Now you have all had a look at background case studies on echidnas and goannas, it’s time to look at those unanswered questions or inconclusive information that allows for research on Kangaroo Island. It’s your turn to be the field work scientist!

 

Pelican Lagoon Research Centre is located just out of the main town of Kingscote. Dr. Peggy and Mike have been running research from the centre for about 16 years! That is 16 years of looking, observing, sampling, discovering and collating data on echidnas and goannas’ movements. They are secretive creatures (especially the echidnas!) that are very hard to monitor since they both dig burrows and have more than one home. They normally make new burrows for winter and summer and have multiple locations during the breeding seasons. To be able to research such secretive creatures it is absolutely imperative (important) that the habitats of these animals is researched and known to be able to piece together how the ecosystem of Kangaroo Island operates.

 

QUESTION 1:

What kind of habitats does Kangaroo Island sustain? Research the internet and use the information that I have given you to be able to piece this together.

 

ECIDNA RESEARCH ON KI (KANGAROO ISLAND):

Over the sixteen years that Dr. Peggy and Mike have been researching echidnas, they have found the following things about echidnas that only their research has revealed!

 

-         Echidnas have more than one home. They don’t defend territories like other animals do but they have a certain range they stick to. Their burrows overlap with other echidnas’ and they are not defensive.

-         Female echidnas mate with male echidnas once and that is it! They do not mate with more than one male, however, male echidnas try to mate with more than one female if they can! Usually there are more male echidnas than female echidnas.

-         Echidnas have a small mouth that has just enough opening to allow their 17cm tongue (!) to extend and grab invertebrates!

-         Echindas detect vibrations from good distances away as they can pick up vibrations from their beak – from their lower jaw which is connected to the ear – that rests on the ground. This vibration travels from the lower beak, up the jaw line to the ear!

-         Echidnas also pick up vibrations (ie. Foot steps from Earthwatch volunteers like myself!) from pressure detectors in their front padded feet. Their front feet are padded and have mechano-receptors (mechanical movement detectors) that detect pressure from foot stomps.

-         Their beak is quite small but they can pick up rocks or twigs or branches that are six times more the weight than the echidna! This is where physics come into it! They cleverly use their beak like a crow bar lifting a heavy load on the end or tip of the beak.

-         Their spines are called modified hairs that extend from a muscle layer to the spine. This is why, if you touch the spines, they flinch or reflex because they feel the sensation down to their bones!

-         They have a muscle layer which no other mammals have! This gives them extra strength in being able to move things and burrow themselves under tonnes of litter!

-         Echidnas have body temperature of 33 degrees Celsius.

-         Echidnas are quite small in comparison to other mammals.

-         They lay eggs, they don’t give live birth!

 

QUESTION 2:

What temperature do other mammals have in comparison to the echidna?

What kind of research question would you ask as a field work scientist about the echidna based on the information above? What is intriguing you most? How would you research this questions ie. What methods would you employ? Answer in table below:

 

Possible Research question	Method to help research

 

 

GOANNA RESEARCH ON KI:

 

The goanna is also a secretive creature as it also has many burrows during the different seasons.

-         the goannas on KI have territories defending their limits.

-         Males roam between females’ burrows during breeding season but nothing has been found as yet about the fertilisation process of eggs as the female goanna carries 12 eggs for 21 days or so and then buries them in a termite mound to incubate them

-         The growth of ‘yearlings’ (baby goannas) is hard to follow as they only come out of the termite mound once they are satisfied the temperature suits their body. The goannas on this island have been found only as adults, only a couple have been found as yearlings therefore it has been difficult to measure their growth rate

-         It is hard to measure temperatures of burrows to understand how they affect goannas adaptability to a climate like KI as they have more than one burrow!

 

QUESTION 3:

As a field work scientist on KI, what kinds of questions would you suggest for research to try and figure out how the Rosenbergs goanna has adapted to Kangaroo Island (KI)? What methods or ideas would you take into consideration to assist you in your research to answer inconclusive questions?

 

Possible Research question	Method to help research

 

 

 

Question 4:

Having looked at the questions you have formulated above, what do you think the overall BIG QUESTIONS are for goannas and echidnas? POST THESE UP AS A CLASS IN THE DAILY QUESTIONS COMMENTS SECTION! These questions are important to help the future research of echidnas and goannas to continue!

 

Possible BIG Research question	Method to help research

 

Read the following facts about the life and times of the Echidna and answer the questions below:

An Echidna is a short-beaked, spiky animal that lives in Australia and New Guinea. It is sometimes called a “spiny anteater” but is not related to the “anteater” family. It is a fascinating creature because it has been able to adapt to a diverse range of conditions and it is one of the oldest living mammals and creatures in Australia. Perhaps the other fascinating fact about echidnas, it is a mammal that lays eggs. The only other mammal that is capable of this is the platypus. Other mammals give birth to live young. The infants feed on milk from their mothers and they have warm blood. Since the echidna is a mammal and lays eggs, it belongs to a group called the monotremes. This group of mammals are the oldest-surviving mammals on the planet!

In  Australia we are familiar with the short-beaked echidna. The Long-beaked Echidna is found in Papua New Guinea and the platypus is found in Eastern Australia and Tasmania.

 The presence of echidnas was first recorded about 200 years ago by European settlers. The details of the first discoveries are not that well documented because the echidna is a very secretive creature whose habits are very hard to track and record. Extensive field research performed at the Pelican Lagoon Research Centre on Kangaroo Island has been involved in the study of echidnas since 1991. Volunteers participate in field work projects to help perform research and collate data on the echidnas which is documented and analysed to learn more about this reclusive creature.

Echidna’s ancestry dates back to when the dinosaurs were roaming the Earth! Research has indicated that echidnas could have existed from the time that Australia separated from the super-continent Gondwana land (around 140 million years ago). Due to this history, it is fascinating to discover that the echidna has survived so many different environments, yet has adapted to survive.

Echidnas are around 30 centimetres long. They have a snout which include nostrils and a mouth at the end of it. They also have a long tongue which has sticky saliva and is used to lick up insects. The echidna has no teeth. It is able to crush food it eats by using plates at the base of the roof and the tongue.

Echidnas have really strong claws that are used to dig burrows. The echidna will dig very quickly down into the ground and this burrow becomes useful when it needs to protect itself against enemies. The other defence mechanism it has, is of course, its spines! The echidna is fully covered in spines, and if they detect that an enemy is nearby they can curl up into a ball to protect their soft underbelly and just leave their spines exposed and showing.

 

 

After reading the information on the echidna, now it is your turn to research more information about the echidna! The following websites are some good links to the life and times of the echidna. Make sure you also look at other websites but make sure you do not – under any circumstances – copy and paste! All assessment tasks must be written in your own words. Make sure you reference any items you don’t understand and to reference the websites used as well as the author and the date (if you cannot find the author on the site then just state ‘unknown’.)

Some useful websites:

http://www.australianwildlife.com.au/features/echidna.htm

 

http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/BHAN-5357K5?open

 

http://www.abc.net.au/schoolstv/animals/ECHIDNAS.htm

 

http://www.arazpa.org.au/Education_FactSheets_Echidna.htm

 

http://www.koala.net/ed/animals/ech1.htm

 

http://www.calm.wa.gov.au/plants_animals/odd_echidna.html

 

http://australian-animals.net/echidna.htm

 

 

 

Here are the questions you need to answer for the case study:

 

1. Describe what an echidna looks like? Use diagrams to assist in the explanation – but a full description is required.

 

2. Where are echidnas commonly found? Name these locations in the countries listed.

 

3. Describe an echidna’s habitat. What does an echidna eat?

 

4. What family or species does the echidna descend from? What is so fascinating about this family or species?

 

5. Using the theory of natural selection (what was studied in class last week!) and your ‘Beaks and Feet’ sheet, describe at least three features of the echidna that allow the echidna to eat their food, hunt for food, to protect themselves against predators. You must also list them as a behavioural or structural adaptation.

For example, the shape of the echidna’s beak allows it to eat certain foods (list these foods yourselves!) and this is a structural adaptation.

 

6. Now that you have answered these background questions on echidnas, your task is to imagine that you are a scientist who is about to embark on a field trip, researching the secretive lifestyle of the echidna. The chosen destination is Kangaroo Island in South Australia. Before you head off for your field trip, you must find out some background information on Kangaroo Island. (A map of the island is located in the photo gallery on my web page).

You will need to find out the following things, using the daily journal entries and ecosystem knowledge from year 8! You can also use information on the internet.