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Young World
Strange, but true
VISALAKSHI RAMANI
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It’s furry, has four legs, has a beaver’s tail, webbed feet and the bill of a duck. Can you guess what it is?
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Photo: AFP
A platypus baby: At Sydney’s Taronga Zoo.
The duck-billed platypus is a strange animal. It has four legs and is furry. It has a beaver’s tail as well as the webbed feet and the bill of a duck. It lays eggs like a bird but suckles its young ones like a mammal. As if all these queer things are not enough, it has an affinity for electric charges.
The platypus lives on live prey — shrimps, worms, frogs, snails, tadpoles, insect larvae and tiny fish. When it dives its eyes are shut and the eyelids cover the ear holes also — making it deaf and blind under water.
Then how does it locate its prey? Is it by its sense of smell or by using its sensitive bill?
Fully charged
All living things emit minute electrical charges. Whenever a fish flicks its tail, this tiny charge increases by a tinier amount.
Apparently the platypus can recognise these tiny changes in electrical charges and use it for locating its prey.
Interesting experiments were conducted in water tanks. The menu consisted of a charged flash light battery, a dead battery and shrimp. Ignoring the dead battery and the shrimp, the platypus went for the live battery. Weak electrical fields made the platypus look for its prey there, more often, than when the charge was put off.
Sensors in the bills enable the platypus to detect electrical charges. These sensors are connected to a point, directly behind its brain, which is sensitive to electrical stimulation.
Truly the platypus gets a “real charge” when it dives to dine.
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