These pads are replaced continuously throughout its lifetime. They (and their relatives the echidnas) don’t have teeth, but instead grind their food between mouth pads made of keratin. Platypuses stow their prey in cheek pouches, and swim to the surface to eat. Moving its head back and forth, it can find prey nearby and swiftly move in for the kill. Additionally, about 40,000 electroreceptors help them find the direction and distance of prey (its eyes and ears are closed while it’s underwater) by detecting electrical impulses generated by living creatures. This strange-looking snout is laden with “pushrods” that respond to stimuli like touch, pressure, sound waves, and motion. It is dark colored, nearly black in contrast to its chocolate-colored coat. Its signature “duck bill” is actually soft and pliable, not hard like a duck’s bill at all. Its rear feet serve as rudders and brakes. Its plump tail serves as a stabilizer during swimming and stores extra fat for energy. While lumbering somewhat awkwardly on land to protect the webbing on its feet, they are sleek missiles in the water. Those big webbed feet help propel them through the water, and the claws make digging burrows a breeze. Mostly brown on its body, there’s a flash of white fur beneath its eyes, and its belly is lighter in color, too. Long guard hairs protect the dense fur underneath, which stays dry even after a platypus has been in the water for hours. Platypus fur is waterproof and traps an insulating layer of air to keep its body temperature stable, even in cold water. Their dense fur makes fine insulation, both in the water and out. While their range is just one small area of the world, they weather many climate extremes (and fresh water sources) from toasty plateaus and rainforests, to the chilly mountainous regions of Tasmania and the Australian Alps. At a glance, it looks like a hodgepodge of animal pieces stitched together: a paddle-shaped tail from an otter, a sleek body covered in dense, chestnut-colored fur like a mole, a wide, flat duck-like bill attached in front of its little round eyes, and big webbed feet like a pelican.Īll these characteristics come in handy for its freshwater lifestyle-that bizarre looking bill is laden with thousands of receptors that help a platypusl navigate the murky depths and detect tiny movements of potential food like shellfish or insects. Females nurse their young for three to four months until the babies can swim on their own.The platypus is as fascinating on the inside as it is on the outside! Among Australia’s most iconic wildlife, this semi-aquatic, egg-laying species is also one of the few venomous mammals. The eggs hatch in about ten days, but platypus infants are the size of lima beans and totally helpless. A mother typically produces one or two eggs and keeps them warm by holding them between her body and her tail. It is one of only two mammals (the echidna is the other) that lay eggs.įemales seal themselves inside one of the burrow's chambers to lay their eggs. Platypuses use their nails and feet to construct dirt burrows at the water's edge. However, the webbing on their feet retracts to expose individual nails and allow the creatures to run. On land, platypuses move a bit more awkwardly. Platypuses do not have teeth, so the bits of gravel help them to “chew” their meal. All this material is stored in cheek pouches and, at the surface, mashed for consumption. They scoop up insects and larvae, shellfish, and worms in their bill along with bits of gravel and mud from the bottom. These Australian mammals are bottom feeders. In this posture, a platypus can remain submerged for a minute or two and employ its sensitive bill to find food. Folds of skin cover their eyes and ears to prevent water from entering, and the nostrils close with a watertight seal. Platypuses hunt underwater, where they swim gracefully by paddling with their front webbed feet and steering with their hind feet and beaverlike tail. They have sharp stingers on the heels of their rear feet and can use them to deliver a strong toxic blow to any foe. The animal is best described as a hodgepodge of more familiar species: the duck (bill and webbed feet), beaver (tail), and otter (body and fur). In fact, the first scientists to examine a specimen believed they were the victims of a hoax. The platypus is among nature's most unlikely animals.
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