this amazing creature has a four-headed penis ?

Do you know the echidnas, these funny creatures close to the platypus, which live in Australia ? These animals still hide many mysteries that scientists have not yet fully unraveled. Two extremely rare completely albino specimens have just been discovered this month !

Two rare albino echidna specimens were seen in the space of two weeks in New South Wales, Australia by locals, Live Science reveals. One, nicknamed Mr Spike, was discovered injured in early May, reportedly after a road accident. Fortunately, after a few days of veterinary care, he was released back into the wild where he was found by the Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service (WIRES). Another was spotted by Bathurst Regional Council, 200km from Sydney. These fearful animals live only in rainforests in Australia and are difficult to see, but are not endangered, although human activities, such as hunting, urbanization and habitat destruction, as well as road traffic, are major threats. Three or four of these albino creatures have been discovered in the country in recent years, which remains exceptional.

An animal with a four-headed penis blowing snot bubbles

This little beast entirely covered in prickly fur is precisely a short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), and is therefore one of the monotremes, along with long-beaked echidnas (of the genus Zaglossus) and platypus, i.e. the only animals to lay eggs and produce milk at the same time. Echidnas that do not have a problem producing melanin and are not albino are brown in color, sometimes with honey-colored spines. If it looks like the hedgehog or the porcupine, it is not related to them.

The cute animal remains quite mysterious for scientists, however, and has specificities that are not fully understood today. For example, the egg-laying mammal has a penis with four heads, and the strangest thing is that only two of them work. They are used only for reproduction, and not even for urination, since the echidna has a cloaca, like birds, through which urine, faeces and eggs are evacuated. As Live Science reports, researchers at the University of Melbourne tried to unravel the mystery of this amazing reproductive organ in 2021 by replicating it in 3D. In one study, they found that by alternating these two pairs of glans, the individual could ejaculate 10 times in a row without a break. It could give some males a reproductive advantage, but scientists aren't entirely sure.

Another curiosity, to combat sweltering heat, echidnas would blow bubbles of snot through their noses to keep them moist and cool, according to a study carried out earlier this year by the University of Tasmania.

These mammals are therefore as incredible as their platypus cousins, with their duck's beak, their beaver's tail, their DNA close to the bird and their venom.