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Platypus Behaviour
Courtesy of:
The Australian Platypus Conservancy
 Diet
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- A platypus must eat relatively large quantities of food to
survive - equivalent to about 15-30% of a given animal's body weight each day.
- Because platypus usually defecate in the water, their droppings are only rarely
encountered. However, after analysing bits of food remaining in the animals'
cheek pouches, scientists have concluded that the platypus diet mainly consists
of - freshwater invertebrates such as shrimps, worms, yabbies, pea-shell mussels,
and immature and adult aquatic insects (including mayflies, dragonflies, caddisflies, stoneflies, aquatic beetles, and water bugs).
- Small frogs and fish
eggs are also eaten occasionally, along with some terrestrial insects that fall
into the water from overhanging vegetation.
- A small amount of aquatic vegetation may possibly be ingested
by platypus when feeding.
- However, it is unlikely that this constitutes a
significant part of their diet, particularly as vegetable matter would not
provide sufficient energy to fuel the active life-style of the platypus.
Feeding behaviour
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- The platypus hunts in the water, mostly at night.
- Hearing and
vision are therefore of little use in detecting the small aquatic invertebrates
on which the animals primarily feed. Reflecting this fact, a platypus protects
its eyes and ears by automatically closing them underwater and instead relies on
its bill to locate prey.
- The upper and lower bill surfaces are packed with
hundreds of receptors which respond to touch and the tiny electric currents
produced when invertebrates move in the water.
- These receptors are also believed
to be vital to the platypus's ability to navigate successfully among rocks and
other obstacles when submerged.
- Platypus are specifically adapted to forage in the water and
there are no reliable records of the animals feeding on dry land, although they
sometimes search for prey at the water's edge by digging under rocks or among
the roots of streamside plants.
- While diving, the platypus temporarily stores small food
items in special cheek pouches. When the animal returns to the surface to
breathe, the food is ground up very finely between rough pads located inside the
bill.
- While juvenile platypus have proper teeth, these fall out soon after the
young first enter the water.
- The tail of the platypus stores fat for periods of low food
supply, or for when the female burrows to breed.
Nocturnal behaviour
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- Platypus are active mainly at night.
- However, they can
sometimes be seen feeding during daylight hours, especially in areas where the
animals are very numerous or when the sky is overcast.
Hibernation/torpor
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- Platypus do not appear to hibernate, but observations in both
captivity and the wild suggest that some individuals may periodically enter a
state of torpor in which the animals allow their body temperature to drop,
remaining inactive for up to about six days.
- Almost nothing is known of the
conditions which trigger this behaviour, apart from the fact that it has only
been recorded in the colder months of the year (late May to early September).
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