Platypuses

No.

No. To begin with, platypuses have no teeth so they cannot bite.

However, the male platypus does have the distinction of being one of the world's most venomous mammals. This creature has a small, hollow, poisonous spur on the back of each of its hind feet. The venom cannot kill a person, but it will cause swelling and excruciating pain that can last for months. The venom is enough to kill an animal the size of a small dog, but not a healthy human.

No, they are only in Australia. If any are found elsewhere, it had to have been brought there, and it is presently illegal to take them to other countries. It is unlikely a platypus would survive long in a place like Florida with crocodiles and alligators.

Not necessarily. Adaptations are changes in an animal's features or behaviour which enable it to live in a specific environment. Realistically, laying eggs is not an adaptation for a platypus, as it could just as easily bear live young in its chamber.

An example of an adaptation in a platypus is its feet - they are webbed for swimming but the webbing is retractable, exposing the sharp claws, with which it can dig its burrow.

The platypus's life cycle consists of the egg, juvenile platypus and the adult. The egg takes ten days to hatch, and the juvenile stage lasts until the young platypus reaches reproductive age. Platypuses are not considered fully mature until they reach reproductive age, at eighteen months to two years.

Platypuses do not actually live in any waterholes or creeks. They dig burrows in the banks of freshwater rivers and creeks. They can be found alongside creeks or rivers with a slow rate of running water, as well as in still freshwater ponds, dams, lakes and billabongs - anywhere with a bank high enough in which to dig their burrows.

As a rule, platypuses do not eat frogs or any vertebrates (including fish). They live on crustaceans, annelid worms and insect larvae. However, frog parts have been found in platypus droppings in very limited research.

A platypus swims by paddling with its four feet, and using its thick tail as a rudder. It has retractable webbing on its feet to assist it with speed and for hundreds of dives it must make daily in order to find food. It closes its eyes and ears as it swims, and locates food by electroreceptors in its bill as it forages around on the river or creek floor.

Platypuses are one of only two types of mammals to lay eggs. Fertilised platypus eggs stay in the mother's body for around 28 days. The egg is incubated by the mother curling around it and keeping it warm and dry in the chamber of the burrow for another 10 days.

Platypuses do not live in water, but they need water in which to find their food. They can live indefinitely out of the water, but would die within weeks if they could not feed.

One of the main reasons for the tight restrictions on keeping platypuses is that they are extremely difficult to breed in captivity. Since 1941, there have been very few instances of platypuses in captivity breeding, and these have only been in wildlife sanctuaries, under very carefully controlled conditions, within Australia.

No. Platypuses cannot jump as their physical structure is not built for jumping. They sit too close to the ground, and their legs are built for swimming and digging, not jumping. They are, however, very effective divers.

No. Platypuses eat small water animals such as aquatic insect larvae, fresh water shrimp, annelid worms, yabbies and crayfish. They do not eat anything terrestrial.

Yes, but a young platypus feeds differently to either marsupials or placental mammals. The mother has large glands under the skin from which she secretes the milk. The milk ends up on the mother's fur, and it from this that the young platypus feeds. The milk still contains all the nutrients required for the young platypus, as it a couple of months before the baby is ready to hunt for food on the bottom of the river.

The platypus is an egg-laying mammal which swims regularly in order to hunt for food.

It should be noted that the other egg-laying mammal, the echidna, can also swim, but it does not need the water like platypuses do.

No, they do not have them at stores.

According to the Related Link: "It is illegal for members of the public to keep them (platypuses) in captivity."

One of the main reasons for the tight restrictions on keeping platypuses is that they are extremely difficult to breed in captivity. Since 1941, there have been very few instances of platypuses in captivity breeding, and these have only been in wildlife sanctuaries, under very carefully controlled conditions, within Australia.

The average person is not permitted to keep a platypus. Under no circumstances can a platypus be kept as a pet. Some sanctuaries and zoos with special licences may keep platypuses, but the conditions required for survival by this animal mean that the environment constructed for it must be strictly regulated.

Apart from the obvious reproductive differences, the main physical difference between male and female platypuses is that the female is considerably smaller.

While both males and females have a spur on their hind ankle when young, the female's spur falls off before she is a year old, and the male's becomes his primary defence, with a debilitating venom.

The female platypus has sole responsibility for the raising of the young platypuses. The male has no part in raising the young platypuses.

The platypus most of its time searching for food as it must eat about 20% of its own weight in food each day, while a lactating female must eat the equivalent of its own weight daily to meet its own energy needs. So, for an average 1kg platypus, not a lactating female, that means it must consume at least 250g of insect larvae, crustaceans and small fish each day.

Platypuses do not eat plants. They are completely carnivorous and only eat small freshwater creatures such as yabbies and crayfish, and insects and their larvae.

Sometimes, plant parts will be ingested accidentally as the platypus seeks other food, but vegetation is not part of the platypus's diet.

The platypus uses its nose the same way all mammals do: to determine scents.

If the question actually refers to the platypus's entire snout, or bill, the answer is different.

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.

Platypuses lay one to three eggs once a year.

You cannot buy a platypus anywhere. They are protected native animals of Australia, and not permitted to be kept as pets anywhere in the world. They have sensitive needs, and the average person would not have a clue how to care for one, or have the equipment necessary to keep a platypus alive.