Sterling’s Blog

Platypuses are interesting animals.  They have bills, webbed feet, lay eggs, and have poisonous spurs on their ankles.  When people in England saw platypus furs, they thought it was a mix of different animals that someone had glued together. 

Platypuses use their webbed feet for swimming.  They use their front feet for paddling and their back feet for stopping and steering.  They spend most of their life in water.  They eat things they find at the bottom of ponds and rivers, such as crayfish, little minnows, tadpoles, worms, and insects.  When they go under water, they close their eyes, nostrils, and ears, and then they use their sensitive bill to sense things.  Their bill uses electrical pulses to “feel” food.

Platypuses don’t have belly buttons because they lay eggs.  They don’t have toes, because their feet are webbed.  They don’t have fingernails, but have claws — a type of fingernail. 

Platypuses have different fur on their back than on their tail.  Their tail is hard and scratchy so when an enemy bites it, it will go “Ooh, hard, scratchy tail.  I don’t want to eat a platypus.” 

Platypuses are mammals ,even though they have a bill, webbed feet and  swim in the water.  Australia is the only place you can see a platypus,but we never got to see one in the wild.   Even though we didn’t see a platypus in the wild, I still think they are cool and interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This entry was posted on Friday, September 7th, 2007 at 7:23 pm and is filed under Oceania. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.