Busch Gardens Celebrates Birth Of Plucky Little Puggle

TAMPA, FL — Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is celebrating the birth of one of the cutest baby critters in the animal kingdom — a puggle.

Adelaide the echidna has produced a rare baby, known as a puggle, that the animal care specialists at Busch Gardens have named Sydney.

Busch is one of the few places in the United States where guests can see echidnas, an Australian relative of the platypus. Also known as a spiny anteater, echidnas are one of only five known species of monotreme – or highly specialized egg-laying predatory mammals.

The baby echidna, known as a “puggle” (which looks as adorable as it sounds), is an unique offspring for the park due to the species’ unusual reproduction. A mother echidna will lay a leathery, grape-sized egg and roll into her pouch. After 10 days, a puggle the size of a jelly bean will hatch and begin nursing from unique milk glands in its mother’s pouch.

Luckily for mom, the puggle’s spines don't start poking through its back for about 53 days of age. The hollow spines are an adaptation that echidnas use as camouflage in the wild. The puggle stays in the den for about seven months while its mother periodically forages for food until her baby is ready to venture out on its own.

Sydney the puggle is now ready to greet guests at the park. Both Sydney and mom can be found in the echidna habitat at Animal Connections.

Busch Gardens is helping this rare species thrive through the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s Species Survival Plan. The mission of the SSP is to cooperatively manage specific species populations within AZA-accredited facilities.