GENERAL ANIMAL INFORMATION
About the Platypus

Description:
The platypus has a broad flexible smooth bill with no teeth but has bony grinding plates for chewing. Its streamlined body is covered in soft, dense brown fur, lighter coloured underneath and a broad flat tail covered in coarse hair. The small eyes and ears (simple openings in the skull) are positioned on either side of the head. The limbs are short, clawed and webbed with a venomous fighting spur on the rear ankles of the male. The forefeet are mainly used for swimming and the web retracted for digging.

Adult Size:
Overall length 400 - 550mm, weight 800 - 2200gms

Reproduction:
Monotreme, egg laying mammal, 1 - 3 eggs per season, 12 - 14 days gestation, 10 - 12 days incubation in a burrow nest and approximately 25mm long when hatched. The female continues sole care nursing to approximately 4 months old.

Breeding Season:
August to October.

Habits:
Found in freshwater lakes, streams and rivers, forages for food of aquatic vertebrates and invertebrates at dawn and dusk. Very timid, discrete and usually solitary. Lives in river bank burrow systems and spends most time swimming submerged.