Can you handle an Echindna?

[moosenoose]

Here's one I'm sure Fuscus will help me out on! :lol: :lol: It's a crazy question but one I've got to get an answer on! :lol: :lol:

I keep coming across, in my travels, Echindnas! I've been wanting to pick one up but they are sooooo damn.....SPIKEY!

Is there a trick with picking these guys up to move them from the roadside without using 20+ blankets? :lol: :lol: I'm sure I've seen it before somewhere? The thing is I've tried to move a few that look like they are going out for a little bit of 'Highway action' and naturally if I don't get there quick enough and almost toss them into the bush using the top of my foot as a catapult they bog themselves in real quick and I can't dig em out :lol::lol: Anyone got any tips on handling these critters? Jeez those spikes are sharp!! :lol::lol:

Thanks in advance

 

[Fuscus]

I've tried picking them up too, you're right about those spikes. I've heard that if you can reach right under them but I have never succeded. Perhaps carry a pair of welders gloves.

 

[AGAMIDAE]

yep handled heaps up here in Qld, put your hand on the belly and it will curel around your hand, hard part is picking up off the floor...

 

[peterescue]

Welding gloves or a cardboard box. Sometimes you can get them to curl up on a stick. Sort of like an Echnasicle.
Dont ever put one in your car or boot unless its bagged.
They can force open plastic boxes and cat carry cages if they set the little minds to it and if they get loose in the car that is one thing they wont be, LOOSE.
They will wedge themselves into a crevice(under the seat, in the spare tyre well or whereever and they cannot be budged. I have seen the results of one getting out in the boot of a car and it popped the side panel.

 

[Nome]

I used to rescue these off a road when they were developing an area I used to live in. I never had any problem, you just scoop them up. The spikes don't seem very spiky either :wink:

 

[Tommo]

i havnt found wild ones because the NT hasnt got to many echidnas
but i have heard that if you must remove a echidna with your bare hands, all the spikes go down their body so push them down and pick it up(this will leave afew holes tho)

 

[nuthn2do]

Work your way to the back feet, once you grab them lift gently an they will just dangle. If you need to dig under the back end to find the feet, scrape the dirt away with a blunt instrument (no shovels) or he'll likely lose a limb

 

[Guest]

When i find the curled in a ball in the ground i dig away at the side of him in the dirt, then wedge my hand under him and usually i can lift them out. or u can light them on fire!! that usually gets them going :twisted:

 

[Jonny]

When i find the curled in a ball in the ground i dig away at the side of him in the dirt, then wedge my hand under him and usually i can lift them out. or u can light them on fire!! that usually gets them going :twisted:

Thats how we were taught to do it at the ARP - without the fire bit tho :lol:

 

[hey_im_sam]

Yup, as everyone has said lol, their belly is nice and soft. The spikes also don't seem to be as spiky as they appear I love these guys.. gotta be my fav/ australian mammal.

 

[NoOne]

Saw 2 echindas about an hour ago.

As for the spikes not being spikey....you people must have tough skin....i always seem to loose blood when playing with these guys.

 

[hey_im_sam]

I'm probably just a wimp.. very careful to not rub them the wrong way lol.

 

[instar]

Use a giant piece of blutac ! :lol:

 

[moosenoose]

I'm blown away folks! Thanks for the responses! I thought the answer to my question was going to be along the lines of 'you're a lunatic!' or 'No!' :lol::lol: Much appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Saw 2 echindas about an hour ago.

As for the spikes not being spikey....you people must have tough skin....i always seem to loose blood when playing with these guys.

not to long ago at the school fate up the road they had some there. i was holding one and it wens psycho, skratching me, and sticking its spikes in my gut. man i hade blood coming from my gut ay,

 

[Vat69]

When I did work experience up at the Aust. Reptile Park, one of the echidnas needed to be wormed or something so it needed to be caught. It got to the point where it dug itself into the ground, so it was near impossbile to pick it up. Me being the work experience kid got the order: 'right, see if you can dig it up.' 'Do I get some kind of implement....you can shovel them out if you dig in 3 feet away right?' 'Nah, just use your hands.'
Needless to say, I attempted as best I could...there was much laughing on their part..

Kinda like the time I had to feed the pit reptiles, and they made me stick my hand in a bucket of luke-warm mice-bits soup. That was lovely..

 

[nuthn2do]

I've seen those spikes penetrate the bottom of a steel belted truck tire and then continue out through the sidewall.

 

[Hickson]

When I worked at Taronga I occassionally did an impromptu talk with echidnas, and so I've had to pick up several that didn't like being handled. Also a few that wandered into my backyard in French's Forest.

IF you can get under their side onto the belly, then it's relatively easy to pick them up - the problem is getting under them, because as you dig down beside them, they dig in too, and push their sides down to ground level even further (very hard to describe that, but most of you should know what I mean).

I don't know about the spines that aren't sharp, because all the echoidnas I've come across have very sharp spines, and some have longer spines than others and know how to use them! Even 'tame' animals that don't mind being hand;ed usually leave lots of little holes in your hands and chest. And I find that the holes get itchy an hour later and turn red as my immune system kicks in.

Their feet are extremely powerful, so don't let your fingers get caught by them or they'll twist them around quite painfully. But not as powerful as a New Guinea Echidna! Wrestled one of them one evening - the keeper I was with thought it was gonna drag me down it's burrow!!!



Hix

 

[Fuscus]

The New Guinea Echidna is considerbly bigger, isn't it?

 

[Hickson]

Much bigger. The one I wrestled was taken to the Nocturnal House and put in another cage. We weighed it first and, from memory, it was something like 11.8kg

Your common Shortbeaked Echidna is about 2-3kg.



Hix