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Meet Bo
Hardly the first time you guess who it is depicted in the photo below. Most likely, and the second time will not know this animal. Painfully it is unusual, especially when very small.
4 photos + video here
In fact it is a viper, and her name is Bo (Beau). She lives in an Australian zoo Taronga Zoo, but she was not born there. Very tiny cub was found on a forest trail, perhaps he just fell out of my mother's handbag.
Echidna (Tachyglossidae) belong to the order of monotremes. In the same squad, along with part of the platypus echidna, another Australian original beast.
Externally vipers are like a small porcupine, as covered rough wool and needles. The maximum body length of about 30 cm. Their lips have a beak-shaped form. Limbs echidna short and fairly strong, with large claws, so that they can dig a well. In vipers no teeth, mouth a little. The basis of the diet are the termites and ants, which vipers caught its long sticky tongue, as well as other medium-sized invertebrates, which crushed the viper in the mouth, tongue pressed against the palate.
The female echidna three weeks after mating lays one egg with a soft shell and places it in his bag. "Incubation" lasts ten days. After hatching, the cub nourished with milk, which is released in the pores of two milk boxes (monotremes have no nipples), and remains in the mother's pouch from 45 to 55 days, as long as he does not start to grow needles.
After that, the mother digs a hole for the cub, which leaves him, returning every 4-5 days for milk feeding. Thus the young echidna is guarded mother until the age of seven months.
Source:
4 photos + video here
In fact it is a viper, and her name is Bo (Beau). She lives in an Australian zoo Taronga Zoo, but she was not born there. Very tiny cub was found on a forest trail, perhaps he just fell out of my mother's handbag.
Echidna (Tachyglossidae) belong to the order of monotremes. In the same squad, along with part of the platypus echidna, another Australian original beast.
Externally vipers are like a small porcupine, as covered rough wool and needles. The maximum body length of about 30 cm. Their lips have a beak-shaped form. Limbs echidna short and fairly strong, with large claws, so that they can dig a well. In vipers no teeth, mouth a little. The basis of the diet are the termites and ants, which vipers caught its long sticky tongue, as well as other medium-sized invertebrates, which crushed the viper in the mouth, tongue pressed against the palate.
The female echidna three weeks after mating lays one egg with a soft shell and places it in his bag. "Incubation" lasts ten days. After hatching, the cub nourished with milk, which is released in the pores of two milk boxes (monotremes have no nipples), and remains in the mother's pouch from 45 to 55 days, as long as he does not start to grow needles.
After that, the mother digs a hole for the cub, which leaves him, returning every 4-5 days for milk feeding. Thus the young echidna is guarded mother until the age of seven months.
Source:
