![]() The spurs in male echidnas are small and sharp, but lack the deadly venom. The male duck-billed platypus is the world's only venomous mammal. The venom is toxic enough to kill a dog and cause agonizing pain and prolonged paralysis in humans. Fights occur in the water, where the animals are most agile, and combatants swim in tight circles, each attempting to spike the other and inject a debilitating dose of venom. Normally, they are kept folded away to avoid snagging, but during battle they are raised. ![]() They have no teeth and their claws are blunt, but the sharp spurs on the ankles are deadly. They will fight for dominance and the right to mate with the females living within their range. Wild platypuses usually survive into their early teens, whereas long-beaked and short-beaked echidnas may live well into the 20s, while captives have lived 30 and 50 years, respectively.īy early spring, courtship and rivalry among platypuses is well underway and males become very aggressive. The breeding tunnel is blocked every few feet with loose earth, which the female shifts and replaces every time she comes and goes.Īs in marsupials, most development takes place outside the mother's body and pregnancy itself is very short-just two weeks in both the platypus and the short-beaked echidna. The nest is made of damp leaves and other vegetation collected from the water or the banks and carried to the burrow clasped under the body by the tail. Unlike most other mammals, which do their best to keep nesting areas snug and dry, the atmosphere inside a platypus nest is very humid. These may extend as far as 65 ft (20 m) into the bank, with branching tunnels that twist and turn, some leading to living chambers, others to dead ends. Breeding females also build more extensive nesting burrows. Platypus burrows are simple oval tunnels with a sleeping chamber at the end. The echidnas excavate burrows for nesting or take advantage of natural dens such as rock crevices or hollow logs. After mating, females are busy preparing their nests, which are built in deep burrows. The females, on the other hand, are diligent parents. The last male left in attendance claims the right to mate.īeyond courtship and mating, male monotremes have nothing more to do with the rearing of their young. Whimsically as a "love train." As the female comes into breeding condition, the males begin circling her, creating a circular trench from which each male attempts to evict his rivals. By investing a large amount of parental care in a few young, the young have a high rate The world's first platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) twin puggles born in captivity are shown together for the first time during a full health check at Taronga Zoo's veterinary clinic in Sydney, Australia, March 28, 2003. Long-beaked echidnas have larger litters of four to six young, but still only breed once a year. It takes a mother platypus about six months to raise a small litter of one or two young to independence, seven months in the case of the short-beaked echidna, which typically has only one baby at a time. The eggs are subsequently brooded and hatched outside the mother's body, as in reptiles and birds. ![]() One of the most remarkable montreme features, and the one that initially seemed to be the biggest obstacle to their inclusion in the class Mammalia, is the fact that females lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young.
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