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<title>UTas ePrints - The life history of an egg-laying mammal, the echidna</title>
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<meta content="Nicol, Stewart C." name="eprints.creators_name" />
<meta content="Andersen, Niels A." name="eprints.creators_name" />
<meta content="s.c.nicol@utas.edu.au" name="eprints.creators_id" />
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<meta content="2007-10-28 22:05:21" name="eprints.datestamp" />
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<meta content="The life history of an egg-laying mammal, the echidna" name="eprints.title" />
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<meta content="Echidna, egg-laying, growth, hibernation, life history, metabolic rate, monotreme. " name="eprints.keywords" />
<meta content="Based on a paper presented at the symposium "Mammalian life histories: the basics revisited" held during the Ninth International Mammalogical Congress, Sapporo, Japan, August 1-5, 2005. " name="eprints.note" />
<meta content="Echidnas have a low metabolic rate, and energy expenditure is reduced even further by the use of torpor and hibernation. Thus echidnas appear to lie at the slow extreme of the fast-slow continuum, and this is reflected in many aspects of echidna life history: a long life, a long lactation period, and a single young which matures late. Reproductive activity occurs in mid-winter, shortly after arousal from hibernation. After a pregnancy of about 3 weeks the female lays a single egg into her pouch, which hatches after 10 – 11 days. Initially the young is incubated in the pouch before being left in the nursery burrow while the mother forages for ants, termites and other invertebrates. Lactation lasts for 150 - 200 days, the duration differing significantly between geographic regions. Growth rates during late lactation are very high, and, when weaned, the young has reached about 40% of adult mass. The young loses mass before entering its first hibernation, which extends from early autumn to late spring. The young echidna reaches adult mass after about 3 - 5 years." name="eprints.abstract" />
<meta content="2007" name="eprints.date" />
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<meta content="Echidnas have a low metabolic rate, and energy expenditure is reduced even further by the use of torpor and hibernation. Thus echidnas appear to lie at the slow extreme of the fast-slow continuum, and this is reflected in many aspects of echidna life history: a long life, a long lactation period, and a single young which matures late. Reproductive activity occurs in mid-winter, shortly after arousal from hibernation. After a pregnancy of about 3 weeks the female lays a single egg into her pouch, which hatches after 10 – 11 days. Initially the young is incubated in the pouch before being left in the nursery burrow while the mother forages for ants, termites and other invertebrates. Lactation lasts for 150 - 200 days, the duration differing significantly between geographic regions. Growth rates during late lactation are very high, and, when weaned, the young has reached about 40% of adult mass. The young loses mass before entering its first hibernation, which extends from early autumn to late spring. The young echidna reaches adult mass after about 3 - 5 years." name="DC.description" />
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<h1 class="ep_tm_pagetitle">The life history of an egg-laying mammal, the echidna</h1>
<p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"><span class="person_name">Nicol, Stewart C.</span> and <span class="person_name">Andersen, Niels A.</span> (2007) <xhtml:em>The life history of an egg-laying mammal, the echidna.</xhtml:em> Ecoscience, 14 (3). pp. 275-285. ISSN 1195-6860</p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"></p><table style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"><tr><td valign="top" style="text-align:center"><a onmouseover="EPJS_ShowPreview( event, 'doc_preview_3005' );" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/2320/1/Nicol_et_al._2007_The_life_history_of_an_egg-laying_mammal2C_the_echidna_Ecoscience.pdf" onmouseout="EPJS_HidePreview( event, 'doc_preview_3005' );"><img alt="[img]" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png" class="ep_doc_icon" border="0" /></a><div class="ep_preview" id="doc_preview_3005"><table><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/2320/thumbnails/1/preview.png" class="ep_preview_image" border="0" /><div class="ep_preview_title">Preview</div></td></tr></table></div></td><td valign="top"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/2320/1/Nicol_et_al._2007_The_life_history_of_an_egg-laying_mammal2C_the_echidna_Ecoscience.pdf"><span class="ep_document_citation">PDF</span></a> - Requires a PDF viewer<br />794Kb</td></tr></table><p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block">Official URL: <a href="http://www.ecoscience.ulaval.ca/">http://www.ecoscience.ulaval.ca/</a></p><div class="not_ep_block"><h2>Abstract</h2><p style="padding-bottom: 16px; text-align: left; margin: 1em auto 0em auto">Echidnas have a low metabolic rate, and energy expenditure is reduced even further by the use of torpor and hibernation. Thus echidnas appear to lie at the slow extreme of the fast-slow continuum, and this is reflected in many aspects of echidna life history: a long life, a long lactation period, and a single young which matures late. Reproductive activity occurs in mid-winter, shortly after arousal from hibernation. After a pregnancy of about 3 weeks the female lays a single egg into her pouch, which hatches after 10 – 11 days. Initially the young is incubated in the pouch before being left in the nursery burrow while the mother forages for ants, termites and other invertebrates. Lactation lasts for 150 - 200 days, the duration differing significantly between geographic regions. Growth rates during late lactation are very high, and, when weaned, the young has reached about 40% of adult mass. The young loses mass before entering its first hibernation, which extends from early autumn to late spring. The young echidna reaches adult mass after about 3 - 5 years.</p></div><table style="margin-bottom: 1em" cellpadding="3" class="not_ep_block" border="0"><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Item Type:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">Article</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Additional Information:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">Based on a paper presented at the symposium "Mammalian life histories: the basics revisited" held during the Ninth International Mammalogical Congress, Sapporo, Japan, August 1-5, 2005. </td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Keywords:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">Echidna, egg-laying, growth, hibernation, life history, metabolic rate, monotreme. </td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Subjects:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/view/subjects/270706.html">270000 Biological Sciences > 270700 Ecology and Evolution > 270706 Life Histories (incl. Population Ecology)</a></td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">ID Code:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">2320</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Deposited By:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><span class="ep_name_citation"><span class="person_name">Associate Professor Stewart C. Nicol</span></span></td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Deposited On:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">29 Oct 2007 09:05</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Last Modified:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">09 Jan 2008 02:30</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">ePrint Statistics:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><a target="ePrintStats" href="/es/index.php?action=show_detail_eprint;id=2320;">View statistics for this ePrint</a></td></tr></table><p align="right">Repository Staff Only: <a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/users/home?screen=EPrint::View&eprintid=2320">item control page</a></p>
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