{"id":25240,"date":"2023-03-09T17:35:31","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T16:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=25240"},"modified":"2023-03-09T17:35:31","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T16:35:31","slug":"crackle-and-pop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/2023\/03\/09\/crackle-and-pop\/","title":{"rendered":"Crackle and pop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Short-beaked echidnas avoid over-heating by blowing \u2013 and bursting \u2013 bubbles on their nose <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Researchers made their discovery about echidnas while carrying out other measurements <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

ONE OF THE QUIRKIEST OF ALL MAMMALS, the egg-laying echidna of Australia, has been found to employ an appropriately eccentric method of cooling off in the heat, according to research published in Biology <\/em>Letters. <\/em><\/p>\n\n

\u201cShort-beaked echidnas have the broadest distribution of any mammal in Australia,\u201d says Christine Cooper who led the new research. \u201cThey\u2019re all over the place, from alpine areas through to the deserts and the tropics.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Christine Cooper of Australia\u2019s Curtin University holds a short-beaked echidna <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Past experiments in the laboratory have suggested that echidnas cannot survive air temperatures above 35\u00b0C. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cHeat exchange is much more complex in the wild than in the lab where the air temperature is kept constant by design,\u201d says Cooper. \u201cEchidnas live in areas where they must be dealing with these high temperatures. In fact, people have measured the temperatures in logs where echidnas are sleeping and it\u2019s over 40\u00baC. The question is how they are doing that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Echidnas are unable to sweat. But Cooper\u2019s research shows that they blow bubbles through their nose, which moisten it when they pop.<\/p>\n\n

 \u201cThey have a large blood sinus at the tip of their nose, so when the water evaporates, that should cool the blood in the sinus,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cI had a PhD student who was studying echidna physiology and behaviour. She noticed that at higher temperatures they were blowing more bubbles. Then we had the opportunity to use thermal imaging technology out in the wild to see if their noses really are cold. And yes, they really are.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Stuart Blackman <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

CHRISTINE: PHILIP WITHERS\/UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA; ECHIDNA: IMAGEBROKER\/ALAMY<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Short-beaked echidnas avoid over-heating by blowing \u2013 and bursting \u2013 bubbles on their nose <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":25238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"22","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"22","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_22-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_22-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"Spring-2023","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"Spring-2023","purple_external_id":"Spring-2023-22-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"Spring-2023-22-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000087242||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000087242||","purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.502","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.502","purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.502","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.502","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"58d61955-0ac4-406c-83f1-ab6f21d86b70","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2023-03-09T16:35:38Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"368844a0-5f7e-4227-b083-3896959a7708","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2023-03-09T16:35:38Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ANohEoF9-QiewgziWlZp3CA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[25],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/03\/9fe8d0c0-29e3-45a3-a0fc-3b14c7838fa1.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/03\/9fe8d0c0-29e3-45a3-a0fc-3b14c7838fa1.jpg",1594,1391,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/03\/9fe8d0c0-29e3-45a3-a0fc-3b14c7838fa1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/03\/9fe8d0c0-29e3-45a3-a0fc-3b14c7838fa1-300x262.jpg",300,262,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/03\/9fe8d0c0-29e3-45a3-a0fc-3b14c7838fa1-768x670.jpg",768,670,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/03\/9fe8d0c0-29e3-45a3-a0fc-3b14c7838fa1-1024x894.jpg",800,698,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/03\/9fe8d0c0-29e3-45a3-a0fc-3b14c7838fa1-1536x1340.jpg",1536,1340,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/03\/9fe8d0c0-29e3-45a3-a0fc-3b14c7838fa1.jpg",1594,1391,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Short-beaked echidnas avoid over-heating by blowing \u2013 and bursting \u2013 bubbles on their nose","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25240"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25240"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25872,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25240\/revisions\/25872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}