Giant Echidna

From Wild Southwest Wiki

The Giant Echidna is one of the oddest of all mutations. It is, to all intents and purposes, a normal echidna - only freakishly enlarged. A fully grown giant echidna is about the size of a pre-war Volkswagen beetle.

Giant echidnas are largely harmless, and fairly rare. If attacked, they pull in their heads and burrow straight down into the earth, leaving only their spiky backs protruding. As their hide is impenetrable to all but the most powerful firearms there is not much that can be done to harm a giant echidna in this position.

Giant echidnas tend to avoid human habitation, with the exception of the honey farms of the Frankland River valley. They have a very sweet tooth, and will quite happily rip apart a hive and devour all the honey within, along with as many of the bees they can catch on their long, sticky tongues. A single giant echidna can devastate as many as six or seven hives in a single night. As such, the apiarists of Frankland have developed a number of ingenious defences and hunting methods to deal with the creatures, including pit traps and electric fences.