What is a platypus?
The platypus is a semi-aquatic mammal from eastern Australia with a duck-like bill, a beaver-like tail and webbed feet. It is one of the only mammals that lay eggs.
Platypuses live in rivers and streams. They hunt underwater with their eyes, ears and nostrils closed, using their sensitive bill to detect the tiny electric fields made by the muscles of prey such as insect larvae, shrimp and worms. They store food in cheek pouches and eat it at the surface.
Along with the four species of echidna, the platypus is a monotreme, an egg-laying mammal. Females lay one to three small, leathery eggs in a burrow. After hatching, babies drink milk that seeps from patches of skin on the mother's belly, because platypuses have no nipples.
Venomous and glowing
Male platypuses have a sharp spur on each back ankle that can deliver venom, painful to humans but not deadly. In 2020, scientists discovered that platypus fur glows blue-green under ultraviolet light. When the first specimen reached Britain in the late 1700s, some scientists thought it was a hoax.
Did You Know?
The platypus appears on the reverse of the Australian 20-cent coin.