Fat is stored in the tail for when food is scarce or when the female returns to her burrow to breed. If the water is cold, platypus can increase their body's heat-production to keep their temperature at around 32 degrees.
Awkward on the ground, the platypus waddles with the webs of its front feet turned back so it can use its claws for digging. The male platypus has a sharp spur on each ankle. These spurs are connected to a venom gland in each thigh. The venom glands are most active during the spring breeding season, so competing males probably use the spurs in territorial fights.
Platypus are found in eastern Australia from the steamy tropics of far north Queensland to the freezing snows of Tasmania. In Queensland, platypus live in rivers east of the Great Dividing Range, and are also found in some western-flowing streams. In north Queensland, the range of the platypus is close to the coast. The animals aren't found in Cape York Peninsula. Platypus make their home in and near freshwater creeks, slow-moving rivers, lakes joined by rivers, and built water storages such as farm dams.
They build a simple burrow in a river bank, just above water level and often among a tangle of tree roots. Platypus mostly live alone, but can share a water body with several other platypus.
Half of the platypus's day is spent in the water looking for food. The rest of its time is spent in its burrow, moving across land or even basking in the sun. During cold southern winters, a platypus can hibernate in its burrow. Platypus eat small water animals such as insect larvae, freshwater shrimps, and crayfish.
The platypus, usually active at dawn and dusk, relies on its sensitive bill to find food. With eyes and ears closed, receptors in the bill can detect electrical currents in the water and can help to find prey. The platypus has no teeth, and stores its food in cheek pouches to eat on the surface.
It chews its food between horny grinding plates and ridges on its upper and lower jaws before swallowing. Platypus can stay underwater for up to 10 minutes. When swimming, the platypus moves itself with its front feet and uses its back feet for steering and as brakes. What an icon! Male platypuses have a hollow spur on each hind leg connected to a venom secreting gland, and while their venom is lethal, there are no recorded deaths from platypuses or from platypus stings.
Like a shark, the platypus uses electronic impulses to detect underwater prey and locate objects in the darkest depths of the creeks and rivers they call home. They feed on insect larvae, freshwater shrimps, worms and yabbies, which they bring to the surface to eat.
Despite being a mammal, platypuses lay eggs — making them a monotreme. The platypus spends about 12 hours every day underwater looking for food. No one knows why, but when these small brown creatures are put under UV lights, they give off a biofluorescent green-blue glow.
Which is strange, but even stranger are the people who keep putting them under UV lights. Which could be why the name for a baby platypus is a puggle. And a baby platypus who has one wizard parent and one human parent is a muggle puggle. Prolonged droughts, bushfires, a changing climate and landclearing have impacted the platypuses' habitat and decreased their population.
When platypuses were first discovered in , British scientists thought they were a hoax created by putting parts of different animals together — webbed feet and a bill like a duck, a body like an otter and a tail like a beaver. But the joke was on them, the platypus is real and it is awesome! In this way they hunt for prey underwater for 30 to seconds at a time. The Platypus is one of very few venomous mammals in the world.
Recent research suggests that the spur is used during aggressive encounters between rival males. Up for air. Photo Richard Taylor.
For humans, the venom is non-fatal, but it can cause swelling, loss of muscle control and severe pain. Taxonomically, it's the only species in the family Ornithorhynchidae. Platypuses are endemic to only found in east and south-eastern Australia. They can live in many habitats, from tropical rainforest creeks to streams in alpine areas. Photo Peter Saunders. Platypuses are not endangered but the International Union for Conservation of Nature has upgraded their status to 'Near Threatened'.
Platypuses are mostly nocturnal. During the day they sleep in the chambers at the end of riverbank burrows. At dusk they emerge to search the river bottom for food, sometimes hunting for 10 to 12 hours a night. They scoop up gravel and dirt along with their prey, store it in their cheek-pouches, and bring it all to the surface to eat. Instead, they use a grinding plate to mash the gravel, soil and food slurry, scooped from the riverbed. Females breed at 4 years.
After burrowing deep into the riverbank, pregnant females lay one or two eggs.
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