The summer days are over and I miss wallowing in the creek to cool off, but more so, I miss my platypus friend wallowing in the creek with me. I have to admit my platypus friend was a very busy wallower, while I was just a lazy wallower, but we happily cohabitated in the same slow moving pool.
I was hoping to see the entrance to the platypus burrow, but it was well hidden amongst the reeds and fallen tree branches. I didn't search for it, as I didn't want to scare away my new friend, but I believe the burrows can be quite long, 4.5m to 9 m long.
He or she was a solitary personality, thrashing about searching for food on the bottom of the creek. Strangely platypus swim with their eyes , ears, and nostrils closed, using their electro-sensitive bill to locate and probe for food. This finely tuned electro-perception, and sense of touch, allows my friend to find and capture worms, insects, crustaceans, molluscs and vertebrates such as tadpoles. Once he/she has caught dinner, it is carried to the surface in cheek pouches ready to eat. Then it's rinse and repeat until the tummy is satisfied. Platypus haven't any teeth, but have instead small horny pads, which they use to hold and crush their prey.
The female platypus lays 1-3 eggs in a nesting burrow with a nursery chamber at the end, which is lined with damp plant material. Her eggs are incubated between the belly and the tail, and hatch after 10-12 days. Like the echidna, platypus lack nipples, and milk from the mammary glands oozes out from the ducts at two areas of the abdomen. It is believed that the hair around these areas acts as teats, that allows the young to suck the milk. By six weeks the young are furred, have their eyes open, and may leave the burrow for short intervals, and even enter the water. When four to five months old the young are weaned.
I will venture back next summer and hopefully my friend and I will wallow together. And even better, to wallow with a family of platypuses (or is it platypi). Now that would be a magical treat.
I was hoping to see the entrance to the platypus burrow, but it was well hidden amongst the reeds and fallen tree branches. I didn't search for it, as I didn't want to scare away my new friend, but I believe the burrows can be quite long, 4.5m to 9 m long.
He or she was a solitary personality, thrashing about searching for food on the bottom of the creek. Strangely platypus swim with their eyes , ears, and nostrils closed, using their electro-sensitive bill to locate and probe for food. This finely tuned electro-perception, and sense of touch, allows my friend to find and capture worms, insects, crustaceans, molluscs and vertebrates such as tadpoles. Once he/she has caught dinner, it is carried to the surface in cheek pouches ready to eat. Then it's rinse and repeat until the tummy is satisfied. Platypus haven't any teeth, but have instead small horny pads, which they use to hold and crush their prey.
The female platypus lays 1-3 eggs in a nesting burrow with a nursery chamber at the end, which is lined with damp plant material. Her eggs are incubated between the belly and the tail, and hatch after 10-12 days. Like the echidna, platypus lack nipples, and milk from the mammary glands oozes out from the ducts at two areas of the abdomen. It is believed that the hair around these areas acts as teats, that allows the young to suck the milk. By six weeks the young are furred, have their eyes open, and may leave the burrow for short intervals, and even enter the water. When four to five months old the young are weaned.
I will venture back next summer and hopefully my friend and I will wallow together. And even better, to wallow with a family of platypuses (or is it platypi). Now that would be a magical treat.
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