The Echidnas Poem by Francis Duggan

The echidnas or spiny anteaters for ants are always searching and digging with their sharp claws into the ground
And if a dog or a person approach them they dig themselves in and curl themselves into a ball spiny and round
A prick from their pointy spines could cause some damage it is their only weapon of defence
Most dogs do bark at them but dare not bite them except for the dogs who lack in common sense
The echidnas one might say are inoffensive since ants and tiny ground living things are all that they do eat
What most creatures do ignore as obnoxious to their taste buds is a delicious treat
Their weak beak like mouth is not a defensive weapon but because of their sharp spines most predators from them keep away
In my many walks from time to time i see them though i do not meet with them every day
They are slow moving awkard looking creatures to say the least their fastest pace is slow
But i am one who think they are amazing and my wonder of them only seem to grow
One of the oddest looking creatures one see in Australia they are a freak of Nature one might say
But like every life form that does live in Nature they have their environmental role to play
Some call them spiny anteaters others call them short beak echidnas though they are the very same by either name
But to be different from all other creatures perhaps is their enduring claim to fame.