Researchers discovered that echidnas are everywhere with the help of an app that recognises and records their poop.
In 2017, in order to track echidna movements and habitats, a team of Adelaide University researchers launched the Echidna Conservation Science Initiative (EchidnaCSI) app, which teaches users how to recognise echidna poos.
The app has resulted in a whopping 12,000 echidna sightings from 2017 which makes up a quarter of the total sightings of the elusive creature recorded in the last century!
The tiny turds have revealed that echidnas are actually active in every state and territory, even in densely populated cities, much to the surprise of researchers. These mighty mammals are not commonly thought of as urban dwellers in contrast to our beloved bin chickens and ringtail possums.
“This raises a number of concerns as there is very little appropriate habitat or food sources available for echidnas in these environments. It also increases the risk of echidnas being struck by vehicles”, Dr Tahlia Perry told The Guardian.
The research team received help from 11,000 participants who downloaded and actively used the app.
We didn’t realise just how many people were running around with their heads down looking for faeces.
Visit Google Play or the Apple App Store to download the app and make your own contributions and don’t forget to keep an eye out for our spiky little friends in the burbs.
