Video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxns64ty3cuirr0/VRP38236.mp4?dl=0
This is the bizarre moment a short-beaked echidna ate by protruding its long, slender tongue.
The video was filmed by staff at Perth Zoo in Perth, Australian on May 30.
Zookeeper Danielle Henry said: ‘It is a video of one of the echidnas at Perth Zoo eating a specialised mince diet that it created for them to give them all the nutrients and energy they need.
‘Echidna have no teeth, but they make up for it with their tongues, using their long, sticky tongues to feed on ants, termites, worms, and insect larvae.
‘Perth Zoo are experts at caring for and breeding echidna.’
Staff at the zoo, which houses 164 different species, said the food was ‘a blended mixture of mince, mealworms, boiled egg, cellulose powder and calcium powder’.
The short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) is one of four living species of echidna, which live in Australia and New Guinea.
They are believed to descend from an aquatic ancestor tens of millions of years ago and adapted to life on land.
Short-beaked echidnas are typically 12 to 18 inches long and are a least-concern species. However, they are threatened by hunting, habitat destruction, and introduced foreign predators and parasites.