There’s no way these cute, spiny creatures are all sold legally
Because echidnas are so difficult to breed in captivity, poached wild animals are being passed off as captive bred.
What, you might ask, is a puggle?
A puggle is a baby echidna, an animal with quills that looks a bit like a small, round porcupine with a long nose. The baby emerges from an egg incubated in its mother’s pouch for about 10 days. Naked, blind, and less than an inch long at birth, it stays in the pouch for two months or so, until its growing quills start poking the mother and she moves her spiky offspring into a protective burrow she’s built. (Where the name puggle came from for echidna babies is a mystery, but puggles are also dogs—pug-beagle mixes.)
Short-beaked echidnas are found in Australia and on the island of New Guinea. They’re one of the world’s five
