The platypus lives in rivers and on river banks in eastern Australia.
Platypus can be big or small. The larger platypus live in Tasmania while the smaller ones live in Queensland.
Males are about one-third larger than females.
The platypus is sometimes called "duck billed platypus" because of its nose, which is similar to a duck's bill (mouth).
The first platypus specimen arrived in England in 1799. The skin of a dead platypus was sent, so biologists could study it.
George Shaw wrote the first written description of the duck-billed platypus in the Naturalist's Miscellany in 1799. Shaw stated that he first carefully checked the specimen he had been sent from Australia for signs of stitching as he thought it was a hoax. Thinking no creature could look so strange, he thought it had been made up from pieces of different animals.
Platypus can be big or small. The larger platypus live in Tasmania while the smaller ones live in Queensland.
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| Wild platypus in a creek in Tasmania. By Klaus - Flickr: |
Males are about one-third larger than females.
The platypus is sometimes called "duck billed platypus" because of its nose, which is similar to a duck's bill (mouth).
The first platypus specimen arrived in England in 1799. The skin of a dead platypus was sent, so biologists could study it.
George Shaw wrote the first written description of the duck-billed platypus in the Naturalist's Miscellany in 1799. Shaw stated that he first carefully checked the specimen he had been sent from Australia for signs of stitching as he thought it was a hoax. Thinking no creature could look so strange, he thought it had been made up from pieces of different animals.
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| A colour print of platypuses from 1863 |
On July 15, 1922, a duck-billed platypus named "Olive" arrived at the Bronx Zoo in New York. She was the first living platypus to leave Australia. Olive was captured in New South Wales, Australia, and shipped to New York in a crate filled with water and ice. She arrived in good condition and quickly became a popular attraction at the zoo. Olive lived at the Bronx Zoo for 10 years and died in 1932.
The San Diego Zoo is the only zoo outside of Australia to have Platypuses. When they arrived in 2019, it was the first time in 50 years that Platypuses had been cared for outside of Australia.
Even though platypus venom won't kill you, it can cause intense pain that lasts as long as four months. The amount of poison increases during the breeding season. The venom is impervious to painkillers - not even morphine works against it.
The platypus, the Echidna and at least one species of dolphin are the only mammals known to have a sense of electroreception: When diving for food, they shut their eyes, nose and ears, and use their bill, which contains electroreceptors, to detect electrical impulses given off by the movement of shrimp and other small prey animals. The platypus' electroreception is the most sensitive of any mammal.
Platypus will attack hidden batteries in their habitat after sensing their voltage and believing them to be prey.
Platypuses will bite onto each other's tails and swim in a circle when they have decided to mate.
The duck-billed platypus has a gene mix of birds, reptiles and mammals and genetically has 25 possible sexes.
It is one of only two families of mammals which lay eggs. The other is the Echidna, which has four species.
Despite being mammals and having mammary glands platypuses do not have nipples with which to fed their infants. Instead they release milk through glands like sweat. The milk then gathers in grooves on the mother’s abdomen where the puggles lap it up..
The platypus is a carnivore. It eats worms, insect larvae, shrimps and yabbies, which are a kind of freshwater crayfish. It digs these animals out of the bottom of the river with its beak, or catches them while swimming.
The platypus has no stomach. The food goes from the esophagus straight to the intestines.
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