Platypus

Platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus

Where do they live?
The Australian Platypus can be found in eastern Queensland and New South Wales, in eastern, central and southwestern Victoria and throughout Tasmania.

What is their habitat?
The ideal habitat for the amphibious Platypus is a freshwater river or stream with banks of earth and native vegetation that gives shade and protection. Logs, twigs, roots and stones in the water favour the type of food that the Platypus lives on.

What’s special about them?
When first discovered, the unusual look of the Platypus caused considerable confusion and doubt amongst European scientists, many of whom believed that the animal was a fake. This is because they are monotremes: a combination of a mammal and an egg-layer. To the people of NSW they have an even greater significance as the animal emblem of their State.

What do they eat?
The Platypus feeds mainly during the night on a wide variety of aquatic invertebrates, including insect larvae, shrimps, swimming insects, tadpoles and, at times, worms, freshwater pea mussels and snails.

How do they reproduce?
The breeding season varies widely depending on location. After mating, the female builds a nest in a long complex burrow and spends four or five days collecting wet nesting material to prevent her eggs and hatchlings from drying out. During the egg incubation period of about 10 days, the female holds the eggs pressed by her tail to her belly, while curled up. When the young hatch, the female starts producing milk and they suckle from the two milk patches covered by fur on the abdomen. Towards the end of summer, the young emerge as independent animals.

What else do I need to know?
The name ‘Platypus’ comes from the Greek meaning ‘broad’ (platy) ‘foot’ (pus). And you can see the logic in the name when you inspect their four big webbed feet. These big feet on short limbs carry a streamlined body with a bill like a duck’s and a broad flat tail. The Platypus uses its tail for storage of fat reserves. The streamlined body is covered in dense waterproof dark to reddish brown fur and a lighter brownish-silver underfur. The Platypus males have a poisonous spur on their ankles, making them one of the few venomous mammals. Males are larger than females and they can grow up to 60 centimetres long.

How do they fit in the tree of life?
Species: anatinus
Genus: Ornithorhynchus
Family: Ornithorhynchidae
Order: Monotremata
Subclass: Prototheria
Class: Mammalia
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Phylum: Chordata
Kingdom: Animalia

What is their conservation status?
Platypus have an IUCN listing of Least Concern.
In Australia, Platypus are protected in all states in which they occur.