Pastel Picnic

My partner and I have been enjoying the Spring weather with picnics, wine, cheese and lazy conversations. One of the best conversations involved why I loved the platypus, a native Australian animal. If I was a wizard, the platypus would surely be my patronus.

So here are some fun facts about the platypus, that will make you appreciate it’s weirdness.

It will sting you like a scorpion

The platypus is kind of cross between a duck, a beaver, an otter and a scorpion. The male platypus has a stinger in it’s back feet.

It’s platypuses not platypi

Which is sad, because pi is delicious, and also important in maths.

They have paddles for feet

Which makes them awesome at navigating Australian rivers. When on land, the webbing retracts revealing claws.

They look cute, but they’ll eat you

That’s right. They’re sweet little carnivores.

They lay eggs

Just to keep you guessing, they are a weird and rare form of mammal that lays eggs. They take about 10 days to hatch, but take months to grow once the eggs hatch. Get this, they don’t suckle their young like normal, either. The babies sort of suck on the mother’s tummy fur, because the mother’s don’t have teats. Instead their lactating glands make their fur all milky.

Their bill detects movement in water

The bill isn’t hard like a duck, it’s kind of rubbery. It also can detect slight movements in water so they can navigate around obstacles and find things to eat.