Serendipity

Went looking for these…

Blue Beard Orchid by Paul Amyes on 500px.com
Blue Beard orchid or blue fairy orchid (Pheladenia deformis), Wambyn Nature Reserve.

 

…and found one of these.

Nyingarn by Paul Amyes on 500px.com
Nyingarn is the Nyoongar name for the echidna or spiny anteater. This one can be seen digging into a termite mound. Wambyn Nature Reserve, Western Australia.

 

Short Beaked Echidnas or Nyingarn in Nyoongar are also sometimes called spiny anteaters and belong to the Tachyglossidae in the monotreme order of egg-laying mammals and are not related to anteaters found in the Americas or hedgehogs. Together with the platypus, echidnas are the only surviving members of the order Monotremata and are the only living mammals that lay eggs. Now if you think a mama that lays eggs and raises its young in a pouch is weird then one of the other characteristics is even stranger. Their hind feet point rearwards! Yup that’s right, their feet are on backwards. How do echidnas have sex?

 

 

 

 

Carefully! 🙂