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The platypus uses its bill to find food. It closes its eyes when underwater, and uses its bill to detect movements. Equipped with electroreceptors, the sensitive bill can sense electrical impulses, even the tiniest of movements made by underwater crustaceans.

The bill is also used to shovel up the soil on the bottom of the river or creek in order to find the food. Once found, the platypus uses grinding plates in its bill, rather than teeth, to crush the food before eating it.

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How do platypuses cool down?

Platypuses cool down by burrowing into the cool, moist soil near streams or rivers. They may also swim in the water to lower their body temperature, as their large webbed feet help them to swim efficiently. Additionally, platypuses may lick their own body to spread saliva, which can help in thermoregulation.


What units do water-use bills come in?

Water companies measure useage in gallons and Ccfs (cubic feet per second). Each Ccf = 748 gallons.


How old are the baby platypus before it is full grown?

By the time baby platypuses are two years old they are fully mature.


What are the advantages natural resources?

You can produce electricity and other types of power without polluting and you don't have to pay bills if you use natural resources.


What is the difference between a polar bear and platypus?

A polar bear is a type of bear that lives on the tundra in the Arctic. It is a carnivore and it's main source of food are the seals that live under the ice. It has fur that appears to be white but is actually colourless. It gives birth to live young like all other mammals. In winter they hibernate in snow caves that they make on the ice.A platypus is a type of marsupial, it has webbed hands and feet as it lives in streams or such in the Australian out back. It has a very strong flat tail. The platypus is a strange fellow as it gives birth to eggs rather than live young like other mammals.So the differences.Polar bears live in the Arctic - platypuses live in AustraliaPolar bears are bears - platypuses are marsupialsPolar bears are carnivores - platypuses aren'tPolar bears give birth to live young - platypuses lay eggsPolar bears hibernate - platypuses don'tThere are many other differences between these two amazing animals.

Related Questions

Do platypuses have eyes?

Yes, platypuses do have eyes, and they use them whenever they are on land. Platypuses close their eyes when they dive and hunt underwater for food. They do not need to see underwater, as they use the electroreceptors in their bills to detect living organisms underwater.


Why are platypuses like birds?

they have duck bills/beaks


Can platypuses close their eyes?

Yes. Platypuses close their eyes when they dive and hunt underwater for food. they do not need to see underwater, as they use the electroreceptors in their bills to detect living organisms underwater.


What color bills do platypuses have?

A platyus's bill is dark slate-grey in colour.


What do a platypus and a seal have in common?

Platypuses and seals are both semi-aquatic mammals that find their food in water, but this is about where the similarities end. Platypuses lay eggs and seals give live birth; platypuses require fresh water and seals are marine mammals; platypuses use electroreceptors in their bills to find invertebrates on which they feed, while seals primarily eat fish.


Why are platypuses blue?

They aren't. Their fur is chocolate brown and their bills and the unfurred parts of their extremities are black.


How often do platypuses eat in the wild?

Platypuses eat constantly, spending most of their waking hours hunting for food. To catch their prey, platypuses must make several hundred dives a day in order to catch enough food. They use the fine, sensitive electroreceptors on their bills, which detect the tiny electrical impulses made by underwater creatures. After locating their prey, they dig up the mud with their bill to grasp them, crushing the creatures between grinding plates in their bills.


How do platypuses catch prey?

To catch their prey, platypuses must make several hundred dives a day in order to catch enough food. They use the fine, sensitive electroreceptors on their bills, which detect the tiny electrical impulses made by underwater creatures. After locating their prey, they dig up the mud with their bill like a shovel to grasp them, crushing the creatures between grinding plates in their bills.


Is a platypus a scavenger?

No. Platypuses feed only on live prey. Because their bills detect fine electrical impulses from underwater crustaceans and invertebrates, platypuses cannot locate the prey unless it is live.


How do Platypuses eat their food?

Platypuses do not have teeth, but hard bony plates which they use to grind the food.


Does a Platypus only shoot poison at prey or at everything?

Platypuses do not shoot poison. They only inject poison into predators which threaten or attack them. Platypuses do not use their poison on their prey, as they feed on tiny crustaceans and larvae that live on riverbeds and pond beds. They locate these ctreatures via sensitive electroreceptors in their bills.


What traps do humans use to kill platypuses?

It is illegal to kill platypuses. One of the biggest threats to platypuses used to be the use of fishing nets in freshwater rivers and creeks, as the platypuses would become entangled in the nets and drown. Using such fishing nets has been outlawed.