Where does the platypus live and what does it eat? The platypus is a unique animal of Australia

The platypus belongs to the order of mammals. Its close relative is the echidna; together with it they form the order Monotremes. only on one continent - Australia.

The zoological European world first started talking about platypuses only in 1797. And immediately after the discovery of the animal, disputes began to rage as to who it was, a bird, a reptile or a mammal? The answer to the question was given by the German biologist Meckel, who discovered mammary glands in a female platypus. After this discovery, platypuses were classified as mammals.

What does a platypus look like?

The platypus is a small animal, reaching 30-40 centimeters in length. Its tail is flat, similar to a beaver's tail, only covered with hair, 10-15 cm long. The platypus's head is round, and on its muzzle there is a flat beak up to 6.5 cm long and 5 cm wide. Fat is deposited in the back of the tail. The structure of the platypus's beak is very different from that of birds. The beak of the platypus consists of two long arched bones covered with elastic and soft skin. The oral cavity contains cheek pouches into which the platypus collects prey.

The platypus' feet are equipped with five fingers, between which there are swimming membranes. In addition, the animal has claws on its fingers, designed for digging the ground. The membranes on the hind legs of the platypus are poorly developed, so main role When swimming, the forelimbs act out. When the animal moves on land, its gait is similar to that of a reptile.

Platypus breeding

Before the mating season begins, all platypuses lie down in hibernation for 5-10 days. Having woken up, the animals actively get down to business. Before mating begins, each male courts the female by biting her tail. The mating season lasts from August to November.

After mating, the female begins to build a brood burrow. It differs from the usual one in being long and at the end of the hole there is a nesting chamber. The female also equips the brood hole inside, placing various leaves and stems in the nesting chamber. Upon completion of construction work, the female closes the corridors to the nesting chamber with plugs from the ground. Thus, the female protects the shelter from floods or attacks from predators. The female then lays eggs. More often it is 1 or 2 eggs, less often 3. Platypus eggs are more like reptile eggs than birds. They are round in shape and covered with a leathery grayish-white shell. Having laid the eggs, the female remains in the hole almost all the time, warming them until the babies hatch.

Platypus cubs appear on the 10th day after laying. Babies are born blind and completely without hair up to 2.5 cm in length. To be born, babies break through the shell with a special egg tooth, which falls out immediately after birth. The mother moves the newly hatched cubs onto her stomach and feeds them with milk protruding from the pores on the stomach. The new mother does not leave her babies for for a long time, but only for a few hours to hunt and dry the wool.

At the 11th week of life, babies are completely covered with hair and begin to see. The cubs hunt independently as early as 4 months. Young platypuses lead a completely independent life without a mother after the 1st year of life.

When scientists discovered the platypus in Australia, the very fact of its existence dealt a fatal blow to the theory of evolution: only the Lord God could definitely have created such an unusual creature in every sense.

The nose of this amazing animal surprisingly strongly resembled the beak of a duck (hence the name), and on each foot it had five toes connected by webbed toes. The creature's paws, like those of a reptile, were located on the sides, and spurs were found on the hind legs, like those of a rooster.

The tail of the animal was not much different from the tail of a beaver, and it also turned out that it carried eggs and was capable of poisoning an enemy with its own poison! And this is far from full list amazing features an animal that is the unofficial symbol of the Australian continent and is depicted on the twenty-cent coin.

These amazing animals are waterfowl mammals, the only representatives of the platypus family that belong to the order Monotremes. This order is noteworthy in that it includes the echidna, platypus and echidna, and the main feature of its representatives is that the urogenital sinus and intestines of animals do not exit through separate passages, but flow into the cloaca.

The platypus lives in eastern Australia, on Kangaroo Island and in Tasmania, which is 240 km from the Australian coast towards Antarctica. Prefers to live in fresh water, whose temperatures range from 25 to 29.9°C.

Previously, this animal could be found throughout the continent, but many of them were exterminated by poachers, and the remaining animals due to too much pollution environment moved to more environmentally friendly regions.

Description

The body of the platypus is tightly knit, short-legged, covered with thick, pleasant to the touch, dark brown hair, which acquires a grayish or reddish tint on the belly. Its head is round in shape, its eyes, as well as its nasal and ear openings are located in recesses, the edges of which meet tightly when the platypus dives.

The animal itself is small:

• Body length is from 30 to 40 cm (males are a third larger than females);
• Tail length – 15 cm;
• Weight – about 2 kg.

The animal's legs are located on the sides, which is why its gait is extremely reminiscent of the movement of reptiles on land. The animal’s paws have five toes, which are ideally suited not only for swimming, but also for digging: the swimming membrane connecting them is interesting because, if necessary, it can bend so much that the animal’s claws will be on the outside, turning a swimming limb into a digging limb.

Since the membranes on the animal’s hind legs are less developed, when swimming it actively uses its front legs, while it uses its hind legs as a rudder, with the tail acting as a balance.

The tail is slightly flat and covered with hair. Interestingly, it can be used to very easily determine the age of the platypus: the older it is, the less fur it has. The animal’s tail is also notable for the fact that it is in it, and not under the skin, that fat reserves are stored.

Beak

The most remarkable thing in the appearance of the animal will, perhaps, be its beak, which looks so unusual that it seems that it was once torn off from a duck, repainted black and attached to its fluffy head.

The beak of the platypus differs from the beak of birds: it is soft and flexible. At the same time, like a duck, it is flat and wide: with a length of 65 mm, its width is 50 mm. One more interesting feature The beak is that it is covered with elastic skin, which contains a huge number of nerve endings. Thanks to them, the platypus, while on land, has an excellent sense of smell, and is also the only mammal that senses weak electric fields, which appear during muscle contraction of even the smallest animals, such as crayfish.

Such electrolocation abilities enable the blind and deaf to aquatic environment The animal detects prey: to do this, while under water, it constantly turns its head in different directions.

An interesting fact is that the platypus is poisonous (besides it, among mammals, only slow lorises, shrews and shrews have such abilities): the animal has toxic saliva, and males also have poisonous horny spurs. At first, all young animals have them, but in females they disappear at the age of one, while in males they grow further and reach one and a half centimeters.

Each spur, through a special duct, connects to a gland located on the thigh, which, during the breeding season, begins to produce poison of such strength that it is quite capable of killing a dingo or any other medium-sized animal (the animals use it mainly to fight other males). The poison is not fatal to humans, however, the injection is extremely painful, and a large tumor appears in its place. The swelling goes away after some time, but the pain may well be felt for several months.

Way of life and nutrition

Platypuses live near swamps, near rivers and lakes, in warm tropical lagoons, and even despite all their love for warm water, can live in cold high mountain streams. This adaptability is explained by the fact that the animals have an extremely low metabolism, and their body temperature is only 32°C. The platypus knows how to regulate it very well, and therefore, even while in water, the temperature of which is 5°C, thanks to the acceleration of metabolism several times, the animal can easily maintain the desired body temperature for several hours.

The platypus lives in a deep hole about ten meters long, in which there are two entrances: one is under water, the other is disguised by thickets or located under the roots of trees.

Interestingly, the entrance tunnel is so narrow that when the platypus passes it to get into the inner chamber, the water is squeezed out of the host's coat.

The animal goes hunting at night and spends almost all its time in water: for its full existence, the weight of food eaten per day must be at least a quarter of the animal’s weight. The platypus feeds on insects, crustaceans, frogs, worms, snails, small fish and even algae.

It searches for prey not only in water, but also on land, methodically turning over stones with its beak or claws in search of small animals. As for underwater hunting, it is not easy for the prey to escape from the animal: having found the prey, it instantly takes off, and it usually takes him only a few seconds to grab it.

Having caught food, it does not eat it immediately, but stores it in special cheek pouches. Having collected the required amount of food, the platypus swims to the surface and, without going ashore, grinds it with horny plates, which it uses instead of teeth (only young animals have teeth, but they are so fragile that they wear out very quickly).

Reproduction and offspring Exactly how long do platypuses live in wildlife

, it is not known exactly, but in captivity their life expectancy is about ten years. Therefore, the ability to reproduce offspring in platypuses appears already at the age of two years, and the mating season always begins in the spring.

Interesting fact: before the start of the mating season, platypuses always hibernate for no more than ten days. If before the start of the breeding season males do not contact females, during the mating season a considerable number of contenders gather near her, and the males fight fiercely with each other, using poisonous spurs. Despite fierce fights, platypuses do not form permanent pairs: the male immediately after mating goes in search of other females. The female does not lay eggs in her hole, but deliberately digs a new hole, which is not only longer than her home, but also has a specially designated place for the nest, which expectant mother

The female usually lays two eggs fourteen days after mating. These eggs are off-white in color, and their diameter is about 11 mm (interestingly, almost immediately the eggs stick together with the help of a special sticky substance covering them).

The incubation period lasts about ten days, during which time the mother almost never leaves the hole and lies curled up around the eggs.

The baby is released from the egg using a special egg tooth, which falls off as soon as the baby makes its way through. Small platypuses are born blind, without hair, about 2.5 cm long. The mother, lying on her back, immediately places her newborn babies on her stomach.

The animals do not have nipples at all: the female feeds the babies with milk, which comes out through the pores located on the stomach.

Milk, flowing down the mother's fur, accumulates in special grooves, from where small platypuses lick it. The female leaves her cubs only to get food for herself. Leaving the hole, it clogs the entrance hole with earth.

The babies' eyes open quite late - at the end of the third month of life, and at seventeen weeks they begin to leave the hole and learn to hunt, while feeding with mother's milk ends.

Relationships with people While in nature this animal has few enemies (sometimes it is attacked by a python, a crocodile, predatory bird

, monitor lizard, fox or accidentally swam seal), at the beginning of the last century it was on the verge of extinction. The hundred-year hunt did its job and destroyed almost everyone: products made from platypus fur turned out to be so popular that poachers had no mercy (about 65 skins are needed to sew one fur coat).

The situation turned out to be so critical that already at the beginning of the last century, hunting for platypuses was completely prohibited. The measures were successful: now the population is quite stable and is not in danger, and the animals themselves, being indigenous to Australia and refusing to breed on other continents, are considered a symbol of the continent and are even depicted on one of the coins. This is a very rare animal, which is a representative of the unusual Australian fauna. Refers to oviparous mammals

, Latin name Ornithorhynchus anatinus.

Externally, the platypus somewhat resembles a beaver, especially its large tail. But what makes it strikingly different from all other animals is the presence of an unusual soft beak, which is covered with elastic skin. It was thanks to him that it got its name. Its five-toed paws are good for both swimming and digging. In the process of swimming, platypuses use mainly their front paws, which have characteristic membranes.

The platypus is active at night and spends a lot of time in the water. For habitat it chooses places on the banks of small rivers and lakes in the eastern part of Australia. Mating season falls on August-November. Interestingly, on the eve of this period, platypuses fall into a short hibernation, which lasts from 5 to 10 days. Mating, which is preceded by a lengthy courtship ritual, takes place in water. Male platypuses are polygamous.

It has been established that in captivity, platypuses can live on average 10 years. But what their life expectancy is under natural conditions is not yet known to science. In the past, these unusual animals were the object of interest of hunters who were attracted by the valuable and unique fur of these animals. However, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Australian government issued a decree that banned hunting them.

The platypus is a duck-billed mammal.

And although at the moment these unique animals are not in danger of extinction, environmental pollution and the development of previously sparsely populated areas of Australia cannot but have an impact Negative influence on the platypus population. Unfortunately, their number is gradually decreasing.

The platypus is an Australian animal.

To prevent this process, special reserves were created in Australia, in which everything was created for the safe residence of platypuses. The most famous of them are West Burley and Hillsville.

Another remarkable feature of these animals is that the males have poisonous spurs on their hind legs. They contain poison that can cause severe pain in humans, and can even kill medium-sized animals, such as dogs. The platypus is a mammal whose main characteristic is the presence of mammary glands. But platypuses differ from ordinary mammals in that they do not have nipples, but instead there are glandular areas of skin, through the pores of which milk is secreted, which they feed their young. Moreover, platypus milk contains a large number of fat, proteins and carbohydrates.

Usually the female lays two to three leathery eggs with a large yolk and a soft shell. The place of laying becomes a deep hole. The baby platypuses hatch after 10 days. They feed, as mentioned above, on milk, which is secreted by the modified sweat glands of the female. Due to the absence of nipples, milk simply flows down the animal’s fur, and babies lick it off. Another unique property platypus is the presence of 10 sex chromosomes, although all other animals and humans have only two. Probably everyone knows that a person’s sex depends on the combination of chromosomes X and Y. When combining XX, a girl is born, XY - a boy. Sex is determined in a similar way in birds, but their chromosomes are called Z and W. But platypuses have a much more complex combination: in males the combination of chromosomes looks like XYXYXYXYXY, and in females it looks like XXXXXXXXXXX. This is a unique phenomenon in the entire animal world.

Platypus– lat. Ornithorhynchus anatius, the only member of the platypus family, belongs to the class Mammals.

The structure of platypuses

The front face of the platypus is presented in the form of a horny covering, slightly reminiscent of a duck's beak, hence the name - platypus.

Another feature of the platypus is its flattened tail, which is similar to the tail of a river beaver, but unlike the beaver, it has thick and beautiful hair. The body of the platypus is also covered with hair and is mainly dark brown in color.

Between the toes, the platypus is “equipped” with well-developed swimming membranes, which is why the platypus swims so well and feels great in the water.

The platypus has no teeth; instead, there are horny plates located on the sides of the jaws.

The platypus is an amazing animal, the structure of which has many features reminiscent of reptiles. For example, the temperature of the platypus, like that of reptiles, is very low - about 27 degrees. They also have a cloaca, into which there is an opening from the intestinal tract.

Habitat and nutrition of platypuses

The platypus lives in shallow and small burrows near rivers, lakes and other various bodies of water. Minks are pulled out off the coast, almost near the water.

The platypus obtains food by rummaging in the mud, digging out various worms (sandworms) and their larvae, mollusks, etc. It also feeds on small aquatic and terrestrial insects.

Reproduction of platypuses

Another feature that reminds the platypus of reptiles is the absence of a uterus. Platypuses hatch their offspring using eggs the size of a hazelnut, covered with a soft, leathery shell. Eggs are laid and incubated in nests, much like birds do, while reptiles lay their eggs in warm, cozy places. Next comes another feature that resembles a platypus, like a mammal, an animal to which, in principle, it belongs. The peculiarity is that the hatched cubs, like all mammalian cubs, are fed with mother's milk. But again, there are no nipples on the body of platypuses; as a result, the mammary glands are located on the stomach in special pits or depressions in the skin. The cubs simply lick the milk from the belly.

All this says only one thing, Platypuses are amazing animals!!!

On this moment Platypuses are listed in the Red Book. Platypuses are the last representatives of the descendants of the most ancient lower mammals and are on the verge of extinction.

Class – mammals (mammalia)

Order – oviparous (monotremata)

Family – platypus (ornithorhynchidae)

Genus – platypuses (ornithorhynchus)

Species – platypus (ornithorhynchus anatinus)

The platypus is the only representative of the family.

Habitat

This unusual and very interesting animal lives in Eastern Australia and on the island of Tasmania. It prefers to settle in rivers and lakes, digs long narrow burrows up to 10 meters with two entrances. One entrance is underwater, the second is securely hidden in the thickets of bushes, or in the roots of trees on land.

Appearance

It has a squat body, up to 50 cm long, weighing up to 2 kg, short paws with membranes and sharp claws. Females are much smaller than males. On the front paws, the membrane bends, and the claws are freed for digging the ground. There are spurs on the hind legs (the length of one spur is 15 mm), which, if necessary, secrete poison from the femoral gland.

Only males have such formidable weapons; females do not have spurs. Each paw has five toes. The tail is thickened, flattened and covered with sparse hair. Oddly enough, it stores fat reserves in its tail, which is 10-15 cm long.

The animal's head is round with an elongated front part, which ends in a beak (its length is 65 mm and its width is 50 mm). The soft beak is covered with elastic black skin, which covers two thin arched bones. There are cheek pouches in the mouth where food is stored in reserve. Instead of teeth, they have horny plates in their mouths.

The animal's fur is dense and dense, usually brown or dark brown in color. The belly is yellow or gray. The animal's undercoat retains thermal insulation, and upper layer fur coats, protects from getting wet. The ears and eyes are located on the sides of the head, and there are a pair of nostrils on the top of the beak. There are no external ears; they are hidden inside in the grooves of the head.

When diving into water, the eyes, ears and nostrils close. When hunting, he uses his sixth sense. The fact is that there are nerve endings on the beak that capture the electric field of small river inhabitants.

Nutrition

Favorite food is insect larvae, worms, crustaceans and molluscs. With its beak it examines the bottom, lifting up silt and river inhabitants, and only then deftly catches them. Having hidden more food in his cheeks, he emerges and calmly eats the food, grinding it with his horny teeth. The secretive and cautious platypus leads a semi-aquatic and solitary lifestyle. Each animal has its own territory. He spends 10 to 12 hours a day in water, and eats almost as much food as he weighs.

Lifestyle

It is active mainly at night, sometimes appearing at dusk. He excellent swimmer and a skilled diver. It swims by paddling with its front paws, steers with its hind paws, and its tail acts as a stabilizer. Can stay under water for up to 5 minutes.

Reproduction

The breeding season occurs at the end of July, beginning of September. This depends on the location of the individual. In the struggle for territory and for a female, males often fight. But after a short courtship and mating, the male leaves the young lady alone and does not take any further part in the life of the offspring.

The female begins to prepare a hole for nursing the cubs. She digs a new hole with her front paws, up to 20 meters long, which ends in a nesting chamber. She makes the nest itself out of soft grass and stems. She seals the entrance with an earthen plug so that no one will disturb it.

After mating, after two weeks the female will lay 1 – 3 eggs. It incubates them, curled up around them, for 10–12 days. Naked and blind cubs are born, 2.5 cm long. The mother lies on her back and helps the babies climb onto their stomachs so that they can eat milk. Milk emerges through the pores on the belly and flows out in streams, and the cubs lick it off. In a few days, you can go out and mom can have some food, because all this time she was in “seclusion.”

When leaving the hole, she will also carefully close the entrance with earth from predators. The female will be away for a short time; her children need careful care. The babies' eyes will open after 11 weeks and they will become covered with fur. Mothers will feed on milk for up to four months. They will make their first exit from the burrow at the age of 17 weeks and try to dive into the water. And soon they will be able to lead an independent life.