If you've spent your life wondering; tossing and turning at night over the thought of what it might sound like if echidnas spoke to one another, then have I got some good news for you.
For the first time ever, recordings have been caught of the spiky little creatures chattering away - but these aren't boring old conversations about the weather.
Instead, researchers believe that the recordings might actually have caught the echidnas flirting with one another. If you need some tips, take a listen below:
The recordings have been captured by researchers at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, marking the first solid proof that the creatures make noises.
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Echidnas were believed to make sounds, but there was debate around whether they vocalised as a way of communicating, or if they were simply sniffling and breathing.
The recordings do capture the animals cooing, grunting, and wheezing, but researchers noted they only made these sounds during the breeding season.
Dr Christine Cooper, lead author on the study, explained: “We observed wild short-beaked echidnas at Dryandra National Park, near Narrogin, Western Australia, making cooing and grunting sounds, in addition to the wheezing and exhalation noises that the animals are known to make...
“Careful analysis of those cooing and grunting sounds showed echidnas are capable of vocalising, aligning them with most other mammals in their use of acoustic communication."
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The researchers managed to capture the sounds by using hand-held microphones, as well as a camera and microphone left unattended at the entrance to a cave where echidnas like to reside.
After analyzing the recordings, they noticed that the echidnas made the sounds when they were alone or with another echidna, but only rarely.
“So, although we don’t know the purpose or understand the meaning of the short-beaked echidna’s grunting and cooing, we have only heard them from adult animals during the breeding season, suggesting echidnas only find their voice when reproductively active," Dr Cooper said.
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The indication that echidnas speak to one another helps inform scientific debate about when early mammals began communicating through sound.
Dr Cooper explained: “If both monotremes (like echidnas) and other mammals vocalise, this suggests that the common ancestor of these two evolutionary lineages could also vocalise.
“While other forms of communication, such as vibrational and chemical signals, are known to have appeared much earlier, our findings confirm that acoustic communication using sound likely developed 100 to 200 million years ago and before monotremes diverged from other mammals.”
Dr Cooper is now keen to hear any other recordings that echidna enthusiasts might be able to capture, as the sounds only come on rare occasions.
Emily Brown