The platypus is an amazing animal that lives only in Australia, on the island of Tasmania. An outlandish miracle belongs to mammals, but, unlike other animals, it lays eggs, like an ordinary bird. Platypuses are oviparous mammals - a rare species of animals that have survived only on the Australian continent.
Discovery story
Strange creatures boast an unusual story of their discovery. 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 mentioning them an inept joke of Australian residents. Finally, at the end of the 18th century, scientists at a British university received a parcel from Australia with fur from an unknown beast that looked like a beaver, with legs 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 the Australian jokers sewn a duck nose to the beaver's skin. Finding no seams or traces of glue, the pundits just shrugged. No one could understand where he lives, or how the platypus breeds. Only a few years later, in 1799, the British naturalist J. Shaw proved the existence of this miracle and gave the first detailed description of the creature, which was later given the name "platypus". A photo of the beast of animals 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 the recently extinct dinosaurs. Migrating, the platypuses settled throughout the mainland, and after the collapse of Gondwana, they remained to live on a large stretch of the ex-continent, which was later called Australia. Thanks to the isolated location of their homeland, animals have retained their original appearance even after millions of years. Various types of platypuses at one time inhabited the vast expanses of land, but so far only one species of these animals has survived.
Classification
For a quarter of a century, the leading minds of Europe have puzzled how to classify an overseas beast. Of particular difficulty was the fact that the creature had a lot of signs that are found in birds, and animals, and amphibians.
The platypus saves all fat reserves in the tail, and not under the hair on the body. Therefore, the tail of the beast is solid, heavy, 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 varies in the region of 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 animal is lowered, barely reaches 32 degrees Celsius. This is much lower than the body temperature of birds and mammals. Among other things, the platypus has another striking feature in the literal sense. These animals can infect with poison, which makes them quite dangerous opponents. Like almost all reptiles, the platypus lays its eggs. The platypus is also related to snakes and lizards by the ability to produce poison and the location of limbs, like amphibians. Amazing gait of a platypus. He moves around, bending his body like a reptile. After all, his paws do not grow from the bottom of the body, like birds or animals. The limbs of this is not a bird, not a beast located on the sides of the body, like lizards, crocodiles or monitor lizards. High on the animal’s head are the eyes and ear holes. They can be found in hollows located on each side of the head. Auricles are absent, during diving it closes eyes and ears with a special skin fold.
Despite the fact that the platypus lays its eggs like a bird, moves like a reptile, and dives like a beaver, the scientists recognized milk as the basis for classification, which animals feed their cubs. And then they came to the final conclusion. The platypus is a mammalian, single-pass, ovipositing, lives and breeds only on the Australian continent. In the scientific classification, it was called Ornithorhynchus anatinus. In many years of controversy was put an end.
Habitat
Australia is the only continent on whose shores the platypus lives. Where this animal lives, you can guess if you just look at its flat tail and paws with membranes. The gloomy shores, swamps and swamps of East Australia are a paradise for platypuses. Their entire life cycle is associated with water. Bird live in long burrows located on the banks of rivers. Any platypus dwelling has two exits, one of which is necessarily under water. The hole has a length of several meters and ends with a nesting chamber. Platypuses clog outlets from holes with earth to retain moisture and to protect them from predators.
Lifestyle
Unusual animals feed on small river inhabitants. For hunting, these animals use their wonderful nose. Despite the external similarity, this organ in the animal is arranged differently than a solid bird's beak. The nose of the animal is formed using two bones in the form of an arc. These bones are thin and long, and it is precisely on them that the naked, like rubber, skin of a platypus is stretched. The nose of an animal plows the river bottom in search of food. Forefeet - a universal organ, maximally adapted to the life cycle of the animal. Between the fingers on the forelimbs there are membranes with which the platypus adroitly and quickly moves underwater. The animal will squeeze the fingers - claws protrude outward, with which it is convenient to plow the river soil or dig a hole in the mating season. The hind legs are much weaker than the front. The platypus uses them as a wheel when moving in water. The stabilizer of movement during swimming and diving is a flat tail. The animal is rowing with its front paws, wriggling in the water with its entire body. On land it moves slowly, it can only walk or run for short distances.
Platypus food
The platypus is a serious enough enemy for those animals on which he hunts. Poultry animals are insatiable - on the day they should eat a volume of food equal to a fifth of their own weight. Therefore, animal hunting lasts 10-12 hours a day. First, the beast lies motionless on the water, floating with the flow. But now the prey is discovered, the beast instantly dives and catches the victim. The predator can be under water for only 30 minutes, but thanks to its amazing paws it develops great speed and maneuvers perfectly. The predator keeps his eyes and ears in the water closed, focusing only on his sense of smell in search of food. A platypus appears, where his favorite food lives: insect larvae, worms, various crustaceans, small fish and some types of algae. All the caught platypus hides in his mouth, in cheek pouches. When the bags become full, the platypus goes to the shore of the reservoir or floats to the surface of the water. Resting, the animal grinds caught with its horny jaws, which serve as its teeth.
Hunting methods
When hunting, the platypus focuses on the electric field that all living creatures produce. Electroreceptors are located on the amazing nose of the animal. With the help of them, the animal is perfectly oriented in the water and catches prey. There are cases when, when hunting for platypuses, poachers used traps that generate a weak electric current, and animals took the trap for prey.
Surprisingly, platypuses are rare mammals that can produce poison. This unusual weapon can only boast males. In the mating season, the toxicity of the poison increases. There is poison in the spurs, which are located at the end of the hind legs. The toxicity of the poison is not enough to kill a person, but the painful burn that occurs at the site of the lesion heals only many weeks later. The poison is intended for hunting and protection against predators. Although the platypus has few natural enemies, lizards, pythons and sea leopards may be interested in its meat.
Courtship games
Each year, the platypuses hibernate, which lasts 5-10 short winter days. After this comes the mating period. How the platypus breeds, scientists have discovered relatively recently. 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 female he liked by the tail, after which the animals circulate for some time in the water around each other. They do not have permanent couples, the children of the platypus remain only with the female, who herself is engaged in their cultivation and education.
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 wears everything necessary, covering her paws and twisting her flat tail from below. When the shelter is ready, the expectant mother is laid in a nest, and the entrance to the hole is groundless. In this nesting chamber, the platypus lays eggs. In the clutch there are usually two, less often three small, whitish eggs that are glued together by a sticky substance. The female hatches eggs for 10-14 days. This animal spends this time, curled up in a glomerulus on a masonry hidden by moist leaves. In this case, the female platypus can occasionally come out of the hole in order to eat, clean and moisten the hair.
The birth of platypuses
After two weeks of living in the masonry, a small platypus appears. The egg is punched by the baby tooth. After the calf leaves the shell, this tooth falls away. After birth, the female platypus moves the cubs to their abdomen. The platypus is a mammal, so the female feeds the young with milk. The platypuses do not have nipples, milk from the expanded pores on the mother’s belly flows down the wool into special grooves, from where the cubs lick it. The mother occasionally goes outside to hunt and clean, while the entrance to the hole is clogged with earth.
Up to eight weeks, calves need the warmth of their mother and can freeze if left unattended for a long time.
At the eleventh week, eyes of small platypuses open, after four months the babies grow up to 33 cm in length, grow fur 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 an adult sexually mature individual.
Platypuses in history
Before the appearance of the first European settlers on the shores of Australia, the platypus practically had no external enemies. But the amazing and valuable fur made them the object of fishing for white people. The platypus skins, black-brown outside and gray inside, at one time went on sewing fur coats and hats for European fashionistas. And the locals did not hesitate to shoot the platypus for their needs. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the decline in the number of these animals became rampant. Naturalists sounded the alarm, and the platypus joined the ranks of endangered animals. 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 should be protected from the presence of humans, since this animal is shy and sensitive. In addition, the mass distribution of rabbits on this continent deprived platypuses of their usual nesting places - eared aliens occupied their burrows. Therefore, the government had to allocate huge areas, protected from outside interference, in order to preserve and increase the population of platypuses. Such reserves played a decisive role in maintaining the number of these animals.
Platypus in captivity
Attempts have been made to resettle this animal in zoos. In 1922, the first platypus arrived in New York Zoo, which lived in captivity for only 49 days. Because of their desire for silence and increased timidity, the animals have not mastered zoos, in captivity the platypus lays eggs reluctantly, they managed to get offspring only a few times. There are no recorded cases of human taming of these exotic animals. The platypuses were and have remained wild and distinctive Australian aborigines.
