Platypus origin. Platypus - what kind of special animal is it? Duck-billed Animal Protection

Bulldozer - Apr 23rd, 2015

The platypus is an amazing animal, as if assembled from spare parts of different animals. The platypus is a mammal - it feeds its offspring with milk, although it does not have nipples, and milk is secreted directly through the pores in the skin. But they do not bear offspring like mammals, but lay eggs like birds or reptiles.

There is a parable that after God created man and all representatives of the animal world, he was left with extra details. He didn't know what to do with them and blinded them to quick hand cute platypus: duck nose, beaver tail, rooster spurs on the hind legs (poisonous channels in the spurs), no ears - only auditory openings, webbed feet, small eyes, very thick short hair. Males use spurs for self-defense and during mating games. The poison of a platypus can even kill a dingo. Platypus venom does not kill people, but it causes terrible pain and severe swelling.

Photo: platypus in water and on land.
The platypus is not a large animal - 50 centimeters in length, weight - from one to two and a half kilograms. Swims well, digs the ground, leads night look life. It feeds on worms, snails and larvae, which it catches in water bodies. He eats a lot. Consumes 20% of its weight in food per day. Does not tolerate captivity well.

The platypus lives in Australia and is one of its symbols. He is even featured on the 20 Australian cent coin.
Europeans first discovered the platypus at the very end of the eighteenth century. Then he was brought to England. Scientists did not want to believe their eyes, this small animal seemed so strange. The platypus does not fit into evolutionary theory. This animal has this strange structure and physiological properties that it is not possible to explain their appearance by natural selection.

Video: Platypus.

Video: Platypus. The strangest animal in the world

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 the swimming limb into a digging limb.

Since the membranes on the hind legs of the animal are less developed, during swimming it actively uses the front legs, while using the hind legs as a rudder, while the tail acts 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 makes crafts from leaves and stems.

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

Whereas in nature this animal has few enemies (sometimes it is attacked by a python, a crocodile, bird of prey, 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.

Platypus – animal, which is the symbol Australia, there is even a coin with his image on it. And it’s not in vain.

This amazing animal has characteristics of birds, reptiles and mammals. Like birds, it lays eggs; it walks like a reptile, that is, its legs are located on the sides of its body, but at the same time, the platypus feeds its children with milk.

Scientists for a long time could not determine which class to classify this interesting representative fauna. But, since the cubs are fed milk, they nevertheless decided that platypus - mammal.

The platypus itself is no longer than 40 cm, and even the tail (up to 15 cm), weight does not exceed 2 kg. At the same time, females are much smaller. The body and tail are covered with thick but soft fur, although with age, the fur on the tail becomes much thinner.

Of course, the most notable thing about the animal is its nose. This is, rather, not a nose, but a beak, although it is very different from a bird’s beak.

The beak of the platypus has a very interesting structure - it is not a hard organ, but some kind of two arched bones covered with skin. Young males even have teeth, but over time they wear out.

Nature has seriously prepared this animal for swimming. The platypus has ears, but no auricles.

The eyes and ears are located in some depressions and when the platypus is in the water, these depressions close, and the nostrils also close with valves. It turns out that the animal cannot use its eyes, nose, or ears in water.

But all the skin on the animal’s beak is so generously covered with nerve endings that the platypus not only perfectly navigates the aquatic environment, but also uses electrolocation.

With its leathery beak, the platypus captures even the weakest electrical radiation, which appears, for example, when muscles contract. Therefore, if you watch a platypus in the water, you can see how the animal constantly turns its head - it is trying to catch radiation in order to detect prey.

The paws are also interestingly designed animal platypus. This is a combined “device” for swimming and digging. It would seem that the incompatible has been united, but no, the animal miraculously helps itself in swimming with its paws, because it has a membrane between its toes, but when the platypus needs to dig, the membrane folds in a special way so that the claws protrude forward.

The platypus' webbed feet are convenient not only for swimming, but also for digging.

It should be said that when swimming, the hind legs serve only as a rudder, while the swimmer operates mainly with the forelimbs. And one more interesting feature paws - they are located on the sides of the body, and not under it. The paws of reptiles are located in the same way. This placement of paws provides the platypus with a special gait.

However, this is not the entire list of amazing features of the platypus. This is an animal that can independently set its own body temperature. The normal state of the animal's body is at a temperature of 32 degrees.

But, hunting for a long time under water, where the temperature can drop to 5 degrees, this cunning creature miraculously adapts to the surrounding temperature, regulating its own. However, don't think of platypuses as harmless cuties. This is one of the few animals that is poisonous.

Platypuses can regulate their body temperature

On the hind legs of males there are spurs, where the poison enters. With such poisonous spurs, a male can kill, for example, a dingo. For humans, the venom of the platypus is not fatal, but pain is guaranteed when meeting the spurs. In addition, swelling forms, which can last for more than one month.

The platypus lives in the waters of Eastern Australia, but in Southern Australia it is already difficult to find it, because the waters of that area are too polluted, and the platypus cannot be in dirty waters and in salt water. Apart from Australia, this extraordinary animal is not common anywhere else.

Character and lifestyle of the platypus

Rarely, what animal spends as much time in water as platypus. The animal swims and dives underwater for a good half of the day; it is an excellent swimmer. True, during the day the platypus prefers to rest in a hole, which he digs for himself on the bank of some calm river.

By the way, this animal can easily sleep for ten days and go into hibernation. This happens before mating season, the platypus is just gaining more strength.

After nap When dusk comes, the platypus goes hunting. He has to work hard to feed himself, because he eats so much food per day, which in weight is equal to a quarter of the weight of the platypus itself.

Animals prefer to live alone. Even when breeding offspring, platypuses do not form pairs; the female takes all care of the offspring. The male is limited to only short courtship, which consists of grabbing the female by the tail.

The female, by the way, uses her tail full program. This is her object for attracting males, and her rudder when swimming, and a place for storing fat, and a weapon of self-defense, and a kind of shovel with which she rake the grass into her hole, and a beautiful door, because it is with her tail that she closes the entrance to the lair, when he retires for 2 weeks to breed his offspring.

With such a “door” she is not afraid of any enemies. The platypus has only a few of them, but they do occur. This is both, and, and even sea fish, which can easily make a dinner out of this amazing animal.

This amazing animal is very careful, so get photo of platypus– great luck even for a professional.

Previously, the platypus population was exterminated because of the animal’s beautiful fur.

Platypus feeding

The platypuses themselves prefer a menu of small animals that live in the water. Excellent food for this animal are the larvae of various insects and all kinds of crustaceans. If tadpoles or fry come across, the platypus will not refuse, and when the hunt doesn’t work out at all, aquatic vegetation will also be suitable for food.

And yet, it rarely reaches vegetation. The platypus is not only capable of catching deftly, but it can also miraculously obtain its food. In order to get to the next worm, the platypus deftly scrapes away the mud with its claws and turns over stones with its nose.

However, the animal is in no hurry to swallow food. First, he stuffs his cheek pouches, and only then, rising to the surface and lying on the surface of the water, he begins his meal and grinds everything he has obtained.

Reproduction and lifespan

After mating, a month later, the female begins to dig a deep hole, lines it with soft grass, and lays eggs, of which there are very few, 2 or less often 3. The eggs are glued together, and the female lays on them in a ball, so that in about two weeks the babies will appear.

These are very tiny lumps, only 2 cm in size. Like many animals, they are born blind, but with teeth. Their teeth disappear immediately after milk feeding.

Baby platypus hatching from eggs

The eyes begin to open only after 11 weeks. But even when their eyes open, the platypuses are in no hurry to leave their parents’ shelter; they stay there for up to 4 months, and all this time the mother feeds them with her milk. The female feeds her cubs in an unusual way as well.

The platypus' milk rolls into special grooves, from where babies lick it off. After the birth of the offspring, the female places the cubs on her stomach, and there the animals find their food.

Climbing out of the hole to feed, the female platypus is able to eat as much as she weighs during this period. But she cannot leave for long, the babies are still too small and could freeze without their mother. Platypuses become sexually mature only after one year. And their total lifespan is only 10 years.

Due to the fact that the number of platypuses was declining, they decided to breed them in zoos, where platypuses were very reluctant to breed. This special animal is in no hurry to become friends with humans until they cannot be tamed.

Although exotic hunters are ready buy a platypus, overpaying a lot of money for it. Platypus price, perhaps someone can afford it, but future owners probably don’t ask themselves whether a wild animal can survive in captivity.

The platypus is an amazing animal that lives only in Australia, on the island of Tasmania. This strange miracle belongs to mammals, but, unlike other animals, it lays eggs like an ordinary bird. Platypuses belong to oviparous mammals - rare species animals that survive only on the Australian continent.

History of discovery

Strange creatures can boast unusual story their discoveries. The first description of the platypus was given by Australian pioneers in the early 18th century. For a long time science did not recognize the existence of platypuses and considered the mention of them an inept joke by Australian residents. Finally, at the end of the 18th century, scientists at a British university received a parcel from Australia containing the fur of an unknown animal, similar to a beaver, with paws like an otter, and a nose like an ordinary domestic duck. Such a beak looked so ridiculous that scientists even shaved the hair on the face, believing that Australian jokers had sewn a duck nose to the skin of a beaver. Finding no seams or traces of glue, the pundits simply shrugged their shoulders. No one could understand where the platypus lived or how it reproduced. Only a few years later, in 1799, the British naturalist J. Shaw proved the existence of this miracle and brought the first detailed description a creature that was later given the name "platypus". Photos of the bird beast can only be taken in Australia, because this is the only continent on which these exotic animals currently live.

Origin

The appearance of platypuses dates back to those distant times when modern continents did not exist. All land was united into one huge continent - Gondwana. It was then, 110 million years ago, that platypuses appeared in terrestrial ecosystems, taking the place of recently extinct dinosaurs. Migrating, platypuses settled throughout the continent, and after the collapse of Gondwana, they remained to live on a large area of ​​the ex-continent, which was later named Australia. Due to the isolated location of their homeland, the animals have retained their original appearance even after millions of years. Various types Platypuses once inhabited the vast expanses of the entire land, but only one species of these animals has survived to this day.

Classification

For a quarter of a century, the leading minds of Europe puzzled over how to classify the overseas beast. Particularly difficult was the fact that the creature had a lot of characteristics that are found in birds, animals, and amphibians.

The platypus stores all its fat reserves in the tail, and not under the fur on the body. Therefore, the tail of the animal is solid, heavy, and is capable of not only stabilizing the movement of the platypus in the water, but also serves as an excellent means of defense. The weight of the animal fluctuates around one and a half to two kilograms with a length of half a meter. Compare with a domestic cat, which, with the same dimensions, weighs much more. Animals do not have nipples, although they produce milk. The temperature of the bird beast is low, barely reaching 32 degrees Celsius. This is much lower than that of mammals. Among other things, platypuses have one more literally amazing feature. These animals can inflict poison, which makes them quite dangerous opponents. Like almost all reptiles, the platypus lays eggs. What makes platypuses similar to snakes and lizards is their ability to produce poison and the arrangement of their limbs, like those of amphibians. The gait of the platypus is amazing. It moves by bending its body like a reptile. After all, its paws do not grow from below the body, like those of birds or animals. The limbs of this either a bird or an animal are located on the sides of the body, like those of lizards, crocodiles or monitor lizards. High on the animal's head are the eyes and ear openings. They can be found in depressions located on each side of the head. There are no auricles; when diving, it covers its eyes and ears with a special fold of skin.

Mating games

Every year, platypuses hibernate, which lasts 5-10 short periods. winter days. After this comes the mating period. Scientists have recently discovered how the platypus reproduces. It turns out, like all the main events in the life of these animals, the courtship process takes place in water. The male bites the tail of the female he likes, after which the animals circle each other in the water for some time. They do not have permanent pairs; platypus children remain only with the female, who herself raises and raises them.

Waiting for the Cubs

A month after mating, the platypus digs a long, deep hole, filling it with armfuls of wet leaves and brushwood. The female carries everything she needs, wrapping her paws around her and tucking her flat tail under. When the shelter is ready, expectant mother fits into the nest, and covers the entrance to the hole with earth. The platypus lays its eggs in this nesting chamber. The clutch usually contains two, rarely three, small whitish eggs, which are glued together with a sticky substance. The female incubates the eggs for 10-14 days. The animal spends this time curled up in a ball on the masonry, hidden by wet leaves. At the same time, the female platypus can occasionally leave the hole in order to have a snack, clean itself and wet its fur.

Birth of platypuses

After two weeks of residence, a small platypus appears in the clutch. The baby breaks the eggs with an egg tooth. Once the baby comes out of the shell, this tooth falls off. After birth, the female platypus moves the young onto her abdomen. The platypus is a mammal, so the female feeds its young with milk. Platypuses do not have nipples; milk from the enlarged pores on the mother’s belly flows down the fur into special grooves, from where the young lick it off. The mother occasionally goes outside to hunt and clean herself, while the entrance to the hole is blocked with earth.
Up to eight weeks, the cubs need the warmth of their mother and can freeze if left unattended for a long time.

At the eleventh week, the eyes of small platypuses open; after four months, the babies grow to 33 cm in length, grow hair and completely switch to adult food. A little later they leave the hole and begin to lead an adult lifestyle. At the age of one year, the platypus becomes a sexually mature adult.

Platypuses in history

Before the first European settlers appeared on the shores of Australia, platypuses had virtually no external enemies. But amazing and valuable fur made them an object of trade for white people. The skins of platypuses, black-brown on the outside and gray on the inside, were at one time used to make fur coats and hats for European fashionistas. And the local residents did not hesitate to shoot the platypus for their own needs. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the decline in the number of these animals acquired alarming proportions. Naturalists sounded the alarm, and the platypus joined the ranks. Australia began to create special reserves for amazing animals. The animals were taken under state protection. The problem was complicated by the fact that the places where the platypus lives must be protected from human presence, since this animal is shy and sensitive. In addition, the massive spread of rabbits on this continent deprived platypuses of their usual nesting places - their holes were occupied by long-eared aliens. Therefore, the government had to allocate huge areas, fenced off from outside interference, in order to preserve and increase the platypus population. Such reserves played a decisive role in preserving the numbers of these animals.

Platypuses in captivity

Attempts have been made to introduce this animal into zoos. In 1922, the first platypus arrived at the New York Zoo and lived in captivity for only 49 days. Due to their desire for silence and increased timidity, the animals never mastered zoos; in captivity, the platypus lays eggs reluctantly, and only a few offspring were obtained. There are no recorded cases of human domestication of these exotic animals. Platypuses were and remain wild and distinctive Australian aborigines.

Platypuses today

Now platypuses are not considered. Tourists enjoy visiting places where the platypus lives. Travelers willingly publish photos of this animal in their stories about Australian tours. Images of bird animals serve hallmark many Australian products and manufacturers. Along with the kangaroo, the platypus has become a symbol of the Australian continent.