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| Duck-bill Platypus (Ornithorhynchus
anatinus)
The Platypus is a member of the monotreme
family. The lowest order of mammalia, monotremes are the only egg-laying
mammals. The Order comprises of the duck-billed platypus and several
species of spiny ant-eaters. |
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The Platypus is a small, aquatic, warm
blooded, egg-laying monotreme mammal with hairless webbed feet, a
furry tail like a beaver's, and a 2 inch wide horny beak resembling
the bill of a duck. The adult male is about 65 cm long, including its 12
to 15 cm tail. A platypus' nostrils are located on top of its bill, allowing
it to breathe when swimming at the surface. |
| The Platypus has two layers of fur. The
outer layer is longer and is the layer that gets wet as ol' platy goes
swimming through the lakes, streams and rivers of Tasmania and Eastern
Australia that he (or she) calls home. The inner layer is short and dense
and never lets water through to the skin. |
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| The
platypus has keen sight and hearing, but closes its nostrils, ears and
eyes underwater. It manuevuers and finds food with the help of sensors
in its beak which detect movement underwater. Water reaches the sensitive
nerve endings through tiny pores in the snout's hairless leathery skin.
Its bill looks like a ducks but is really made more like our noses . .
. with soft, flexible cartilage. |
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| The females have no teats and the
young feed through many tiny openings in the skin of the mother's
belly. Platypus have five-toed feet that are webbed, and the male has a
spur on its heel, directed backwards and inwards, which connects with a
poison-secreting gland. With one swift kick, the poisonous platy can
make a person very sick and kill a dog (or rather, a dog sized animal). |
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The webbed feet of a platypus allow
it to swim like a fish but give it quite a bit of trouble on land because
the web extends past it's toes. This forces the Platypus to form little
"fists" with it's feet and walk on it's knuckles. |
| Platypuses swim mainly with
their forefeet. Platypuses are crepuscular (meaning they hunt mornings
and evenings), probing mud and gravel in rivers and lakes with the
end of their rubbery bill. Food is probably located by touch and is stored
in cheek pouches,like some rodents do, and consumed when there is a significant
amount. Crushing its food with the horny plates of the bill and mouth,
the platypus each day eats about half its own weight in worms,insect larvae,
mollusks, crustaceans, yabbies, fish eggs, tadpoles and vegetation - all
consumed underwater. |
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| The platypus can swim underwater
for approximately 3 minutes a stretch, but can rest underwater for as long
as ten minutes (excersise requires oxygen). It forages for food underwater,
but lives and sleeps in tunnels that it burrows along river banks.
Sometimes these tunnels are 60 feet long! Both sexes shelter in one type
of burrow, which males retain during the breeding season (August to October). |
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Mating takes place in later winter and
early spring. After an intricate courtship, platypuses mate in the water.The
next act occurs in the second type of platypus burrow, which is usually
much deeper and more elaborate than the aforementioned type. The female
digs a burrow 4.6 to 18 m long, at the end of which she builds a nest.
This is a breeding burrow,where the young are reared. The female tucks
bundles of wet leaves under her tail (which she folds forward), and drags
them into the nest chamber. The wet leaves prevent the eggs from becoming
too dry. The incubation burrow is plugged with earth, and the expecting
platypus mother gets down to business. While rearing her young, the mother
platypus will leave the nest briefly-only to defecate, wash, and wet her
fur. She plugs the tunnel behind her when exiting or entering. |
| A couple of weeks after mating,
a female platypus lays one to three (usually two) eggs in the nest. Platypus
eggs are about the size of those of a house sparrow. They stick together,
preventing them from rolling away. The mother curls around her eggs until
they hatch (in about ten days). The young are born about an inch long,
blind and hairless. They suck the iron-rich milk that oozes from the nippleless
abdominal mammary glands of the mother. The young are weaned at about 5
months and reach sexual maturity in a year.
The life span is about 10 years. The main enemys of the platypus are large
fish, snakes, foxes and water rats. |
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| In 1797, John Hunter saw an Aborigine
spear a Platypus, in Yarramundi Lagoon near the Hawkesbury River, north
of Sydney. He had never seen such an animal before. He arranged to
have its skin preserved and, the next year, sent it to the Literary and
Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England. In so doing, he
introduced European scientists to this unique Australian mammal.
The first scientific description of the
Platypus, provided by George Shaw of the British Museum, was published
in 1799. At first, he thought the animal was some kind of trick. He said
it looked like someone had deliberately joined the beak of a duck to the
head of a four-footed furry animal. For more than 80 years after the first
platypus skin arrived at the British Museum, scientists refused to believe
in the existence of this animal.
The platypus was once in high demand for
its fur, but since strict laws have been enacted, it is no longer in danger
of extinction.
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At one point I accumulated all this
info and more from internet sites and books, and copied it for my own "archives".
I didn't write down the sources then, so I don't have the specific pages
now from whence this info came. But here are some Platypus sites which
have probably about the same kind of info.
I have found some conflicting information
(i.e., on whether the platypus digs its entrance to the burrow above or
below water level) and thus have included what I deemed the most trustworthy
facts. Please let me know if
I chose wrong. Hey! Also let
me know about anything else you find funny or cool on this site. |
