Burrowing echidnas aerate Australian soil

Australia is home to some of the planet’s most iconic creatures and it now turns out that one of the lesser known indiginous species, the spikey short-beaked echidna, is essential for the health of Australia’s soils. Christofer Clemente from University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia, and colleagues have measured the animal’s activity levels and calculated that each burrowing echidna could move 200m3 of soil a year, making them fundamental to the ecology of the continent.

This article is available at http://jeb.biologists.org/content/219...

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