How does a platypus find its food?
A platypus finds food underwater using electroreceptors in its bill. It closes its eyes, ears and nostrils while diving and detects the tiny electric fields made by the muscles of its prey.
The platypus's bill is soft and leathery, packed with tens of thousands of electroreceptors and mechanoreceptors. By sweeping its bill from side to side along the riverbed, it senses the movements and electrical signals of insect larvae, worms, shrimp and yabbies.
When diving, the platypus closes its eyes and ears with folds of skin, relying entirely on its bill. Dives usually last about 30 to 40 seconds.
Storing and eating food
The platypus stores prey in cheek pouches and returns to the surface to chew. Adults have no teeth, so they grind food with hard pads.
A platypus can eat up to about a fifth of its body weight each day.
Platypuses are most active at dawn and dusk.
They live in rivers, creeks and lakes along eastern Australia and in Tasmania, resting in burrows dug into the banks between feeding sessions. Because they need clean water with plenty of invertebrates, platypuses are a sign of a healthy waterway. Drought, dams and litter such as fishing line and opera house yabby traps have harmed them, and enclosed yabby traps are now banned in several states.
Did You Know?
The platypus is one of the few mammals that can sense electric fields, along with echidnas and some dolphins.