An echidna seen wandering around Adelaide Railway Station has been rescued and released back into the wild.
Footage posted on social media shows the echidna ambling along a platform beside an empty track at the station in the heart of the city on Tuesday night.
A security guard spotted the echidna near railway tracks around 8pm, according to the Department for Infrastructure and Transport.
"Rail staff donned gloves and entered the pit of platform two where the echidna had burrowed itself into the ballast next to the track," a spokesperson said.
"The echidna was removed unharmed from the ballast and later collected by animal welfare officers.
"It has since been examined by a vet and released healthy and uninjured into the wild."
The spokesperson said there were no delays to rail services.
Adelaide Koala and Wildlife Centre clinic coordinator Annie Carmichael said the echidna was collected from the station by Fauna Rescue SA and brought to the centre to be checked over.
Ms Carmichael said the juvenile female echidna, who they named Snoot, was found to be in good health.
"It had X-rays done on it and nothing significant was found," she said.
Snoot was given the all clear and released back into the wild on Wednesday afternoon.
"She was very lively … she was eager and raring to go," Ms Carmichael said.
How and why the echidna came to be in Adelaide's main train station remains a mystery.
National Parks and Wildlife Services principal ecologist Karl Hillyard said his best guess was that the echidna came from the nearby River Torrens.
"It's that time of year when echidnas can be looking for a bit more food as they come out of their winter hibernation," he told ABC Radio Adelaide's Sonya Feldhoff.
Dr Hillyard said echidnas can be quite common in the Adelaide Hills and the Adelaide Plains, but inside a metropolitan station was unusual.
"It's a strange spot for an echidna to be," he said.
Dr Hillyard said the train station was "clearly not the best area" for an echidna.
"It's on that hard surface which probably isn't the greatest place for an echidna to be scratching around if it's out there looking for a feed or looking for one of its friends," he said.
