Platypus: The King of Weirdos

deep in victoria's alt-way ranges swims a cute little riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma it's venomous it has the sixth sense and it looks like it's borrowed all of its body parts from different animals i think i see one [Music] i think i see one straight ahead of me this is the freshwater chimera the species that confused a generation the result of dr frankenstein's cute streak the platypus [Music] hi i'm danielle dufoe and you're watching animal logic we covered the platypus in the first season of animal logic consider the platypus but when we got the opportunity to film them first hand in the wild we thought that it was the perfect way to end our fourth season we had to wake up around 5 30 to get out of here for 6 30 and make it down to a boat the whole point here is to try and find some platypuses and for me that's like the animal that i want to see more than anything out here so 5 30 or not like i'm super excited i'm tired i don't have caffeine but hopefully we'll have platypuses [Music] i just got to like elizabeth and the sun is starting to rise can you hear that those are kookaburras this hike is waking me up better than any coffee has feels like jurassic park out here not a morning person for the platypuses i'll do anything [Music] monotremes are something that have fascinated me for a long time from the evolutionary perspective but also just how odd they look [Music] we've made it down to lake elizabeth and this is going to be our best chance of seeing a wild platypus found in wetlands across the east and southeast coast of australia and throughout tasmania the platypus is one of two members of the monotreme order and they're smaller than you might think only measuring about 50 centimeters long unlike placental mammals and marsupials which both give birth to live young monotremes are mammals that lay eggs but laying eggs is by far one of the least interesting things about the platypus these cuties bring it in every category of being really weird to the point where frankly it's just hard to keep track of i think i see one straight ahead of me it's maybe 40 meters off so i can't see much but there's something swimming out there oh it's not a platypus we're gonna get closer see what we can see the platypus is a perfect example of convergent evolution when similar traits evolve separately in different species based on similar problems the species had to solve for example flying squirrels in north america are not at all related to australia's sugar gliders but they both have evolved the same means of transport but instead of evolving one or two traits similar to other species the platypus is seemingly made up entirely of parts from other animals the platypus has a bill like a duck a tail like a beaver webbed feet like an otter electro receptors like a shark they lay eggs like a turtle they have their limbs on their sides like reptiles they don't have stomachs and lack teeth like echidnas and they have venom like a viper the platypus looks like what happens when evolution hits the shuffle button but this couldn't be further from the truth while their variety of parts makes them look like a freshwater chimera all of their disparate features come together perfectly to create the ultimate mashup resulting in one highly effective weirdo when british explorers first brought a specimen of a platypus back from australia to england it was deemed too ridiculous to be real no one could believe that this creature wasn't just a frankenstein of a bunch of different animals stitched together so it took several more expeditions and more specimens to prove that this thing was indeed a mammal that laid eggs with a duck-like bill each one of their strange features serves a valuable purpose first up their bill the reason platypuses have evolved to have a duck like bill is because of the environment that they were able to conquer rivers lakes and wetlands fresh water is murky by nature and if you're going to hunt in it you need to rely on something other than your eyes and so the platypus has evolved a superpower electro-reception commonly found in sharks chimeras and a few other cartilaginous fish species platypus have bills lined with tiny dots called electroreceptors platypuses don't have very good eyesight but the way that they see the world is through electric pulses whenever you move a muscle the contraction generates an electric field the platypus uses the electroreceptors in the skin of their bills to calculate the voltage difference around them allowing them to target the electric fields of moving prey with pinpoint accuracy the platypus dives heading for the bottom shaking its head from side to side seeking out any moving prey if he detects anything he can use his sixth sense to zoom in and focus on the prey in this case it's a crayfish it holds still and he misses it on his first pass but it's not long before the platypus picks up its presence and heads straight for it [Music] but their sixth sense isn't the only trick up their sleeves their bills are also very sensitive they can detect even the slightest of touches the platypus's bill is the perfect sensory organ for hunting prey in the dark and murky freshwater depths they're so effective that they hunt with their eyes and nose closed spending about 40 percent of the night actively looking for food they need to be well-equipped while bills are great for housing large numbers of electroreceptors they are also perfect for their feeding strategy their bills allow them to bite into the muck and push out any excess mud and water before swallowing one consequence of the development of electroreceptors is that adult platypuses have no teeth whatsoever in order to crunch up their meals they have to scoop up small rocks and press them against the tops of their bills platypuses also lack stomachs similar to echidnas their food is digested by going straight from the esophagus to the intestine their lack of stomach is so ancient that the part of the mammalian dna in charge of making a stomach and the digestive compounds in it are entirely gone [Music] borrowing yet another strategy but this time from crocodiles on top of the platypus's bill are two nostrils this positioning allows them to stick a little bit of their snout and just the tops of their torsos out of the water to breathe without giving away their position to predators when they dive they close their nostrils platypuses only dive for about 30 seconds at a time so it's not very long to wait before they have to resurface again generally their recovery time is between 10 and 20 seconds before they can dive back down again the second most iconic thing about the platypus is their wide tail an adaptation that they share with a species on the other side of the world the beaver [Music] these tales are perfectly evolved for a life in the water offering the platypus both excellent propulsion and steering but they also have a surprising use carrying things they look like they have on the cutest little backpack these tails are quite dexterous and they use them to carry reeds and sticks to construct their burrows when the platypus prefers not to be disturbed they will use these reeds and sticks to barricade the entrance allowing them to snooze in peace the entrance to their den is usually just under water they can extend upwards up the bank up to five meters apparently they can spend about 20 hours a day in there just coming out to take a swim to go hunt for food next up we have the platypus's rather unusual feet they resemble otter feet in that they are heavily webbed but the closer you look the weirder they get their webbing extends well beyond the tips of their fingers leading to their claws being in a very strange place halfway up their feet this offers a good compromise for both digging and swimming their feet are similar to scuba fins as the webbing extends beyond where the actual bone is this allows them to be much larger than they would be if the webbing stopped at the fingertips as it does in most web-footed species [Music] spending much of their time floating around looking for food you may have noticed something strange about their legs they're located on the sides of their body rather than underneath them this is strange in the mammalian world and is usually only seen in reptiles [Music] this adaptation makes them more hydrodynamic a must for an aquatic mammal [Music] they don't come up on land too often but when they do it's absolutely adorable these small stumpy limbs offer them little support on land though they get the job done when need be but beyond strange webbing male platypuses have an extra weird adaptation on their hind limbs they have sharp spurs sharp venomous spurs male platypuses use their venom primarily during the mating season in combat with other male platypuses interestingly the venom while it does share chemical properties and effects with reptile venom is not meant to kill or even permanently damaged tissue platypus venom is meant to subdue competing males while they mate with prospective females while it may seem strange for a mammal to have venom they're not the only ones that do some shrews have it too flat pusses are quite solitary animals and prefer to stay in their own company they claim territories of about two kilometers and like to keep that to themselves they only really socialize for the sake of mating and raising their young beyond that they like to be solo once the battle for mating rights is won females will dig out their burrow in preparation for their young after four weeks of gestation two to three eggs are laid and will hatch after about 10 days since the mum has no teats the young called poggles will lap up milk from her mammary glands for about four months before they're old enough to eat solid meals [Music] in their ecosystem platypuses are quite hardy animals and can live lives of up to about 11 years in the wild and 17 in captivity unfortunately they're extremely sensitive to the health of their environment so if there's a lot of pollution in their lakes and river systems then they get all of that so that's been decreasing their survivability for quite some time at least now there's a lot more conservation efforts to bring them back it's been something really so special to be out here on lake elizabeth looking for platypus in their territory this lake here is kind of the perfect place for them the platypus is listed as a near-threatened species and with their numbers decreasing it will take a concerted effort from all of us to maintain the wetlands they call home because the world needs more weirdos and weirdos with painful venomous spurs aren't the weirdos you want to piss off by destroying their homes [Music] so what should i talk about next please let me know in the comments and be sure to subscribe for new episodes of animal logic every week thanks for watching see ya you

Channel: Animalogic

Views: 2,319,648

Keywords: animals, animal, logic, education, show, animalogic, crazy, ugly, weird, gross, beautiful, interesting, facts, animalsfacts, about, information, info, school, research, learn, learning, fun, easy, smart, platypus, monotreme, weirdo, king of weirdos, evolution’s mashup, mixtape, convergent evolution, really weird, real weird, frankenstein, shuffle, evolution on shuffle, evolution is weird, chimera, monster, bill, duck bill, beaver tail, webbed feet, venom, venomous, spine, milk, babies, egg, egg laying mammal

Id: 7-_b73LX8IY

Length: 14min 47sec (887 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 21 2020