The bushfire crisis in Australia has had a devastating impact on wildlife and their ecosystems.
While the full extent of the devastation is still being calculated, Australians are doing what they can to assist animals who have survived the fires.
Sadly, it has been predicted 1 billion animals have been killed in the fires, and some of our native species are at risk of possible extinction.
While this news is disheartening, there are stories of survival. I was quite taken by the survival stories of the echidna.
The echidna is an unusual animal native to Australia and New Guinea. It’s classed as a mammal, yet they are warm-blooded and lay eggs. Their spikes, which are also known as hairs, can help them camouflage in native vegetation, but scientists have found other remarkable interesting features which enable echidnas to survive bushfires.
Researchers have found the echidna is able to burrow itself into the ground when danger is near, slow their metabolism and hibernate.
As Science Alert explains, “echidnas don’t try to escape a fire, instead, they bury themselves as deep as they can into a cool, protective soil, take a nap, and wait for the flames to all blow over.”
Fascinated by this information, I shared it with my girls and we thought what better way to celebrate Australia Day than to make echidna biscuits, reminding us that if we dig deep, we can be a beacon of hope and generosity to others.
Ingredients
- Arrowroot Biscuits
- White and Dark Choc Chips
- Icing
- Edible Eyes (from baking decoration section)
- Chocolate Stick Biscuits
Instructions
The images are fairly self-explanatory.
- Spread chocolate icing onto biscuit
- Cut a chocolate stick biscuit in half and add this for the beak
- Add the edible eyes
- Place white and dark chocolate chips for the spikes.
The kids will love making these biscuits. And they look pretty cute on a plate.
More Info About the Fire Impact on Echidnas
Echidnas can also suffer significant burns even when burrowing and their spines often ‘melt’ as seen in this photo we shared a few months ago.
— EchidnaCSI (@echidna_csi) January 4, 2020
We have good information on echidna numbers before the fires in KI because of significant work by Dr Peggy Rismiller 1/8 https://t.co/qlxFPtGWKi pic.twitter.com/kfkRnkfCZs