Shocked scientists witness tiger shark vomiting echidna, a SPIKY land animal

Lester Kiewit speaks to Katie Macdonald about what's trending Down Under.

(Skip to 4.47 for this one.)

A group of James Cook University researchers got the shock of their lives after witnessing a Tiger Shark throw up an iconic Australian animal - the echidna — also known as spiny anteaters,  which must have been hard to swallow.

Echidnas are only found in Australia and New Guinea and are egg-laying mammals. They have spiky spines protruding from their bodies and use a beak-like snout to eat ants. 

Former JCU PhD student Dr Nicolas Lubitz and his team were busy tagging marine life off the coast of Orpheus Island, north Queensland in May 2022 when the shark they caught regurgitated a dead echidna, believed to be a world-first discovery.

Lubitz assumes the shark nabbed the echidna as it swam in the shallows off the island or even between islands, which the monotremes are known to do.

MacDonald says it's 'bizarre because echidnas are land animals and are not usually found where tiger sharks are'.

"Tiger sharks have massive appetites and they'll eat almost anything - you name it, they'll eat it."

- Katie MacDonald

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the full conversation.