Nocturnal journal. The platypus is generally active at night and dusk, and occasionally active by day. It emerges from its burrow in late afternoon to forage for food. By early morning, it is ready to re-enter the burrow. One scientist found that platypuses in the southeastern Australian state of Victoriaspent 11 to 17 hours holed up in the burrow. Others have found that platypuses can hunt for 10 to 12 hours at a time. Its high-calorie diet of crustaceans enables the platypus to sleep soundly for up to 14 hours a day! Interesting side note: the platypus spends nearly 60 percent of its daily sleep in deep, brain-active REM sleep (in contrast, humans spend about 25 percent of their slumber in that rich, REM state).
Pregnant females spend time building a cozy nest, nursing and nurturing theiryoung, and foraging for food. While platypuses are not considered hibernators, they may be inactive for extended periods of time.
Watch out!For the platypus, leaving its burrow is a high-risk proposition, even at night. When drought or altering of waterways occurs, platypuses are forced to travel on land, making them more vulnerable to predation. Aerial predators like owls, eagles, and hawks may prey upon them. Native threats like dingoes, Tasmanian devils, monitor lizards, snakes, and water rats also await. Invasive feral and unleashed dogs, cats, and foxes also take them. Low platypus numbers in northern Australia may be due to heavy predation by crocodiles.
Male platypuses have spurs on the rear ankles, connected to a venom gland located over its thighs. If the spur pierces the skin, it can release enough venom to kill a medium-sized dog. (It is not fatal to humans, but is excruciating, and causes swelling.) The venom is more plentiful during breeding season, leading scientists to believe that it is used to defend mates and resources from rival males.
As air-breathing, aquatic mammals, platypuses can quickly drown after getting entangled in discarded litter, fishing line, and mesh netting. “Opera house” nets that people set to catch crayfish and yabbies can be death traps for platypuses, turtles, and water rats, as wildlife cannot escape. These underwater traps (roughly shaped like the Sydney Opera House, hence the name) are often set during summer months, when female platypuses may be pregnant, which exacerbates the impact on fragmented populations.
Even common items like rubber bands, plastic rings, or hair ties can be lethal when caught on the legs or neck of a swimming platypus.
Say what?The platypus is largely solitary, so a vast vocal repertoire is not necessary. It emits a growl when disturbed, and a range of other vocalizations have been noted.
Scent glands on both sides of the neck produce a musky scent during the breeding season. They rub against logs and rocks near the water to mark objects. When swimming, the platypus will make a big splash when alarmed as it slips beneath the surface, likely to give other platypuses a heads up. Usually, they are nearly silent when diving.
You’re a good egg. Males compete for breeding opportunities (hence the venomous spur), while females typically mate with a single male. Once she has settled on a male, aquatic courtship ensues, with the pair diving and swimming past each other, then grasping and rolling together.
Pregnant platypuses seek shelter in a burrow chamber dug into a riverbank to lay 1 to 3 eggs. (The four echidna species are the only other living egg-laying mammals, which are called monotremes.) This elaborate burrow is much deeper and blocked at intervals with plugs, which may protect her eggs from predators or rising waters, or regulate humidity and temperature in the burrow. She lines this nesting chamber with wet leaves, twigs, and vegetation, which she carries into her burrow between her hind feet and her tail.
Safely sealed inside, she keeps her eggs between her rump and her tail to keep them warm, only leaving the burrow to defecate and wet her fur. Typically, her eggs are about 0.7 inches (1.7 centimeters) in a diameter and rounder than bird eggs. The shell is soft and pliant.
After about 10 days, the hairless, bean-sized babies hatch and begin to suckle for the next 3 or 4 months. The mother does not have nipples, but rather special patches of skin on the abdomen that exude milk for her babies to slurp up. By the time they are weaned and leave the nest, the baby platypuses have fur and can swim on their own.
