What is the cause of platypus death?

Answer 1

Pollution!!! They also have predators, and not alot of protective measures, but swimming away. There claws, and webbed feet, aren't really used for fighting, but for swimming, digging, and they have no teeth to defend themselves or their young with. So, when they are attacked their only action is to flee. They lay eggs which are easy prey for other animals and hard for them to protect and hide. So, they have a hard time all the way around without the added pressures of mankind!

Answer 2

Platypuses are very sensitive creatures, and they require a strictly controlled environment. Very few have been known to breed in captivity, but they do not generally die in captivity if preparations for their environment are closely followed.

Answer 3

Although the male platypus has venomous spurs, no deaths from a platypus have ever been recorded. However, many injuries have been reported.

People who have been "spurred" by a platypus report that the pain is strong enough to cause vomiting that may last for days, weeks or sometimes even months. The pain cannot be relieved by morphine and other standard pain-killing drugs. It seems the only way it can be relieved is through anaesthesia of the main nerve from the spur site. There is also no antivenene available.

Answer 4

They can bleed to death, freeze, get eaten, and many other ways.

Platypuses cannot freeze. They do not live in alpine areas.

Platypuses used to be in danger from fishing nets. Until the practice of leaving fishing nets in freshwater creeks and rivers was banned, platypuses would become entangled in the fishing nets and, unanble to swim to the surface, would die.

A common problem with young platypuses is that, during flood times, they can be washed from their mother's nesting chamber and drown.

Answer 5

Not many animals prey on the platypus. The most common things that kill them are:

• water pollution
• fishing nets
• goannas and snakes eating the platypus eggs, or entering the burrow to eat the young platypuses
• The Australian freshwater crocodiles in far north Queensland is blamed for lower numbers of platypuses in that region
• Freshwater eels, which can grow to twice the length of a platypus, are thought to occasionally prey on platypuses
• Foxes and feral cats pose a threat
• Excessive flooding can kill platypuses. They are air-breathing mammals, anto although they spend so much of their time in water, fast-moving currents can overpower them, causing drowning, as well as flushing young and helpless platypuses out of the burrow.
• In Tasmania, the platypus is threatened by a fungal disease which can lie fatal

Answer 6

Yes. Any species can become endangered.

Platypuses have few enemies in the wild, because they mainly hunt underwater and live in hidden shelters, from tropical north regions to the sub-alpine areas of southern Australia. However, the introduction of red foxes as a predator for rabbits is believed to have caused danger to the platypus. Feral cats are another platypus predator. if the numbers of these introduced animals conine to increase, then platypuses may become endangered.

The platypus's principal threat is humans. Humans used to hunt platypuses for their fur, but they are now protected. The danger is now not from hunting, but from destruction of their environment. Also, the use of fishing nets in freshwater creeks and rivers resulted in large numbers being drowned, but this practice has been banned. If these restrictions wee lifted, he platypus would most certainly become endangered.

Natural predators of the platypus cause a danger, and include snakes, water rats, goannas, spotted quolls, eels, hawks, owls and eagles. In the north of its range, dingoes are another predator. Lower platypus numbers in far northern Australia are possibly due to predation by crocodiles. On occasion, large eels have been thought to take platypuses, which may be only half the length of a freshwater eel.

Another danger to the platypus is flooding. Young platypuses may be washed out of their burrows when floodwaters come, and few of these survive. However, this is unlikely to lead to their endangerment.

Tasmanian platypuses are subject to platypus fungal disease, or Mucormycosis. This fungal disease causes ugly skin lesions or ulcers to develop on various parts of the platypus's body, including their backs, tails and legs. These lesions become quite large, and are ultimately fatal. Death comes from secondary infection, and from the fact that the platypus's ability to maintain body temperature and forage efficiently for food is affected. It's not yet known how the disease spreads from platypus to platypus, but the mainland creatures are not affected.

Answer 7

For more accurate information on diseases that affect platypuses in Tasmania and the rest of Australia go to the related link (Platypus Fungal disease) below.

Summary: Tasmanian platypuses were first observed to be subject to platypus fungal disease, or Mucormycosis in 1982. This fungal disease causes ugly skin lesions or ulcers to develop on various parts of the platypus's body, including their backs, tails and legs. These lesions become quite large, and are ultimately fatal. Death comes from secondary infection, and from the fact that the platypus's ability to maintain body temperature and forage efficiently for food is affected. It's not yet known how the disease spreads from platypus to platypus, but the mainland creatures are not affected.