Frequency of breeding and recruitment in the short-beaked echidna, Tachyglossus aculeatus

We documented the breeding frequency of 25 wild female short-beaked echidna s, Tachyglossus aculeatus multiculeatus, fate of young, and recruitment of subadults into a population over a 7-year period. Echidnas had 1 annual bre eding period with courtship lasting 7-37 days. Females monitored were obser ved to mate only once per breeding season with I male. All females that mat ed produced a single fertile egg 23 days +/- 1 SE after mating. Frequency o f reproduction differed among individuals and years. Number of young hatche d each season varied between 1 and 9. A total of 22 hatchlings was produced by 17 different females between 1990 and 1996. Seven young died before wea ning, 8 were known to survive to weaning, and the fates of the remaining 7 were unknown. Number of new subadults found in the study site was comparabl e with the number of young known to have been produced each year.