Animal of the Month:
We're doing the animal of the month a little differently for now on. You'll get some basic facts on the page plus a few links for more information.

This month The Platypus

The duckbilled playpus is found only in Australia. When early explorers first brought specimens of it back to Europe, zoologist (people who study animals) thought it was a hoax (a joke or something made up and not real) no one had ever seen a mammal that had a duck's bill and supposedly laid eggs.

Many thought someone had simply sewed a duck's bill onto a baby beaver's body and then attached funny flipper hands from some other animal. it wasn't until a live animal was caught, that zoologist beleived they existed.

The platypus lives about 10-15 years

It is a Monotremata which means it is a mammal that lays eggs. It also has other reptile like qualities

Most people think they are big, but they are about the size of a house cat. The female is smaller than the male. They male weighs around five pounds, the female much less. The platypus swims under water with its nose, eyes, and ears closed. It finds it food by using an electric current. It's bill has electro-receptor system that picks up the signals put out by animals swimming in the water.

Find out more The Best Platypus Site Platypus Duckbilled Platypus Platypus Portal Duck billed platypus

Far from the trouble and toil of town,

Where the reed beds sweep and shiver,

Look at a fragment of velvet brown -

Old Man Platypus drifting down,

Drifting along the river.
And he plays and dives in the river bends

In a style that is most elusive;

With few relations and fewer friends,

For Old Man Platypus descends

From a family most exclusive.
He shares his burrow beneath the bank

With his wife and his son and daughter

At the roots of the reeds and the grasses rank;

And the bubbles show where our hero sank

To its entrance under water.
Safe in their burrow below the falls

They live in a world of wonder,

Where no one visits and no one calls,

They sleep like little brown billiard balls

With their beaks tucked neatly under.
And he talks in a deep unfriendly growl

As he goes on his journey lonely;

For he's no relation to fish nor fowl,

Nor to bird nor beast, nor to horned owl;

In fact, he's the one and only.
A.B "Banjo Peterson"

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