Gary Kohn, Age 13, of Cleveland, Ohio, for his question:
What kind of animal is the platypus?
He is one of the oddest creatures in the world. For the platypus seems to have borrowed parts of himself from half a dozen different animals. His assorted features could have been taken from a duck and a mole, a goose and a beaver, an otter and a snake. Perhaps he would not seem so odd if we got used to seeing him. But the platypus is a very rare animal.
His scientific name is Ornithorynchus which means bird snout. The snout of the platypus is shaped like the wide bill of a duck. He may be called the duckbill or the duckbilled platypus. The name platypus means wide footed and this fellow's wide feet are webbed like those of a goose. He has the dense fur of an Otter arid the flat tail of a beaver. However, the tail of the platypus is furred, while the tail of a beaver is covered with scales.
The odd platypus may be 20 inches long, including his beaver type tail. He has no legs to speak of, and his chubby body lies flat on the ground. Like a mole, he is safer in his burrow than he is walking outdoors. The amazing fellow is rarely seen, even in his native haunts of Australia and Tasmania.
Those webbed feet are for swimming and the platypus lives near the water. His home is a burrow in the muddy bank of a stream and his foraging is done at night. The famous snout is made of tough leathery skin, full of sensitive nerves. It is used to dig up worms and other morsels from the mud under the stream and along its banks.
The fur coated animals are mammals and we would expect Mrs. Platypus to give birth to live babies. She lays eggs two round eggs, each about one inch wide. They are soft shelled like the eggs of a snake. The mother seals herself in her burrow, curls around her eggs and. Incubates them for about ten days. When they hatch, the blind and helpless youngsters feed on mother's milk like all mammal babies. For the furry platypus is one of the rare egg laying mammals. The puny babies are not ready to meet the world outdoors until they are four months old. Then they come forth, romping like playful kittens.
Mr. Platypus is armed with a sharp and poisoned claw on each hind foot. But the gentle creature is not very successful at defending himself. Mrs. Platypus can only swim to safety or hide in her burrow. At one time Ornithorynchus was hunted for his lovely coat and threatened with extermination. The Australian goverment passed laws to protect him in time and nowadays, nobody may steal the coat of a platypus.