So cute! First baby puggles for nearly 30 years born at Australian zoo

Taronga Zoo is celebrating the first birth in 30 years of three puggles - mammals that start off looking like a mole then develop spines like a hedgehog. The short-beaked echidnas, part of a group called monotremes, are difficult to breed but these three were hatched from 16-30 August. The babies have opened their eyes and started developing their characteristic spines but spend most of the time asleep at the moment.

Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, is celebrating after three baby echidnas, known as puggles, were born – the first in 29 years. Though the little ones were born in August, the announcement came on 18 November as they opened their eyes and started to develop their hedgehog-like spines.

Breeding puggles isnt easy, according to Taronga Zoo. The three new arrivals came from three different mothers: Ganyi, Spike and Pitpa.

Echidnas are mammals that lay eggs. Puggles hatch from the egg after around 10 days and crawl into their mothers pouch where they stay for around two months.

Once the spines start to come in, the mother will put the puggle into a special underground burrow and visit once every three to six days to feed the young one.

Puggles have a lot of developing to do so will spend most of their time conserving energy by snoozing, a keeper said, adding that the adorably named puggles all weigh between 250g and 658g.

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