Platypus

• It is one of the few venomous mammals: males carry venomous spurs.
• It detects its prey by electroreception.
• It has no stomach: food passes straight to the intestine.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (monotreme mammal, egg-laying)

Habitat and environment

Rivers, pools and streams of the wetter parts of eastern Australia and Tasmania

Birth weight

Tiny and undeveloped when the egg hatches, putting on as much as 20 times its weight in its first 14 weeks

Size at birth

Tiny and undeveloped at hatching

Sexual maturity

~2 years (though many females do not breed until 4)

Gestation / incubation

~21-27 days of gestation followed by 10-11 days of egg incubation

Litter / clutch size

1 to 3 eggs per clutch (most commonly 2)

Life expectancy in captivity

Documented record of up to 22.6-30 years

Sources consulted: Australian Platypus Conservancy; AnAge (genomics.senescence.info); Animal Diversity Web; Britannica; EBSCO Research Starters; PBS Nature (Platypus Fact Sheet); SDZWA Fact Sheet (Platypus); Woinarski y Burbidge 2016, IUCN Red List: pasó de Preocupación menor a Casi amenazado por declives y extinciones locales observados; se proyecta una reducción de en torno al 30 % en tres generaciones (unos 21 años) || IUCN Red List, evaluación de Ornithorhynchus anatinus (2016); Bino et al. 2019, Biological Conservation || Bino et al. 2019, Biological Conservation; IUCN Red List

Best time: At dawn and dusk all year round, in the rivers and streams of eastern Australia and Tasmania; those hours of half-light are when it comes out to feed

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.