Platypuses

Platypuses are only small creatures. A male platypus is 50-60 cm in length, whilst the female is smaller, averaging 40-50 cm in length. They are very lightly built creatures, with females weighing as little as 900 grams, and males around 2kg.

Whilst some may say the platypus has a unique appearance similar to that of part beaver and part duck, it really does not look like that at all. It is covered in fur, and its head is flat and streamlined for swimming under the water's surface.

The colour of a platypus's fur is dark brown over most of its body, with a grey undercoat. Its belly is gold-coloured or silky grey.

Its bill is different in shape to that of a duck, so even the term "duck-billed platypus" is a misnomer. It has webbed feet, claws and a flat tail, and lives in burrows in riverbanks. Its feet are not permanently webbed, as the membrane that stretches to help it swim swiftly retracts for the purpose of digging.

It is one of the few venomous mammals; the male Platypus has a spur on the hind foot which delivers a poison capable of killing a small dog or causing severe pain to humans.

No. The platypus is completely wild, and can be neither domesticated nor trained.

Platypuses do not have teeth; nor do they bite. The only danger posed by a platypus is if it "spurs" a person by the male using its venomous spur on its hind leg to pierce someone's skin.

Male platypuses have a venomous spur on each of their hind legs, through which they can deliver a venom strong enough to kill a small dog, and to cause almost paralysing agony to an adult human. Also, platypus venom contains a protein which lowers blood pressure, also inducing shock. 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.

Platypuses hide by digging burrows into a riverbank or creek bank. The entrance is usually disguised by overhang from the riverbank, or by tree roots and/or other vegetation. They are difficult to see, which is precisely what the platypus wants.

Platypuses swim in freshwater ponds, billabongs, rivers and creeks in eastern Australia. They are found in tropical freshwaters of northern Queensland right down to sub-Alpine freshwaters of Tasmania.

A platypus is not in the same family as ducks or crocodiles. It is an egg laying semi-aquatic mammal. It is neither a bird, like a duck, nor a reptile, like a crocodile.

Specifically, the platypus is a monotreme, or egg-laying mammal. Its closest relative is the echidna, the only other egg-laying mammal.

Mammals that lay eggs are called monotremes. They are placed in the infraclass and order Monotremata.

Yes. Fossil evidence has shown that there was once a giant species of platypus which had teeth, unlike modern platypuses which only have grinding plates. This giant species was very similar to the modern platypus in every other way.

There is no need for anything in particular to be done to save the platypus.

The platypus is not endangered. There was a time when it was under threat, being particularly prized for its fur years ago. Now, platypus numbers have returned to essentially the same levels they were prior to European settlement. The Australian Government lists the platypus as "common but vulnerable". The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the platypus as "least concern".

Platypuses are now strictly protected by law. There are also laws prohibiting the use of fishing nets in freshwater creeks and rivers. The use of these nets used to be a major contributor to platypus deaths.

Eastern Australia provides the ideal conditions for the platypus's habitat. The platypus lives alongside freshwater rivers, lakes and creeks in eastern Australia. The Great Dividing Range runs down the eastern coast of Australia, through the heart of platypus habitat. To the west lies flatter land and drier conditions, with less vegetation cover.

Platypuses live particularly within heavily wooded and protected regions. They are found from the cooler sub-alpine areas in the south, such as Victoria and the Tasmanian highlands, north through New South Wales to tropical far north Queensland. They live in bushland as well as tropical, sub-tropical and temperate rainforests. All of these as can be found in mountainous regions.

bird

Platypuses have two eyelids for protection. One is used the same way as humans use theirs, to help moisten the eyeball, but the other one is used for protection specifically when the platypus is hunting underwater. Platypuses close their eyes underwater and the second eyelid helps protect the platypus's eyes from sediments they stir up as they shovel in the mud for invertebrates and crustaceans.

Male platypuses sharp, venomous spines on each of their hind legs that they use to fend off predators/fight competition during mating season.

The platypus is oviparous. Monkeys are not oviparous. Neither are opossums, which give birth to embryonic young. Bats and armadillos do not lay eggs, so they aren't oviparous either.

Platypuses do not actually live in any rivers. They live alongside a variety of freshwater rivers through Australia's eastern states, as they dig burrows in the bnaks of creeks and rivers. The rivers are too many to list: in New South wales alone, platypuses are believed to be living by all rivers which flow east from the rivers Great Dividing Range, and in the upper reaches of thirteen of the state's westward-flowing rivers.

Platypuses are common throughout Tasmanian waterways, while in South Australia they are found by creeks and rivers on Kangaroo Island, and occasionally are reported in the Riverland area of the Murray River.

Platypuses are believed to be found along 26 of Victoria's 31 river systems. They are most common in parts of the Goulburn and Ovens River catchments and waterways in the Otway Ranges and East Gippsland. Platypuses have been reported occasionally downstream of Echuca in the Murray River. There are not thought to be any in rivers along the Portland Coast.

In Queensland, they are plentiful along eastward-flowing rivers south of Cooktown right down to the New South Wales border. They have also been reported in the headwaters of three of the five river systems which feed the Murray-Darling Basin in the upper reaches. They are not known in any of the waterways which flow into the Gulf of Carpentaria.

No. Platypuses live throughout eastern coastal Australia and its island state of Tasmania, particularly within heavily wooded and protected regions. They are found from the cooler sub-alpine areas in the south, such as Victoria and the Tasmanian highlands, north through New South Wales to tropical far north Queensland. Platypuses live in bushland as well as tropical, sub-tropical and temperate rainforests. Its distribution is not considered to be in the outback.

A platypus is a semi-aquatic mammal, so it is well equipped for swimming. It has webbed feet on which the webbed membranes can retract so it can use its sharp claws to dig burrows in river banks.

A platypus feeds on water creatures, so is adept at swimming and diving. While it cannot breathe underwater, it can hold its breath for an average of 1-2 minutes, making hundreds of dives every day to find enough food to meet its own bodyweight. When lying motionlessly to escape the attention of predators, it can remain underwater for up to eight minutes,

The platypus does not have a stinger, but the male has a poisonous spur on its ankle. Used as defence, the spur can deliver enough venom to kill a small dog, or cause extreme agony for a person.

Every animal is important. The platypus is the only animal on earth that is an egg-laying mammal with a duck-like bill. It is very unique. It would be a shame to lose it. If we lost it, whatever it ate would become over populated, and its predators might starve and become under populated, knocking the food chain out of balance.

Yes it is an air breathing animal. it sleeps on land and lays eggs on land

Three: pla-ty-pus.

The platypus uses the electroreceptors in 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.