Warm children's book concept illustration of Australian eucalyptus bushland with sunlit bark and golden leaves, featuring a quiet echidna nestling softly near the lower right foreground
Warm children's book concept illustration of Australian eucalyptus bushland with sunlit bark and golden leaves, featuring a quiet echidna nestling softly near the lower right foreground
FIND → UNDERSTAND → PROTECT → TOGETHER

An echidna mystery is coming.

NEEDLES IN A HAYSTACK

Somewhere in this landscape is an echidna. Can you spot it? What clues would you look for? How would you know if you were right?

Become the fifth Echidna Detective. Join four young investigators as they look for clues, ask questions and discover that finding an echidna is only the beginning.

PROTECT THE HAYSTACK

The haystack is the echidna’s home. It provides food, shelter and ways to move through the landscape. How can we care for the places where echidnas live?

A Brighter Tomorrow

Sam, Kari, Malu and Pita look across the bushland. Each notices something different. One looks among the leaves.

Another studies the ground. What can you see?

You are the fifth Echidna Detective. Can you find the echidna? What made you look there? How do you know?

Your turn: Point to one thing you can see. Name one thing you think might be a clue. What would you check next?

At first, the haystack made the needle hard to find. Now the detectives see it differently. The haystack is the echidna’s home.

One person can notice a clue. Many people can ask better questions, share useful observations responsibly and care for habitat together. Finding an echidna is only the beginning.

What does it need? What can we protect? How will we know whether our actions worked?

Find → Understand → Protect → Together

Your turn: Learn something. Contribute something. Protect something. You do not have to find or approach an echidna to help.

A Question

A Journey

One landscape leads to another question. The detectives compare what people have noticed in different places across Australia, Torres Strait and New Guinea. They learn that short-beaked and long-beaked echidnas are not all found in the same places.

A mark in the soil might be a track. A small digging might be a feeding sign. But how old is it? What made it? The four children listen, look again and record what they actually observed.

Your turn: Choose a clue. What does it show? What might it mean? What would you need to check?

A Bigger Picture

The detectives place observations on a map. Some areas have many dots. Others have none. Does an empty area mean there are no echidnas there? Perhaps nobody looked, or perhaps the animals were difficult to find.

They compare tracks, photographs and thermal images. A warm shape could be an echidna, another animal or even a rock. A UAS and AI can help people search images, but neither can settle every question.

“How do you know?” asks the fifth detective.

Your turn: Imagine two maps. On one, many people looked. On the other, only a few did. What can you learn from the dots? What can’t you tell?

Taking Action

Story and character illustrations are concepts. Final artwork, place-specific knowledge and cultural details are being developed with contributors.

The detectives bring the clues together. They ask what further evidence could check a possible sighting. Sometimes the honest answer is, “We don’t know yet.” That tells them what to investigate next.

Then their question changes. Where does an echidna find food? Where can it shelter? How can it move safely through the landscape? The search has revealed more than the animal. It has revealed its home.

Your turn: Look at a landscape near you, in a picture or on a map. Where might an animal find food and shelter? What might make movement difficult?

Explore Project ECHIDNA
Back to Nature Drones

COMING 4 DECEMBER 2026

The first part of the interactive story is being developed for World Echidna Day. New illustrations and activities will be added as they are reviewed and ready.

Learn something. Contribute something. Protect something.