The unexpected truth about platypus

Platypus is an endemic aquatic mammal in eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Along with four species of porcupine mammals, it is one of five surviving monogamous animals, the only mammals that lay eggs in lieu of babies.

This animal does not seem real and its biological characteristics seem to be contrary to scientific knowledge. Their scientific name is Ornithorhynchus anatinus, which has a synthetic shape of many animals of different species: snout like a duck, tail like a beaver, laying eggs and moving like a reptile but feeding milk. like animal class.

Scientists still don't know much about the origin of this strange animal. But many different fossils show that their ancestors had a similar shape to their ancestors now, maybe in the early days they tried to leave life in the country but because they could not adapt to it all. both are difficult on land, so they returned to the water environment to feed.

The platypus also cries.

The tail of a short platypus, which functions to store fat for winter use, but they do not hibernate, they also use the tail to drive underwater. The legs are short but strong, the legs have swimming membranes suitable for diving; when on land, the foot membrane folds to be able to use the toenails for digging. The soft muzzle is very sensitive, there are many neurons on it. The platypus also cries. The length of the body is about 61cm, the female is about 46cm. They have long, flat bodies, covered in brown, short, smooth hair. Their fur is waterproof, allowing them to adapt to underwater conditions for 12 hours a day at temperatures near 0 degrees Celsius.

Platypus can dive underwater for about 1 minute. When underwater, they closed their eyes, not only that their nose and ears were sealed, no holes were allowed to enter the water. In the sense of "senses", platypus can still feed and swim well under water. While looking for food, they use two types of senses on the muzzle: one is by touching objects, the other is by electrical stimulation. They can detect the direction of small currents arising from the body activity of small prey, in addition to detecting weak currents emitted when water flows through immobilized objects.

When on land platypus, the eyes are used to look and the eyes are very fine, can look far away. But they have a weakness, because the location of the eyes is hidden so they cannot see what is beneath the muzzle.

They mainly work at night, and they are most often seen at dawn and dusk. They feed on small animals in the water they find in the mud layer at the bottom of the river and lake. They eat a variety of foods including invertebrates, small fish, fish eggs, frogs, clones and tadpoles. In just one day, they can eat as much food as half of their body weight.

The platypus has no teeth, instead of chewing and crushing food with horns in the mine , it is possible to crush food with sand and grit. When few primers are caught, they transfer food to the cheeks, under the muzzle. When rising to the surface, the platypus brings food to the mouth, where the food is crushed by the "crushing plate" in the mine.

This strange animal likes to live near the water, often digging burrows at the river or lake.

Males are poisonous on the hind feet, used against enemies and against other platypuses competing with it. The spine is about 1.5cm long on the fish's eye that is connected to the poison gland located in the thigh. The poison is not lethal but will be painful and strong enough to kill a dog.Common platypus are very shy, but during the breeding season the males are very aggressive and often use sharp spikes with poison. Young children also have "milk" but will lose in the first year.

This strange animal likes to live near the water, often digging burrows at the river or lake. They make two types of cave: cave to live and cave to lay eggs, hatched children. The cave always has a terrestrial escape and an underwater escape. However, their cave has an oxygen problem because they stay in the cave for a long time, so the amount of oxygen in it can be used. During the breeding season, children have a habit of covering the door every time they leave the cave or whenever they enter the cave. The baby stays in the cave for a period of about 3 months and consumes a large amount of oxygen. The platypus body has to regulate itself in the body so that it can use oxygen only in that limit.

Females lay 2-3 eggs between August and October. Eggs are laid inside the cave up to 20m deep. The female incubates eggs for 12-14 days with the abdomen and tail on the nest lined with grass and leaves. After two weeks the eggs hatch, when the eggs hatch the young are only about 1.25cm long.

The mother has no nipple, the milk is made from large glands in the skin. Milk comes from two places that have a nipple-like structure. The baby pressed on those places to let milk flow down their mother's belly hair to lick and suck the milk out. It is high in iron, 60 times more iron than iron in cow's milk.

Young children drink breastmilk 4-5 months and remain in the cave, they begin to leave the nest and swim when they are about 17 weeks old.

Life of platypus is 10-17 years.

In the cold winter, platypus still swim looking for food. They were forced to adapt to the cold to get into the water to feed. The lower the temperature outside, the more they have to heat up to maintain their body temperature. In order to do so, they have to eat a lot, but the difficult thing is that in cold weather, food becomes scarce. Normally, they spend half a day looking for food. In the summer they eat more to store fat.

In nature, foxes, wild birds and crocodiles often catch platypuses as food, especially young ones. Previously, people also hunted platypus to get their skin, but now they are protected by the laws of the countries because the number of these strange animals is still decreasing.

Their lifespans range from 10-17 years, often living in freshwater lakes, distributed in eastern Australia. Platypus is considered one of Australia's natural treasures.