the echidna

I’m often stated as loving squirrels. And that statement is true, but only because of my love of all animals. When I go for a walk or look outside my window there is usually a squirrel doing something at some point. There is an encounter. I don’t get to see penguins or anteaters everyday; and not surprisingly since they are only at the zoo. And although I see a fair share of deer, groundhogs, and opossums they are usually only glimpses, not encounters. The squirrel represents my fascination with all animals. It helps that squirrels are interesting creatures (check out the Youtube video below) and not mundane.

But seriously, how often am I going to see a long-beaked echidna (only found in the area of New Guinea)? In a recent article in the NYTimes they honor this shy creature. Usually the platypus gets all the publicity as the weird animal and the joke of the animal kingdom, but I have to say that the echidna is fairly weird looking itself. The popularity of the platypus may be because you can see a platypus swimming down a river in Australia, but you may never come across an echidna in the jungles of New Guinea.

I’m sure if I could follow one of these creatures around I would drop everything to do so. For now I have the squirrel to watch.