Platypus

The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is one of the world's most unusual animals. It is often described as a living fossil - a furry, egg-laying mammal which retains some marks of reptiles. In this section you can learn more about this very special Australian mammal.

Aboriginal legend

According to Aboriginal legend, the first platypus were born after a young female duck mated with a lonely water-rat. The duck's offspring [ babies ] had their mother's bill and webbed feet and after their father's four legs and brown fur.

The Fossil Record
The archaeologists in New South Wales found a jaw fragment of an ancient platypus which lived alongside with the dinosaurs approximately 110 million years ago.

Scientific recognition
In 1799, the platypus was first described by a British scientist, Dr George Shaw. His first reaction to this original specimen was that it was an fake and not real animal. He even took a pair of scissors to the pelt, expecting to find stitches attaching the bill to the skin.

Platypus names

Early British colonists in Australia called the platypus a "water mole". Prior to the arrival of European settlers, Aboriginal people had many different names for the animal, including "boondaburra", "mallingong" and "tambreet".

Dr Shaw, in his scientific description of 1799, gave the name Platypus anatinus, from Greek and Latin words meaning "flat-footed, duck-like". However, when it became known that Platypus had already been used to name a group of beetles, a new term had to be adopted. The official scientific name became and remains Ornithorhynchus anatinus, with the first word meaning "bird-like snout".

Although the name "duckbill" was widely used as a popular description for the animal, the abandoned scientific name "platypus" gradually became the accepted common name for the species.

Previous range

From fossils discovered in Argentina, we know that the ancestors of platypus were found in South America as well as Australia until at least 60 million years ago - when the two land masses were still joined together as part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana.

Current range

The platypus lives only in Australia. Populations occur in Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland to about as far north as Cooktown. In South Australia, apart from an introduced population surviving on Kangaroo Island, the species is considered rare and possibly extinct in the wild.

Platypus occupy a wide variety of permanent streams, rivers and lakes and may also use temporary or manmade water bodies, particularly when these are linked directly to streams or rivers.

Status

The platypus is officially classified as "Common but Vulnerable" in Australia. As a species, it is not currently considered to be endangered.

Number of platypus

Platypus surveys have only been carried out in a few catchments in eastern Australia. It is therefore impossible to provide an accurate estimate of the total number of platypus remaining in the wild.

Based on recent studies, the average platypus population density along relatively good quality streams in the foothills of Victoria's Great Dividing Range is only around one to two animals per kilometre of channel. Because platypus are predators near the top of the food chain and require large amounts of food to survive (up to about 30% of a given animal's body weight each day), it is believed that their numbers are most often limited by the availability of food, mainly in the form of bottom-dwelling aquatic invertebrates.

Platypus poison

                                                               This information is brand new for me, I did not know about it.The platypus is the only Australian mammal known to be venomous. Adult males have a pointed spur (about 15 millimetres long) located just above the heel of each hind leg, which can be used to inject poison produced by a gland in the thigh (the crural gland).

Venom is only secreted by mature males, with production peaking during the platypus breeding season in late winter and spring. It is therefore presumed that males mainly use their spurs when competing for mates or breeding territories.

If provoked, a male platypus can use his spurs as a defensive weapon. In the days when platypus were shot for their fur, dogs were sometimes killed after being sent to retrieve a wounded male from the water. These days, people mainly get spurred when they handle a platypus which has become hooked inadvertently on a fishing line.
Platypus venom is not considered to be life-threatening to a healthy human. However, spurring is painful - in part, because platypus spurs are sharp and can be driven in with great force. As well, platypus poison triggers severe pain in the affected limb and can result in quite spectacular localised swelling.

Platypus should never be handled, except in an emergency - for example, to extract a fishing hook that has become embedded in a platypus's bill.

SPIDERS

(Net-casting Spider)

In Australia you can find the most incredible and unusual species of spiders. Some of them are dangerous, some aren’t. However, luckily for us, even being poisonous most of them aren`t so aggressive. You find beautiful colours and shapes, different sizes. Hairy or hairless, skinny or fat, long legs or short legs, or whatever. You can find all kinds!

 (Redback Spider)

The Redback Spider is a small black spider (female 12mm, male 3mm) with a red stripe in the back, very poisonous and dangerous. The bite is not painful initially, with intense pain developing after about 5 minutes.

(Sydney Funnel-web Spider)

Just like the Redback Spider, this one should be avoided because their bite can be painful for some days and can be fatal if not treated. The Sydney Funnel-web Spider is a very aggressive species and one of the deadliest spiders in the world.

My first scary encounter!

When I was travelling through Jervis Bay, more precisely in Cave`s Beach, I had a funny experience, and kind of dangerous knowing the level of alcohol in my blood. Later in the night after some drinks, when we (me and my friends) were camping, we went into the bushes looking for spiders, snakes and frogs. We found some interesting creatures, but the amazing moment was when we arrived back in our tent: A really creepy big brown spider waiting for us inside our "home". We were very afraid cause we know that some spiders can be very dangerous here. But it ran away and everybody slept peacefully and safe.

After all, it was a Huntsman Spider. Not poisonous, not dangerous.

Koala

Koalas are the most known animals in Australia and we can find them in four different states: Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial and it looks like a little bear or a wombat but with bigger ears, a thicker coat and longer limbs.

Koala's diet is based only on eucalyptus leaves and that is the reason why they sleep most of the time (sometimes till 20 hours in a day). Sleeping saves energy. The leaves have some relaxing properties and the animals use a lot of energy to digest them. And by the way, those leaves are poisonous to almost all other animals.

CURIOSITIES ABOUT KOALAS:

- They hardly drink water ever;

- A baby stays in its mother's pouch for a few months after ir is born;

- The male koala has a bifurcade penis and the female has two lateral vaginas and two separate uteri;

- It is the only animal on Earth with such a strangely reduced brain;                  

- When under stress, koalas may issue a loud cry;

- A baby koala is reffered to as a joey and its hairless, blind and earless

Fish

There are many fish living in Australia, especially famous for fishes is the Great Barrier Reef. There are thousand and thousand of fish living there. Below you can see a sample of some Australian fishes.



Especially interesting is the slimy fish in the second line on the right, this fish has a really big nose and can use this nose to breathe in fishes. So in fact the fish is eating with his nose. As you also can see, this fish is looking a little bit sad and to be honest, I don't know if this slimy fish is really sad or not.

Hoppers of the world...

General information:
Hoppers of the world... that means the Kangourous. I heard that Australia, where these hoppers come from  have 40 million of them, but just a population of 14 million humans. So the kangourous are the real kings of Australia. 

Types:
There are several types of kangourous - there are smaller and taller ones - and although they look really sweet they are really good boxers. I think you can put them in a ring and they will fight down the Klitschko brothers...

Penguins - Kowalski, Private, Rico und Skipper!

Story:
What do Kowalski, Private, Rico und Skipper from the movie Madagascar in the wildlife zoo in Australia?
...

General description:
Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid, and other forms of sealife caught while swimming underwater. They spend about half of their life on land and half in the oceans.
Although all penguin species are native to the southern hemisphere, they are not found only in cold climates, such as Antarctica. In fact, only a few species of penguin live so far south. Several species are found in the temperate zone, and one species, the Galápagos Penguin, lives near the equator.
The largest living species is the Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri): adults average about 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) tall and weigh 35 kg (75 lb) or more. The smallest penguin species is the Little Blue Penguin (Eudyptula minor), also known as the Fairy Penguin, which stands around 40 cm tall (16 in) and weighs 1 kg (2.2 lb). Among extant penguins, larger penguins inhabit colder regions, while smaller penguins are generally found in temperate or even tropical climates (see also Bergmann's Rule). Some prehistoric species attained enormous sizes, becoming as tall or as heavy as an adult human (see below for more). These were not restricted to Antarctic regions; on the contrary, subantarctic regions harboured high diversity, and at least one giant penguin occurred in a region not quite 2,000 km south of the equator 35 mya, in a climate decidedly warmer than today.