weird,” by Angela Heathcote, Australian Geographic, May 24, 2021. https://www.australiangeographic.com.au
“Echidna trains: Explained,” by Australian Geographic, August 6, 2021. https://www.australiangeographic.com.au
“Getting out of a mammalian egg: the egg tooth and caruncle of the echidna,” by Jane C. Fenelon, Abbie Bennetts, Neal Anthill, Micheal Pyne, Stephen D. Johnston, Alistair R. Evans, Abigail S. Tucker, and Marilyn B. Renfree. Developmental Biology, Volume 495, March 2023, pg 8-18.
“Unveiling the echidna pouch: Insights from recent research.” The Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland. https://wildlife.org.au
Classification of Living Things: Echidna Reproduction, by Denis O’Neil. https://www.palomar.edu
Music written and performed by Katherine Camp
 
Transcript 
(Piano music plays)
Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.
(Piano music stops)
Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 
This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.
This episode continues echidnas and the fourth thing I like about them is how they reproduce. I have to tell ya that this is the best episode yet! Be prepared to have your mind blown because echidna reproduction is unbelievable.
Reproduction always starts with the wooing, so let’s start there, as well. You can always tell when echidna mating season is by the lines of males that are following a female. No kidding, male echidnas form “love trains” behind a female and follow her for days. I have found several different sources that say mating can occur anywhere from mid-May to early September. Males will follow a female around until they are the last one standing. Love trains can vary in number from 4 males to 11 males. The males will follow the females jostling each other, sometimes even pushing each other into ditches, to be the last male following the female. 
Once they’ve joined a love train the males are very focused on what they’re doing. Very few things can distract them from their goal of mating, including being weighed by scientists. Peggy Rismiller has studied echidnas for 30 years and she has picked up the last male in a love train to weigh them and, as soon as she puts them down, they are off again following the female.
Males will travel long distances to court a female. She tracked one male who traveled 2 km or 1.2 miles a day to court two different females. If the male looses sight of the female he’s courting, no worries, he can follow her scent. Both males and females emit a musky scent during breeding season. 
After a male has outlasted the others, if the female is receptive, she’ll lay down on the ground and relax her spines. But his hard work is not done. Now the male has to dig down into the soil next to the female so he can line up their cloacas. Mating is performed cloaca to cloaca. Once the positioning is just right, the male will insert his penis into the female’s cloaca. Copulation can last from 30 minutes to an hour and a half.
We’re going to take a moment to talk about the echidna penis because this particular organ has been deemed the weirdest reproductive organ in the animal kingdom by Smithsonian Magazine. An echidna’s penis is bright red in color and has four heads. Yes, you heard correctly, four heads. They do not use their penis for urination, like most other mammals, so the penis was able to become more elaborate. It appears that they only use two of the heads at a time when breeding. This is very unusual for mammals but it is see in some reptiles. More research needs to be done to understand how the echidna penis works and why it is structured the way it is. The penis is also fairly long reaching approximately 1/3 of the echidnas body length when erect. 
Stay with me listeners because it just keeps getting weirder. Once the female is pregnant she develops a pouch. Only pregnant female echidnas develop a pouch, and they only keep it while they are incubating their single egg. There are four stages of the pouch. Dr. Kate Dutton-Regester has been researching echidna pouches and took over 200 pictures of nine female echidna’s developing pouches. At the beginning of the breeding season the pouch is flat and difficult to see, by the time the female needs to incubate her egg the pouch margins have drawn together like a drawstring bag closing the pouch so incubation can begin. Once her offspring has left the pouch, it recedes over 12-30 days until it is once again flat. That is truly amazing!! 
Next step: lay an egg. Echidna females lay only one egg a year, or at least as far as we know. The egg is 1/2 to 2/3 of an inch long. The shell is like hard leather, similar to some reptile eggs. The egg is laid through the cloaca, then the mother has to get it into her pouch. To do this, she’ll curve her body into a tight “C” shape scooping up the egg with the tops of her hind feet and then lifting up her feet until the egg rolls into the pouch. 
Whoosh! I’m tired just thinking of doing that. Talk about good core strength. The egg will incubate for approximately 10 days before it hatches. Echidna eggs have much less yolk than reptile and bird eggs because the embryo only needs that nutrient source for 10 days. To emerge from the egg, the embryo develops and egg tooth similar to an egg tooth on a baby reptile. This egg tooth helps the young echidna break out of the leathery egg shell, then disappears. Baby echidnas are called puggles. That is literally the cutest name I have ever heard for any animal offspring. I just can’t right now!
The puggle is only the size of a raisin when it hatches and is hairless and blind. The tiny puggle will grasp the coarse hair inside the pouch and pull itself up to the milk patches inside the pouch. While puggles are in the pouch they consume milk produced by the mother’s mammary glands. They do not suckle because echidnas have no nipples, so instead they lick the milk as it seeps through the skin over the mammary glands. Puggles will remain in the pouch for approximately 45 days until they begin to develop spines. That could be a sticky situation.
Once they leave the pouch, the puggle will remain in a den for 6 to 7 months. During that time, mom will leave to forage for food and come back to feed the puggle milk. At 7 months, the puggle is old enough to strike out on its own. Echidnas can live from 15 to 40 years, but average about 10 years in the wild.  
 
  I don’t know about you, but this was one weird reproduction episode, but it is definitely my fourth favorite thing about echidnas. 
 
If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change. 
 
Join me next week for another episode about echidnas.    
 
(Piano Music plays) 
This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Echidna: Diet and Digestion

Summary: We all gotta eat, right? The echidna eats insects. Take a trip with Kiersten as she travels through the digestive track of the echidna. 
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes: 
Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeates) Fact Sheet: Diet and Feeding, San Diego Wildlife Alliance Library. https://iecl.libguides.com
“Characterizing the Gut Microbiomes in Wild and Captive Short-Beaked Echidnas Reveals Diet-Associated Changes,” by Tahlia Perry, Ella West, Raphael Eisenhower, Alan Stenhouse, Isabella Wilson, Belinda Laming, Peggy Rismiller, Michelle Shaw, and Frank Grützner
Music written and performed by Katherine Camp
 
Transcript 
(Piano music plays)
Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.
(Piano music stops)
Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 
This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.
This episode continues echidnas and the third thing I like about this amazing monotreme is what they eat and how they digest it. I know that sound like a strange thing to like, but it’s really quite interesting.
One of the ways to tell if you have an echidna nearby is the distinctive way they hunt for food. The prey that echidnas are after lives mainly underground, so they poke holes in the soil with their long snouts. The holes are called ‘nose pokes”. Nose pokes are the width of the echidnas snout and the depth can tell you the species of echidna that’s digging around in your backyard. The depth, of course, depends on the length of the echidna’s snout. Long-beaked echidnas will produce deeper nose pokes than short-beaked echidnas. Once they find what they’er looking for, they use their long claws to tear open the invertebrates nests.
How they find their prey is not well understood. Do they use a sense of smell? Do they use vibration detection? Do they use the sense of touch? We’re not entirely sure, but it may be a combination of all three.
So, what are these echidnas digging around for underground. They are classified as myrmecophages. If you can remember way back to our first series about pangolins, you know that myrmecophages eat mainly ants. And that is one of the main prey items of the echidna. They specialize in eating termites, ants, scarab beetle larvae also known as pasture grubs, and moth larvae also known as grass grubs. When they come across beetle larva during the nose poke stage, scientists have noticed them using a corkscrew like motion to extract the larvae. 
They actually prefer the social living invertebrates such as termites and ants because they offer more reward for their effort. Which I can totally understand! Of those two insects, termites are higher on the list because they have softer bodies than ants and they tend to live in larger colonies. When possible, echidnas avoid ants, termites, and other insects that bite, sting, or have other chemical defenses.  Sometime they have no choice but to go after ants, so they focus their efforts on the more defenseless areas of the ant colony such as the queen, the larvae, and the pupae. 
The general rule of thumb is to avoid prey that bites back, but after hibernation and before raising young, echidnas may endure some abuse to build up their fats stores.
They have also been seen foraging around trees. Here they’ll stick their snouts under loose bark looking for termites and insect larvae. If it is a rotted tree or log, they will use their powerful claws to tear open the trunk exposing the insects within. 
They are not reliant on water to drink so they can live in areas without easy access to water sources.
So now we know what they eat, let’s find out how they eat. It all starts with a long sticky tongue. The short-beaked echidna can extend its tongue seven inches or 18 cm out of its mouth. They can do that more than 100 times a minute! Their genus name, Tachyglossus, actually means fast tongue.  A combination of circular and longitudinal muscles allows the tongue to extend and contract. The tip of the tongue is very flexible. It’s so flexible it can curve into a U-shape. That’s probably pretty helpful for scooping up lots of yummy termites. They do posses taste buds which are located at the back of the tongue. 
They must eat small ants and termites limited to only 55mm because that’s the only thing that will fit in their mouths. Their mouth doesn’t open very wide. If you ever hear someone say an echidna bit them, we know that’s a tall tail! Now, of course, they mainly focus on prey items that are already that size of smaller, but they can tear apart things that might be a bit bigger but is something worth consuming. They can hold the item down with their claws and tear it apart with their tongue. 
Like many other animals who have an ant based diet, echidnas have no teeth. The do have a hard palate on the roof of their mouth that they use in conjunction with their tongue to grind their food. There are keratin spines at the base of the tongue that smoosh the food up against the hard palate grinding the insects into a paste. Mmmm. Nothing like a little insect paste to hit the spot. 
Echidnas digestion is very slow. Their stomach is a single chambered organ that is elastic. It can hold a lot of insects, but it has very low levels of acid, so their stomach is not like many other species of animals, including humans, that rely on acid to digest the food they injest. Echidnas stomachs act more like a cow’s rumen which is a chamber that holds food and digests it with the help of bacteria. Digestion in these monotremes is not well understood but scientists have determined that plant matter may have a bigger role in echidna digestion than previously thought. 
Echidnas held in captivity such as zoos and rehabilitation facilities tend to have quite a few gastric problems. Researchers are now collecting scat, that’s poo, from wild echidnas and captive echidnas to determine what a healthy microbiome looks like for an echidna. The more we know about what keeps their stomachs functioning properly in the wild, the better we can make their diets in captivity. 
Thanks for following the digestive track of the echidna with me because it’s make third favorite thing about them. 
 
If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change. 
 
Join me next week for another episode about echidnas.    
 
(Piano Music plays) 
This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Echidna: Habitat

Summary: Join Kiersten as she takes a closer look at the habitats in which echidnas are found. 
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes:
Short-beaked Echidna. Bush Heritage Australia, https://www.bushheritage.org.au
“Home Ranges, Movement, and Den Use in Long-Beaked Echidnas, Zaglossus Barton, From Papua New Guinea,” by Muse D.Opiang. Journal of Mammalogy, Volume 90,Issue 2, 14 April 2009, pages 340-346. https://doi.org/10.1644/08-MAMM-A-108.1
Eastern long-beaked echidna, Animalia, https://animlia.bio
Expedition Cyclops: https://www.expeditioncyclops.org/echidna
“How the echidna lost its venom,” by Verity Leatherdale, University of Sydney, 13 November 2013.
Music written and performed by Katherine Camp
 
Transcript 
(Piano music plays)
Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.
(Piano music stops)
Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 
This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.
This episode continues echidnas and the second thing I like about this monotreme is their habitat. We talked a little bit about this in the first episode, but I want to dig a bit deeper into where each species is found. We know they are from Australia and surrounding areas but let’s look at exactly what kind of habitat they prefer.
The short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeates) is Australia’s most widespread native mammal. It is common throughout most of temperate Australia and lowland New Guinea. They can be found in Tasmania, King Island, Flinders Island, and Kangaroo Island. 
Almost every kind of habitat can be home to these shy creatures. Snow-covered mountains, montane forests, desert habitat, and even urban environments are home to the short-beaked echidna. The main requirement for echidna friendly habitat is a way to help keep them sheltered in extreme weather. They also tend to favor areas with soil that’s easy to dig into, but they are great diggers so they can survive with tougher soil.
The eastern long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bartoni), also known as, Barton’s long-beaked echidna is found in New Guinea. It’  s found in the Central Cordillera and in Huon Peninsula. They inhabit tropical hill forests, sub-alpine forests, upland grasslands, and scrub. They are mainly found in the eastern half of New Guinea at elevations from 6,600 feet to 9,800 feet or 2 to 3 thousand meters. Some have even been seen as high as 13,000 feet or 4,100 meters. 
This species of echidna has long, dense fur with spines sprinkled throughout. Their thick fur helps keep them warm in colder weather. They have five long claws on their front feet and four on their back feet. These echidnas lack a tail, unlike the short-beaked echidna. According to a scientific study published in the Journal of Mammalogy in 2009, males of Zaglossus bartoni are smaller than females. Eastern long-beaked echidnas are typically found in dense vegetation and underground burrows.
The western long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii) is found in the Bird’s Head peninsula and Foja Mountains of West Papua and Papua provinces. They are endemic to the Vogelkop region of New Guinea including the Arfak, Tamrau, Fak Fak, possibly the Charles Louis Mountains, as well as island of Salawati. They prefer alpine meadows and humid montane forests. 
Sir David’s Long-beaked echidna, named after the famous naturalist and wild animal advocate David Attenborough, is found in only one area, and as I mentioned in the first episode all we have to go on with this species is a specimen captured in the 1960’s. We know where they live because we see the evidence of their existence. Holes in the ground called nose pokes are indicative of echidna activity. In 2007, an expedition to the Cyclops Mountains of Indonesia in the region of Papua recorded nose pokes and received information from locals about the existence of this echidna. They did not see a live echidna  but they were hopeful that reports were correct and the animal still lived. Because we’d thought it was extinct. 
Here’s the really exciting information about Sir David’s long-beaked echidna. An expedition in 2023 to the Cyclops mountain caught video evidence of a live Zaglossus attenboroughi on a remote camera trap. It was the last day of the expedition and they had seen nose pokes in previously reported areas, but once again they thought they’d get no visual conformation until….there ii was waddling along triggering the camera to record video of its existence! We thought they were extinct for 60 years and researchers had rediscovered them! 
It’s very exciting. This species is found only in the Cyclops Mountains in tropical montane moss forest of the extreme northern Papua Province. There is the possibility that they may be in nearby regions but those areas have yet to be adequately surveyed. With definitive proof of Sir David’s long-beaked echidna in the Cyclops Mountains maybe we can branch out and survey nearby areas. 
As I was reading the scientific paper in the Journal of Mammalogy (yes, I just admitted to reading scientific papers) about the home ranges, movement, and den use of Zaglossus bartoni, I realized that I neglected to talk about a few interesting characteristics of echidnas in the first episode. I’m going to include them here.
First I completely forgot to mention that echidnas have spurs. All species have spurs on their back legs. Both males and females have these spurs on their back legs, but some females loose them as they age. Both extant monotremes, the platypus and the echidna, have spurs. In platypus only the males have spurs and the substance that the spur excrete is a venom. The echidna’s spurs excrete something completely different. Echina spurs act more like a scent gland. It is used during breeding season to excrete a waxy substance that may be used to locate potential mates.
The second interesting fact about echidnas is that at one time there were only two species of echidna. The short-beaked echidna and the long-beaked echidna. Upon further examination, scientists determined that there were three distinct species of long-beaked echidna. In 1998 researchers reported differences in skull morphology, body size, fur coloration, and the number of clawed toes on the front and back feet. The differences were significant enough that scientists decided that the long-beaked echidnas should be separated into three species.
On this note, there is some thinking that the eastern long-beaked echidna may be divided again into more species, but research is still on going.
 
That’s all for echidna habitats, I’m glad you listened to this episode because where echidnas live is my second favorite thing about them.
If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change. 
 
Join me next week for another episode about echidnas.    
 
(Piano Music plays) 
This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Echidna: Modern Enigma

Summary: Ech-what? Echindas are mammals that break all the rules of Nature! Join Kiersten as she takes us on a journey into the weird world of the echidna.
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes: 
“The Princeton Encyclopedia of Mammals,” edited by David W. Macdonald
Echidna Fact Sheet, March 18, 2022. PBS Nature. https://ww.pbs.org
“The Creature Feature: 10 Fun Facts About the Echidna,” by Mary Bates, Wired, Jul 3, 2014.
Short-beaked Echidna. Bush Heritage Australia, https://www.bushheritage.org.au
Music written and performed by Katherine Camp
Transcript
(Piano music plays)
Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.
(Piano music stops)
 
Kiersten - Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… This is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 
My name is Kiersten and I have a Master’s Degree in Animal Behavior and did my thesis on the breeding behavior of the Tri-colored bat. I was a zookeeper for many years and have worked with all sorts of animals from Aba Aba fish to tigers to ravens to domesticated dogs and so many more in between. Many of those years were spent in education programs and the most important lesson I learned was that the more information someone has about a particular animal the less they fear them. The less they fear them the more they crave information about them and before you know it you’ve become an advocate for that misunderstood animal.
This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.
This is the first episode of the next Ten Things I Like About…series. These ten episodes will be about the echidna! Ech-what? You say? The echidna. It’s an animal found in Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. You know what that means…It’s gonna be cool! And the mere existence of the echidna is the first thing I like about this exceptional animal. 
The echidna, also known as the spiny anteater, is an animal that bends the rules that nature has established. It is a mammal, but it reproduces by laying eggs. It feeds it young milk that is produces itself, but has no nipples. It has a pouch like a kangaroo but it is not a marsupial. The echidna is definitely a modern enigma.
Let’s start off with what the echidna looks like. It’s kind of a combination between an anteater, a hedgehog, and the Niffler from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Not at all kidding. Okay here is my best attempt at a verbal description. 
Echidnas have a long beak like snout with a small nose and mouth at the end. Their eyes sit farther back on the face and are surrounded by dark brown fur that is generously laced with long thick light brown or yellow spines. They have large, long claws on their from feet to help dig into the soil. Their body is round and covered with the dark fur and spines. They do have a tail but you hardly notice it because of the spines. Their back feet also have claws but not quite as long as the front feet. They are short and hug the ground as they waddle around. They can grown to 35-75 centimeters or 14 to 30 inches with a 4 inch tail, depending on species. They can weigh between 5.5 to 22 pounds, once again depending on species. They really are quite a strange looking animal, but absolutely fascinating! And boy oh boy do they have cute little faces.
There are four species of echidna. The short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeates), the Sir David’s long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi), the eastern long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bartoni), and the western long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii).
The short-beaked echidna also known as the common echidna ranges in size from 12-18 inches or 35-40 cm. They can weigh 5 1/2 to 17 lbs or 2 1/2 to 8kg. Males of this species can be up to 25% larger than females. They can range in color from black to light brown with spines on the back and along the sides. They have a long, narrow, hairless snout. 
The western long-beaked echidna also known as the long-nosed echidna can be 18 to 35 inches or 45-90 cm. They can weigh between 11 to 22 lbs or 5-10kg. The coat color can also range from black to brown. They do have spines but they are shorter than other species’ and are often hidden by their longer fur. They have a very long snout that is curved slightly downward at the tip. 
Not much is known about the Sir David’s long-beaked echidna. It is the smallest of the long-beaked echidna’s. There is only a single specimen of this species of echidna collected by a Dutch explorer in 1961 in the Cyclops mountains of Indonesia. 
The eastern long-beaked echidnas is very similar to our short-beaked echidna except with a longer snout. There are several different subspecies listed under this echidna that may, with further research, turnout to be separate species altogether.
Those of you that have been listening from the beginning know how much I like to talk taxonomy! No really. I do find taxonomy interesting but also a little tedious. I am going to walk you through this with the echidna though because it leads us into why I chose to include echidnas in Ten Things I Like About…
We’re going to start at the beginning with our taxonomy: 
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order (this is where is gets really cool or weird): Monotremata (more on this in a moment)
Family: Tachyglossidae 
Genus: Tachyglossus and Zaglossus
Let’s hop back to the Order of the echidna, Monotremata. What exactly is that? It’s what makes echidnas so special in the animal kingdom. Monotremes are mammals. Think back with me to those days in elementary science class when we learned what constituted a mammal. A mammal has hair somewhere on its body and it produces milk to feed its young. Well the echidna has both of these, actually we can go even farther and say that the echidna checks off more mammalian boxes. They also have a single bone in the lower jaw, and three bones in the ear. All of these are characteristics of mammals.
What makes monotremes so special is that they lays eggs instead of giving live birth. You may have caught that in my opening. Yes! Echidnas are mammals that lay eggs! The only other mammal alive today that lays eggs is the platypus, and yes they are also found in Australia. 
Monotremata actually means “one-holed creature“. Echidnas and platypus have one opening in their body that acts as the entrance and the exit you could say. Bodily fluids, such as feces, exit through this opening called the cloaca and mating happens through this opening, as well. 
Most mammals are also endothermic which means the body temperature is controlled internally. Like Humans, we have a constant body temperature of about 98 degrees F, give or take a few degrees. It’s a constant temperature whether it’s cold in our environment or hot in our environment. Echidnas are the same but they have the lowest recorded body temperature of any mammal. At 89 degrees F or 32 degrees Celsius the echidna is quite the anomaly. We don’t really know why but their body temperature can vary by up to 8 degrees throughout the day!. 
 
Okay, I hope I have whet your appetite for more information about this unbelievable animal because their mere existence is only my first favorite thing about the echidna. 
If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change. 
 
Join me next week for another thing I like about the echidna.  
 
(Piano Music plays) 
This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Rattlesnakes: Conservation

Summary: Rattlesnakes need love too! Join Kiersten as she talks about what threatens the survival of our scaly friends and how we can help.
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes: 
America’s Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake by Ted Levin
“Snake Fungal Disease” Cornell Wildlife Health Lab, https://cwhi.vet.cornell.edu
IUCN Red List, https://www.iucnredlist.org
“Timber Rattlesnakes” Pennsylvania DCNR, https://www.dcnr.pa.gov
“Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake recovery plan” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, https://www.fws.gov
“Rattlesnake Roundup: a Texas tradition runs into criticism” by Evan Garcia, Reuters March 22, 2023. https://www.reuters.com
 Conservation Societies: 
The Orianne Society: https://www.oriannesociety.org
The Rattlesnake Conservancy: https://www.savethebuzztails.org
 
Music written and performed by Katherine Camp
Transcript 
(Piano music plays)
Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.
(Piano music stops)
Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 
This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.
This episode concludes rattlesnakes. Those of you who have been enjoying this journey with can probably guess which episode this will be. I do have a bit of a pattern, but talking about conserving these wonderful animals for future generations is always the tenth thing I like about them. Welcome to rattlesnake conservation.
Some of you may be thinking, are rattlesnakes in need of conservation? Does a venomous animal really need our help to survive? The answer to both of these questions is a resounding yes. Across their native range their numbers have been steadily declining for generations. And, as always, we are the main cause of their problems. Let’s take a look at the challenges they are battling, how we’re helping, and how we can continue to help.
One of the major challenges rattlesnakes are facing is loss of appropriate habitat, especially along the east coat of North America. The Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake is found in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada. Sounds like a lot a places right? Researchers have confirmed that less than half of their historical populations exist today, and most of that is found in Michigan and Ontario. That excludes eight states out of their original range. Now they are still found in those states but in such low numbers, they are considered rare. 
The eastern massasauga relies on wetland habitat and the adjacent uplands. Wetlands across the continent are a threatened habitat. Steps have been taken to protect the wetland habitat of the eastern massasauga and the snake itself. In 2016, the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed the eastern massasauga rattlesnake as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. This gave more leverage to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for protection of the wetland habitat that the massasauga relies upon. For those of you that are still on the fence about protecting rattlesnakes, think about all the other animals that rely on wetlands to survive, you probably like at least, one of those. Not to mention the fact that wetlands are an important  step in keeping water clean and drinkable, that includes the water that we drink.
Timber rattlesnakes are also suffering from habitat loss. They are particularly reliant on habitat that has a combination of trees and rocky steppe areas. This habitat is often lost to urban and suburban sprawl. The timber rattlesnakes that live in northeastern areas rely on the rocky outcroppings as sunning areas and hibernation spots. The structure of the rocky developments provide excellent hidden holes for populations that live north enough to need hibernaculums to survive the winter. Pennsylvania, one of the states with a rapidly declining population of timber rattlesnakes, has implemented protections in state parks that contain the chosen habitat of the timber rattlesnake. There are fifteen areas in Pennsylvania state parks that you are not allowed to harm timber rattlesnakes or destroy or disturb their sunning and hibernation spots. 
I love the fact that we’re trying to get ahead of the extinction of these amazing animals. There are forty rattlesnakes listed on the IUCN’s Red List, almost all are in the crotalus family, and most of them are classified as Least Concern. A sigh of relief, right? Wrong, the IUCN Red List looks at the global populations of species, not regional populations. The good news is that the rattlesnakes are surviving across global areas, but it’s the regional areas that we must be concerned about. Why, you ask? I love my inquisitive listeners!  
Regionally, rattlesnakes are key species in the balance of ecosystems. They eat small mammals, such as rodents and shrews, that can easily get out of control when there are no predators to keep their populations in check. Too many of these can mean too many fleas and ticks that spread diseases across the animal kingdom, included to humans. So making sure that we have rattlesnakes in their historical territories is an important endeavor. 
Disease is also something that hibernating rattlesnakes are battling. Over the last several years researchers have found snakes waking from hibernation covered in ulcers. These snakes have been affected by what researchers call Snake Fungal Disease or SFD. Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola is the fungus responsible for Snake Fungal Disease. It was first identified in 2006 in a population of Timber rattlesnakes from New Hampshire. Symptoms of SFD are facial swelling, eye infections, pneumonia, and external ulcerations. 
It is thought that the fungus resides in the soil and snakes are picking it up in dens, but there are reports of captive snakes becoming infected. Temperature may play a factor in transmission. Snakes that hibernate in warmer temperatures seem to be more susceptible that cooler temperatures. With globally warming temperatures, this should give us cause for concern.  
Treatment with fungicides has been attempted with snakes brought into captivity from the wild, but very little success has been made.
One last obstacle to survival that rattlesnakes are still facing, even in our educated society, is rattlesnake roundups. This was a hard portion for me to write because I kept getting so angry as I wrote this section of this episode. Rattlesnake roundups are week-long events where people go out and capture rattlesnakes in the wild. They bring them back to a central location and kill them. Sweetwater, Texas still holds one of the largest rattlesnake roundups in the United States and it is barbaric. The rattlesnake hunters pour gasoline in the backs of the dens where the rattlesnakes are resting during the cooler months of the year and wait for them to escape the fumes of the gasoline. When they emerge, the hunters scoop them up and carry them away to their deaths. They harvest thousands of pounds of rattlesnakes every year. They milk their venom then skin them to use as leather goods. Prizes are given to the hunters that bring in the highest poundage of rattlesnake and the longest rattlesnakes. It’s archaic and despicable. 
This activity destroys thousands of rattlesnakes that have done nothing to deserve destruction. These are snakes that are in the wild bothering no humans. They are living their rattlesnake lives, helping keep nature in balance. 
Some of you may ask, why I this a problem? I mean the IUCN says they’re not in danger of extinction, so why worry. Remember the reproduction episode. Female rattlesnakes only give birth every three or four years. This keeps them from becoming overpopulated but it also means when we interfere, by culling thousands of them every year, they are in danger of disappearing. 
So, what can you do to help our rattled friends? You can support organizations that are protecting vital habitat like your local natural resources agencies and organizations like The Rattlesnake Conservancy and The Orianne Society. If you’re a hiker that enjoys trekking into rattlesnake habitat across the country, disinfect your hiking gear between adventures with a bit of detergent and a bleach solution spray. We don’t want to transfer fungus that might cause Snake Fungal Disease. Refuse to buy products made from wild caught rattlesnake and do not purchase tickets to attend rattlesnake roundups. The best thing you can do to save our rattlesnake friends is to educate your friends and family. The more people that know the truth about rattlesnakes, the better their futures will be.
Thanks for traveling the road of the rattlesnake with me. I have enjoyed all ten episodes of this series, and talking conservation is my tenth favorite thing about rattlesnakes.
 
If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change. 
 
Join me in two weeks for the first episode in another series about an unknown creature..  
 
(Piano Music plays) 
This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Rattlesnakes: Myths Part 2

Summary: There are sooo many myths about rattlesnakes that Kiersten had to do a second episode! Join Kiersten as she dispels more myths about rattlesnakes.
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes:
Rattlesnake: Portrait of a Predator by Manny Russo
America’s Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake by Ted Levin
Music written and performed by Katherine Camp
 
Transcript 
(Piano music plays)
Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.
(Piano music stops)
Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 
This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.
This episode continues rattlesnakes. We’re going to do one more episode about myths because there are so many about rattlesnakes and dispelling myths about this misunderstood animal in the ninth thing I like about them.
Here’s a myth that even NPR ran a story about, so this is a great one to kick off this episode. 
Myth #9: Rattlesnakes are evolving to not use their rattle before striking. 
Completely untrue. Rattlesnakes still use their rattles to warn predators away. I know people have encountered rattlesnakes and never heard the rattle before they were very close to the snake. Some of those encounters ended with a bite or strike, and many have not. We have to remember the first way a snake protects itself is to be still and hide. They only break cover when they feel they are in imminent danger. Sometimes a human approaching is not enough danger to cause a rattle reaction. Maybe you’ve caught the snake off guard, they do sleep, and they didn’t notice you until it was too late for a warning rattle. There could be plenty of other explanations, but rest assured, rattlesnakes are still using their rattles.
Myth #10: Rattlesnakes can jump ten feet in the air!
This is 150% not true! Snakes cannot jump from the ground into the air. They physically cannot jump. They have no legs, they cannot tip back onto their tails and pop up like a spring, they cannot leap from a ledge to bite your face. It may work in the cartoons and in movies, but not in reality. 
Myth #11: Rattlesnakes use their rattles to mesmerize their prey.
Nope! As I discussed in the pervious episode about rattles, rattlesnakes use their rattle to warn away predators. It does seem a bit counterintuitive to make noise to warn a predator of your location, because you are also exposing yourself to that predator, but the rewards outweigh the risks. They get to survive another day if they make the rattle noise and scare off the predator or the bison or horse that was just about to step on them.
Myth #12: If you see one rattlesnake, there will be more waiting to get you when you leave.
We need to break this one down. First of all, rattlesnakes are never out to get you. They do not hunt humans or aggressively pursue humans. They really don’t want to be around us at all. Secondly. Most of the time when you see one rattlesnake, they are alone. During certain times of the year, they are mating; therefore, you may encounter more than one at a time. In certain areas of North America, namely the eastern regions, during winter, rattlesnakes will hibernate together. Then you might encounter several when they are leaving their hibernaculum in the warming weather of spring. The important thing to remember here, is that they are never chasing you or corralling you to attack.
Myth #13:   Rattlesnake use their rattles to attract mates.
As romantic as this sounds, it’s completely false. There is no evidence that male rattlesnakes use their rattle to attract mates. As stated before, rattles are for protective warnings. 
Myth #14: A rattlesnake bite can kill you!
Unless you are allergic to their venom and have an anaphylactic reaction, you most likely will survive. Get medical treatment as soon as possible and your likelihood of surviving is very high. Antivenom is available at most hospitals and can be administered quickly.  
Not all rattlesnake bites are venomous. Dry bites can happen which means the snake bites but does not inject venom. We’re not exactly sure why this happens, but the rattlesnake does control when it injects venom and when it doesn’t.
Myth #15: Rattlesnakes LOVE heat!
This one is tricky, but it’s essentially a no. Snakes are ectotherms, which means they do not control their own body temperature. Mammals and birds produce their own body heat. Reptiles cannot do that. They depend on the temperature of the environment around them to warm or cool their body. If it is too cold they cannot move around or digest their food. So reptiles are more active in warmer weather and do sun themselves on sunny days to heat themselves up so they can function. But, when it is 100 degrees F outside, they do the same thing we do, hide in the shade and try to keep themselves cool! So no, snakes do not love the heat!
Myth #16: The only good rattlesnake is a dead rattlesnake!
Definitely no! Rattlesnakes, and snakes in general, offer an important ecological service to the world. They eat rodents that we don’t want to be in our homes. They keep mouse and rat populations in check. It’s especially important in suburban areas where we’re encroaching on the wild areas where animals still live. We attract rodents with our waste. The rodents can pass us diseases. Snakes eat the rodents before they can overpopulate an area. So snakes are good to have around your yard. Remember they don’t want to hang around us, but they don’t mind coming in for a snack every once in awhile.
Myth #17: Rattlesnakes are slimy!
This is one that also applies to all snakes and is literally my biggest pet peeve when it comes to snake myths! Snakes are not slimy. They do not produce mucus on the outside of their bodies. Snakes are actually dry and often soft. Depending on the species they will have flat scales or keeled scales. Both scale types will reflect light and that’s what makes the snake look wet or slimy. They are shiny not slimy. Snakes’ scales actually feel  a lot like a basketball.
Myth #18: Last but not least, the myth that the fear of rattlesnakes is instinctual. Humans have a fear of rattlesnakes because it helps keep us alive.
No. We fear snakes because we learn to fear them, usually from the adults in our life when we are children. We are not born with any instinctual fear of rattlesnakes. Our fears come from these myths and misunderstanding these amazing animals. I can attest to this personally. As a child my mother was terrified of snakes. She couldn't even watch nature programs on television with snakes, but I grew up without this fear because she made sure that she kept that behavior hidden from me. I didn’t know she was afraid of snakes until I was in high school, and I never developed a fear of snakes. When I became a zookeeper and worked hands on with all different species of snakes, I was able to help my mother overcome her fear by sharing the information I learned about these reptiles. They are not her favorite animal, but she doesn’t fear them anymore.
 
That’s it for this myth busting episode of rattlesnakes. I hope this helps some of you travel down the path of banishing your fear of these reptiles, because dispelling myths about rattlesnakes is my ninth favorite thing.
If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change. 
 
Join me next week for the final episode about rattlesnakes.  
 
(Piano Music plays) 
This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Rattlesnakes: Rattle

Summary: Rattlesnakes are the only types pf snakes with a rattle, hence the name. But how much do you know about the rattle? Join Kiersten as she tells you everything you ever wanted to know about a rattlesnake’s rattle.
 
For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean
 
Show Notes:
Rattlesnake: Portrait of a Predator by Manny Russo
“How Do Rattlesnakes Rattle?” By Cameron Duke, Live Science, August 12, 2023. https://www.livescience.com
Music written and performed by Katherine Camp
 
Transcript 
(Piano music plays)
Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.
(Piano music stops)
Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 
This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.
This episode continues rattlesnakes and today we’re going to learn about their namesake. The rattle on a rattlesnake is the eighth thing I like about this charming snake.  
In the Anatomy episode, I touched on the rattle but this episode will be a deeper dive into this unusual physical attribute.
Rattlesnakes are not born with a rattle but they are born with the beginning of a rattle. They are born with what’s called a prebutton. The prebutton is a skin cap on the tip of the neonates tail. This is different from any other young snake’s tail. Only rattlesnakes have a prebutton. It is essentially a terminal scale like other snakes’ have on the ends of their tails, but it’s larger in size. Most snakes, other than rattlesnakes, have a tapered cone-shaped scale at the end of the tail, where as the rattlesnakes’ scale is wider and thicker.
When the neonate rattlesnake molts for the first time, a few days to a week after birth, the prebutton they are born with sheds. After this molt another button is revealed that will be the beginning of the rattle that they will have for the rest of their lives. With each following molt a segment will be added to the rattle, creating a rattle chain.
So, what is this rattle made of? It’s made of something very common in the natural world. You, listeners, have some of it on you right now in the form of hair and fingernails. That’s right, the rattle is made of keratin. Those of you who listened to my pangolin series should remember that keratin is the fibrous protein that is the main component of hair, feathers, hooves, claws, and horns. Just one more thing that links us all together.
Let’s get back to the rattle chain. The links are hollow and each link interconnects with the one below it. A link is created each time the snake sheds. To grow larger snakes must shed their skin. Unlike us, their skin is not flexible enough to grow as they grow. So they must shed their skin to get bigger. Each time a rattlesnake sheds, the old skin leaves a piece behind on the tail creating a new link. 
When the old piece is pushed out by the shedding process, a new button develops beneath the new rattle link. This will be pushed out at the next shed. This brings us to a myth about rattlesnakes and aging. Many people believe that you can determine the age of a rattlesnake by the number of links on the rattle. If snakes only shed once a year, that would be true. But as I just explained, snakes shed when it’s time for them to grow. That can happen multiple times a year. Growth rates all depend on the amount of food that a snake consumes. When resources are abundant, a snake can grow quickly; when resources are scarce, a snake may grow slowly. 
Another reason judging a rattlesnake’s age by the rattle is problematic is that they aren’t very sturdy. Rattles are hollow and made of keratin, so they aren’t rugged enough to survive the rough and tumble life of a rattlesnake. When the rattle chain gets too long links will break off. In the wild, having a rattle with ten links is uncommon. Most rattlesnakes will be able to hold onto five or six links at a time.
It’s not like they make a concerted effort to shortened their rattle, but slithering around on the ground can be hard on a hollow piece of keratin. When the rattlesnake travels they do hold the tail up keeping the rattle almost perpendicular to the ground. But avoiding predators or avoiding getting stepped on can lead you into some precarious situations that can cause the ends of the rattle to break off. 
Rattlesnakes in captivity are another story. They tend not to travel too far and their rattles are never exposed to rough terrain. Some captive rattlesnakes have been recorded with rattle chains containing twenty or more links. That’s a pretty long rattle!
Now there is another reason why the rattle cannot be too long. If it’s too long it doesn’t do it’s job properly. The point of a rattle is to make a noise. If there are too many links, the weight of the links prevents the rattlesnake from lifting it up to shake it. No shaking, no noise. 
So where does the noise come from? Is there something inside the rattle that creates the noise, like a maraca? No. The links are hollow and interconnected, so the noise is produced by the sides of the links knocking together. Some rattlesnakes produce a noise that can be heard many yards away. 
In 2021, researchers discovered that rattlesnakes are capable of creating an auditory illusion with their rattle. This is good stuff, listeners! They discovered that when a rattlesnake feels threatened it begins rattling it tail at a low frequency. If the predator keeps approaching, the snake’s rattling frequency suddenly increases by 20 or 30 hertz. This creates the illusion that the snake is much closer than it actually is in reality. That is wicked cool!!
The actual sound of the rattle will depend on the species. Larger rattlesnakes such as eastern diamondbacks will have a deeper sound, where as smaller species like the pygmy rattlesnake will have a higher pitched noise. The noise created by a rattlesnake’s rattle has been described as a buzz, a whirr, a clatter, a hiss. It has been compared to the sound seeds in a dry seed pod make, the sizzle of bacon, the buzz of an insect, the grinding of a knife blade, or even the sound of running water. I used to live in the deserts of Arizona. I heard my fair share of rattlesnake warnings, and I wouldn’t describe it in any of these ways. It’s a distinctive sound they you instinctually know when you hear it.
To make sure that a rattlesnake can always move their rattle when needed, they have a specialized muscle called a shaker muscle in their tail. This particular muscle contracts at a rapid and consistent rate. It is also slow to fatigue, so the snake can shake its rattle for a long time, if needed. The muscle is supplied with large amounts of oxygen through a series of blood vessels.
The last question we have to answer is why do rattlesnakes have rattles? Scientists still aren’t entirely sure, but their best educated guess is that it is a predator warning. To keep themselves from getting stepped on or eaten, rattlesnakes produce a noise to warn off whoever is threatening them. 
A study performed in 2016 by an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, investigated the evolution of the rattlesnake’s rattle. The ancestors of modern day rattlesnakes did not have rattles, but it’s likely that they shook their tails despite the lack of a rattle. This study looked at the tail-shaking behavior of 56 snake species. Rattlesnakes were the only snakes included in the study that had rattles, but most of the snakes in the study rapidly flicked their tails when threatened by a predator. Further more, the snake species more closely related to rattlesnakes flicked their tails faster and more frequently than species more distantly related to rattlesnakes. This leads scientists to  believe that when rattlesnakes developed their rattles, they already knew how to use them. 
Thanks for listening to me rattle on about rattlesnake’s rattles because it’s my eighth favorite thing about this amazing animal. 
 
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Join me next week for another episode about rattlesnakes.  
 
(Piano Music plays) 
This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.