Echidna's are found all over Australia, but they mainly live in forests, bushland and grasslands. They maintain a temperature of 31-32 degrees. Echidna's are seen out during mild weather. When it is extremely hot or cold echidna's will take shelter under rocks or bury themselves. The average rainfall is around 478mm each year
challenges in their environment
There are several challenges in the echidna's environment and they are road kills. With even more houses and roads being built, their habitat is taken away from them. Roads are also warm place to stay, leaving them vulnerable when cars come past. Living in bush areas, they are also prone to bush fires which can wipe out much of the population in the affected area. Other animals such as foxes, dingoes, dogs and feral cats which also live in these kind of environments pose risk to the echidna species, especially the young which have little defence.
adaptations
A structural adaptation that the echidna posses is their powerful paws. These paws enable them to run, walk and climb (as seen in Figure 2).This allows to escape animals that may harm the echidna. With their paws they can dig for food and burrow them selves, but they can also rip apart rotten wood (as seen in Figure 3) for bugs that the echidna can eat and survives on.
A behavioural adaptation the echidna has is during most of the year they are on their own, but during mating season they all come together. This enables for the process to occur faster resulting in off spring easily born, to maintain the amount of echidna's alive, so their species does not become endangered.
A physiological adaptation that the echidna has is a high tolerance to carbon dioxide. This helps for survival when the echidna has burrowed for a long period, escaping a predator. Also in bush fire areas the echidna can tolerate the smoke in the area, allowing them to survive for longer. This allows them to tolerate lower oxygen levels that occur in these situations. Increasing their chance of survival in different circumstances
Rythmic pattern
Short Beaked Echidna's are usually active during the day. Although environmental conditions such as hot weather can change their pattern of being diurnal. As the echidna has no sweat glands they are not able to cope with the high temperatures. This causes them to become nocturnal or crepuscular. Where water is present they may also swim to cool down.