The Platypus: A Truly Amazing Animal!

Imagine someone asked you to invent the strangest animal possible.

Give it thick fur like an otter.

Add webbed feet.

Put a broad, flat tail on the back.

Then give it a bill like a duck’s.

Make it lay eggs — but also produce milk for its babies.

Let it hunt underwater with its eyes closed.

And, just to make things even stranger, give the males venomous spurs on their hind legs.

You might think you’ve created a creature for a fantasy story.

Instead, you’ve described the platypus.

Found in Australia, the platypus is one of the world’s most unusual mammals. Its strange combination of features has fascinated scientists and animal lovers for generations.

And the more you learn about it, the stranger it gets.

A Little Bit Of Everything

At first glance, a platypus can look like several different animals put together.

Its body is covered with fur.

Its webbed feet help it move through the water.

Its broad, flat tail may remind you of a beaver.

Then there is that unmistakable bill.

But despite appearances, the platypus isn’t part duck or part beaver.

It is a mammal with its own unusual adaptations that help it survive in and around water.

And its appearance isn’t even the most surprising part.

For that, we need to talk about eggs.

A Mammal That Lays Eggs

One thing children commonly learn about mammals is that they give birth to live young.

Usually, that’s true.

The platypus is an exception.

A female platypus lays eggs.

After her babies hatch, however, she feeds them milk.

That combination — laying eggs and producing milk — makes the platypus particularly unusual.

Then comes another surprise.

A female platypus doesn’t have teats like many other mammals.

Instead, she releases milk through the skin of her belly. The babies can then lap up the milk.

So the platypus is an egg-laying animal that still does one of the things that define a mammal: it produces milk for its young.

But the platypus isn’t finished surprising us yet.

Next, it goes hunting.

And closes its eyes.

Hunting Without Looking

Imagine trying to find your lunch underwater while keeping your eyes shut.

For a platypus, that’s normal.

When hunting underwater, the animal closes its eyes tightly.

So how does it find food?

Its unusual bill helps.

The bill contains receptors that allow the platypus to detect what is happening around it in the water.

That helps it locate the small creatures it eats, including insects, larvae, and tadpoles.

Instead of relying on eyesight underwater, it uses the special senses in its bill to find food.

Finding food matters because the platypus can have an impressive appetite.

Scientists have observed that a platypus may eat about half its body weight in a single day.

For a relatively small animal, that’s a lot of lunch.

And Yes, It Has Venom

As if egg-laying and underwater hunting weren’t enough, the platypus has one more surprise.

It can be venomous.

Venom is extremely unusual among mammals, but male platypuses have spurs near their hind ankles connected to venom glands.

Males use those spurs when they fight one another.

They can also defend against other animals.

For example, a dog that gets too close to a male platypus might discover this strange-looking animal isn’t helpless.

It’s another feature that makes the platypus difficult to compare with almost anything else.

It looks unusual.

It reproduces unusually.

It hunts unusually.

And it has a defense mechanism that most mammals don’t possess.

An Animal Full Of Surprises

The platypus reminds us that nature doesn’t always fit neatly into the categories we create to understand it.

Mammal?

Yes.

Egg layer?

Also yes.

Milk producer?

Yes again.

Underwater hunter?

Absolutely.

Venomous?

At least the males are.

And somehow all of those traits belong to the same animal.

That’s what makes learning about wildlife so interesting. Just when you think you’ve figured out the rules, an animal such as the platypus comes along and shows how many exceptions nature can produce.

Want to learn more?

Look for books about the platypus and other unusual animals at your local library or bookstore.

Just be prepared.

The platypus has already shown us that when it comes to nature, “That’s impossible” isn’t always a safe answer.