The platypus is one of the most curious animals on the planet. His body looks like a very weird mix of different animal species. If you look closely, you will see that it has the body of an otter, the tail of a beaver, and the beak of a duck. Funny, right?
It also resembles a duck in that it has webbed feet, that is, similar to the flippers that humans use to dive. Thanks to them, he can spend much of his time swimming with great agility underwater and practicing his favorite activity: fishing!
The platypus is also very special because it is the only animal in nature that is oviparous and mammal at the same time. Do you know what this means?
It is an oviparous animal because it is born from an egg, like reptiles or birds, but at the same time it is a mammal because the first weeks of life it feeds on its mother’s milk, like dogs, sheep, or humans. Of course, it does it in a very special way: the mother does not expel milk through nipples, but through the pores of the skin as if it were sweat. This means that when the little platypus is hungry, instead of suckling, it licks its dear mom.
When it grows up, the platypus learns to get its own food. His favorite menu is based on crabs, shrimp and insect larvae.
