The echidnas at Sydney's Taronga Zoo helped authorities in their attempts to trace illegal shipments of the world's most trafficked mammal, the pangolin.
Ecologists in Sydney were hoping the Australian creatures could help out their fellow anteaters, whose scales were made of the same substance as the echidna's quills.
Thanks to the echidna's donation of their quills, researchers have mastered reading the chemical record inside the keratin and are now able to identify the diet of the animal the quills or scales belonged to.
This new ability will help authorities determine where illegal shipments are originating from.