Qld birth spike provides hope for echidna

A sharp spike in echidna births at a Gold Coast wildlife park has researchers confident they are global leaders in the species' prickly mating methods.

The Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary has welcomed 14 short-beaked echidna puggles in the past five years - more than any other zoo in the world.

A breeding partnership with the University of Queensland is behind the baby boom and researchers hope their mating model will help save the endangered species.

Echidnas have a "bizarre" method of reproduction and just a few years ago it was thought impossible to breed them in captivity, UQ reproductive zoologist Stephen Johnston said.

"The male has a four-headed penis and uses two of those heads at a time to ejaculate sperm," he explained.

There's generally a 20-day period of gestation before the female lays an egg directly onto her temporary pouch, with the puggle hatching about 10 days later.

Professor Johnston said the researchers involved in the breeding program had figured out how to actually mate the echidnas, rather than rely on unplanned pregnancies.

"Now we can pretty much predict that, if we put A and B together and provide the right environmental conditions, a mating is likely to be successful," he said.

"This breeding season our echidnas have already produced five eggs."

Researchers had gained a better understanding of the echidna's temperature regulation requirements and were now trying to identify the hormones involved in the different stages of the females' breeding cycle, he said.

While short-beaked echidnas like those born at the sanctuary are relatively common in the Australian wild, their long-beaked cousins found in New Guinea and Indonesia are endangered.

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary's Michael Pyne said it was important to use knowledge gained in the breeding program to help save the long-beaked echidna.

There are also plans to establish a research centre to increase knowledge of echindas' reproduction and biology.