The Platypus and Unbelievably Cute Facts About Australia's Treasure

The platypus is the most unique animal on Earth. Along with four species of echidna, it is one of only five extant monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth.

This animal seems unreal and their biology seems to be contrary to scientific knowledge. Their scientific name is Ornithorhynchus anatinus, has the composite form of many animals of different species: snout like a duck's beak, tail like a beaver, lays eggs and moves like reptiles but sucks milk. like the class of animals.

Scientists still do not know much about the ancestral origin of this strange animal. But various fossils show that their ancestors were very similar in shape to them now, possibly in primitive times they tried to leave life in the water but because they could not adapt to all of them. difficult on land, so they returned to the aquatic environment to feed.

The platypus' tail is short, has the function of storing fat for winter use, but they do not hibernate, they also use the tail to steer underwater. Short but strong legs, webbed feet are suitable for swimming and diving; When on land, the webbing of the feet folds so that the paws can be used for digging. The soft muzzle is very sensitive, there are a lot of nerve cells on it. Platypuses can also call. Body length is about 61cm, female about 46cm. They have long, flattened bodies, covered with short, smooth, brown hair. Their plumage is waterproof, which helps them adapt to living underwater for 12 hours a day at temperatures close to 0 degrees Celsius. Platypuses can dive underwater for about 1 minute. When in the water, they close their eyes, not only that the nose and ears are also sealed, there are no holes for water to enter. In such a state of "secretion of the senses", the platypus can still forage and swim well in the water. While searching for food, they use two senses on their snout: one is through touching objects, the other is thanks to electrical stimulation. They can detect the direction of small currents arising from the bodily movements of small prey, and also detect the weak currents emitted when water flows through immobile objects.

When on land, platypuses use their eyes to see and those eyes are very sharp and can see far. But they have a weak point, because the position of the eyes is hidden so they cannot see what is below the muzzle.

They are mainly nocturnal, they are most often seen at dawn and dusk. They feed on small aquatic animals that they find in the mud on the bottom of rivers and lakes. They eat a wide variety of foods including invertebrates, small fish, fish eggs, frogs, frogs, and tadpoles. In just one day, they can eat half their body weight.

Platypuses without teeth, instead of crushing food with the horns in their beaks, can grind food with sand and grit. When they catch a little bait, they transfer the food to the pouches on the cheeks, under the snout. When they come to the surface, the platypus brings its food to its mouth, where it is crushed by "grinding plates" in its beak.

Males have venomous spurs on their hind feet, used against predators and against other platypuses that compete with it. The spur is about 1.5cm long, located on the ankle, and is connected to the poison gland located in the thigh. That poison is not lethal but will be painful and strong enough to kill a dog. The common platypus is very shy, but during the breeding season the males are very aggressive and often resort to venomous spurs. Juveniles also have "milk spurts" but will shed within the first year.

This strange beast likes to live near water, often burrows in the banks of rivers or lakes. They make two types of burrows: burrows to live in and burrows to lay eggs and hatch young. The cave always has an exit on land and an exit in the water. However, their burrows have an oxygen problem because they stay in the burrow for a long time and can use up all the oxygen in it. During the breeding season, females have a habit of covering the entrance door every time they come out of the burrow or every time they enter the burrow. The young stay in the burrow for a period of about 3 months, so they consume a large amount of oxygen. The platypus' body has to regulate its own chemicals in order to make good use of that limited amount of oxygen.

The reproduction rate of the platypus is among the lowest in the animal kingdom. For every two females, only one lays eggs. During the breeding season, the female will stay alone in underground burrows to lay eggs.

The female lays 2-3 eggs between August and October. The eggs are laid inside a burrow up to 20m deep. The female incubates the eggs for 12-14 days on her belly and tail on a nest lined with grass and leaves. After two weeks of eggs hatching, when the eggs hatch, the young are only about 1.25cm long. The mother platypus will nurse her babies for the first 3 to 4 months of life until their babies can swim.

The mother has no nipples, milk is made from large glands under the skin. Milk secreted from two places has a structure like a nipple. The young press on those places to let milk flow down their mother's belly hair to lick and suck the milk that comes out. This milk is rich in iron, 60 times more iron than cow's milk.

The young drink breast milk from 4-5 months and remain in the burrow, they start to leave the nest and learn to swim when they are about 17 weeks old.

In the cold winter, the platypus is still swimming in search of food. They are forced to adapt to the cold to go to the water to feed. The lower the outside temperature, the more they have to heat up the body to maintain body temperature. To do so they have to eat a lot, but the difficulty is that in such cold weather food becomes scarce. Normally, they spend half a day foraging. In the summer they eat more to store fat.

In the wild, foxes, wild birds and crocodiles often catch platypuses for food, especially their young. In the past, people also hunted platypuses for their skins, but now they are protected by laws of many countries because the number of these exotic animals is still decreasing day by day.

Platypuses have a fairly long lifespan. If they live in captivity, they can live up to 20 years, while in the wild it is less - up to 12 years. They usually live in freshwater lakes, distributed in the east of Australia. The platypus is considered one of Australia's natural treasures.

Here are fun and amazing facts about this extremely "weird" creature:

Poisonous ankles

Male platypuses have a spur - like a large toenail - on the inside of each ankle. They can use this spur like snakes use their fangs. The venom from spurs can kill small animals and cause extreme pain in humans if pierced through the skin. On the plus side, scientists believe that this venom could one day turn into a cure for diabetes.

No stomach

Nearly all animals have a stomach to digest food. But like echidnas, platypuses have a pharynx - the route that normally takes food from the mouth to the stomach - that connects directly to the intestines. It does not need a stomach to digest food.

Super unique tail

The platypus and the otter look like twins with the same tail. But platypuses don't use their tails to swim in water as many people think. Instead, it uses its tail as a place to store its body fat in case it lacks food. And female platypuses also use this tail to hold eggs. These are unexpected uses.

Glow in the dark

Scientists recently discovered the platypus glow in the dark. When you see a platypus in normal light, their fur looks brown. Nothing special compared to many other animals. But when scientists observed platypuses under ultraviolet light, they were surprised to learn that their plumage emits green and blue light. The flickering light emitted by the platypus is a biofluorescence phenomenon, which is extremely rare for mammals, especially those that lay eggs.

Super sensitive beak

When platypuses dive into the water to feed, their senses of sight, smell, and hearing are... turned off. Even the tiny ears are tucked into a groove with the eyes. So, how will the platypus perceive its surroundings? That's okay, because their beaks are so sensitive that they can find food by sensing the sound waves, movement and electric fields they create.

Platypuses lay eggs, not babies

100 years after being known to science, strange animals from far away Australia make people surprised by their eggs. Although classified as Mammals, or Mammals, platypuses do not give birth like other mammals.

The entire life cycle of the platypus is not known at this time, only that the male plays no role in raising the young. After mating, the female "duck" becomes pregnant for about 2 to 4 weeks and then lays eggs. One more week to incubate and then the cute "duck" babies are born.

Mammals but... no mammals!

After the suspicions about the strange appearance of the platypus were "vindicated", the scientific community continued to be more surprised about the unusual biological characteristics of this animal. Despite laying eggs, platypuses feed their young with breast milk like mammals, but especially in that they have no breasts, only milk glands located under the skin.

In terms of science, the word Mammalia or Mammal for the class of Animals is derived from the Latin word mamma which means "breast". That's why we often translate in Vietnamese as "mammal". Platypuses are also classified in this class, but they do not have a true mammary gland structure, but only milk-secreting glands located under the skin of the abdomen.

Baby platypuses do not suckle like other species, but instead will lick milk secreted from these glands and deposited on the skin of the mother's abdomen. After a few months they will begin to wean and feed on their own.

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