The platypus looks assembled from spare parts: a duck's bill, a beaver's tail, an otter's feet. It lays eggs, even though it is a mammal. And the male is one of the world's few venomous mammals, with sharp stingers on the heels of its hind feet that can deliver a strong toxic blow to anything that comes too close.
The platypus, sometimes called the duck-billed platypus, combines the features of many species in one. Credit: NOAA.
Where it lives
The platypus is found only in Australia. It usually lives in freshwater rivers, wetlands and billabongs, but it also ventures into brackish estuaries, where rivers meet the sea and fresh and salt water mix.
How it hunts
The platypus feeds on the bottom, steering with its beaver-like tail and paddling with its webbed feet as it hunts insects, shellfish and worms.
- Holding its breath. Watertight nostrils on the bill seal shut, so it can stay underwater for up to two minutes.
- Sensing electricity. Special nerve endings in the bill, called electroreceptors, detect the tiny electrical currents made by the muscles of its prey.
- Eating without teeth. It has no teeth. It stores its catch in cheek pouches, surfaces, grinds its meal with bits of gravel it picked up along the way, and swallows it all.
Raising young
The female lays her eggs in a burrow she digs near the water's edge. The babies hatch after 10 days and nurse for up to four months before swimming off to forage on their own.
A national favorite
Australia holds the platypus in such regard that it appears on the country's 20-cent coin.
Sources
Based on "What is a platypus?" from NOAA's National Ocean Service, a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from oceanservice.noaa.gov
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