Duck-billed platypuses generally lay two to three eggs. The incubation period usually lasts for 6 to 10 days. During the incubation period, the female platypus will incubate eggs by pressing the egg to her belly with her tail. Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous seasonal breeding gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate) sexual fertilization oviparousįemale duck-billed platypuses build burrows in which to protect and nurse their young. Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 1.5 (low) years. Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 2 (low) years. Most juvenile females do not begin to breed until they are four years old (Grant and Temple-Smith, 1998).īreeding interval: Duck-billed platypuses probably breed once each year.īreeding season: Duck-billed platypuses breed in late winter or autumn. There is little available information on breeding, estimated gestation periods are 27 days and incubation periods are 10 days. There is a higher proportion of spur wounds in males than females, which may be explained by aggressive encounters between males during mating season.ĭuck-billed platypuses are one of the three mammal species that lay eggs.

Other details of the mating patterns of platypuses are mainly unknown due to their secretive, aquatic nature. Then he moves forward and bites the hair on her shoulder with his bill. The male then curls his body around the female, his tail underneath her to one side of her tail. However, if she is willing, she will stay near the male and will allow him to grab her tail again if he dropped it. The male grabs the tail of the female with his bill and if the female is unwilling, she will try to escape by swimming through logs and other obstacles until she is set free. Male and female platypuses touch as they swim past each other. Mating is seasonal and varies with population. Male duck-billed platypuses initiate most mating interactions but successful mating relies entirely on the willingness of females. Sexual Dimorphism: male larger ornamentation Other Physical Features: endothermic homoiothermic bilateral symmetry venomous There is a significant reduction in body fat after winter for both young and adults (Pasitschniak-Arts and Marinelli, 1998).Īverage basal metabolic rate: 468 cm3.O2/g/hr. The young are smaller than adults in size. The young have milk teeth while the adults have grinding plates.

Females have mammary glands but no nipples. Males are generally larger than females, and have two venom glands attached to spurs on their hind legs. Each foot contains five digits each consisting of a broad nail for the forefeet and sharp claws for the hind feet. They have short limbs, naked soles, webbed forefeet and partially-webbed hind feet. Two nostrils are located on top of their bills and their eyes and ears are on either side of their heads. They have bills that closely resemble those of ducks, and flat and broad tails resembling those of beavers (Grant and Temple-Smith, 1998). Duck-billed platypuses are stream-lined and elongated, they have fur ranging from medium brown to dark brown on the dorsal side and brown to silver-gray on the ventral side. They have a cloaca through which eggs are laid and both liquid and solid waste is eliminated. These species are unique among mammals in that they retain the ancestral characteristic of egg laying. Duck-billed platypuses are one of three species of monotremes.

Duck billed platypus baby gangsta