The Enigmatic Echidna by Danielle Clode

Discover the captivating world of the echidna

There are few animals more unusual than the echidna – a spiky, egg-laying mammal that eats ants. But some of the most striking things about echidnas are things most of us don’t know. That they use their snout like a snorkel when they swim, that they can sense electromagnetic fields, that they have intriguingly complex brains, startling physical strength and ‘backwards’ back feet. That they go into torpor when conditions are poor and can survive fires by sheltering underground. And that during the mating season, male echidnas will line up behind a female, making cooing noises and forming an orderly echidna train, waiting for their chance to impress her with some very strange reproductive equipment!

In The Enigmatic Echidna, biologist and award-winning author Danielle Clode follows the echidna on its eclectic path through the Australian landscape. Equal parts surprising, amusing and enlightening, it is an irresistible journey into their unique and beautiful world.

‘Clode is a master at popularising science and making the complex understandable’ -Australian Book Review

‘One of our great nature writers – she knows the science from the inside and can systematically lay out masses of information in easily digestible form. But she can also be poetic, evocative and moving.’ -Insights Magazine

About the Author: Danielle Clode is a biologist and natural history author. Her books include Koala, winner of the 2023 Whitley Award for Popular Ecology; Killers in Eden, which was made into an award-winning ABC TV documentary; Voyage to the South Seas, winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Non-fiction; In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World; and The Wasp and the Orchid, which was shortlisted for National Biography Award.

05 May 2026
 

The Enigmatic Echidna: Secrets of the World’s Most Curious Creature by Danielle Clode ISBN 9781760645328