Platypus loves belly rubs

March 18, 2015 • 3:45 pm

Here’s a bit of squee to take us over the week’s hump. Who would have guessed that platypuses had this catlike behavior? Here are the YouTube notes for the video below:

This beautiful platypus loved playing in the water and loved a tickle! She was so friendly and ate food right out of my hand! There is only one place you can do this in the world and that’s at Healesville Sanctuary [near Melbourne].

Look at this friendly little girl; I assume it’s a female because males have poisoned spurs on their hind legs. With a cat, the penalty for an unwanted belly rub is a swat or a bite, but with a male platypus it’s a poisoned dart!

Here’s the “Wade with the Platypus” experience, which ain’t cheap: $195 Australian (about $150 US). But I’d still do it: for life is short.

42 thoughts on “Platypus loves belly rubs”

    3. I love Marty Feldman. I used to change up the lyrics to that Kim Carnes song, “Betty Davis Eyes”.

  2. I was very fortunate to see a live platypus in Australia in 1991. It was no place special, just a small stream near a campground in a small, rural town in NSW (IIRC). I did a huge double-take and was thrilled to watch the little fellow splashing around in the stream.

    Wonderful little beasts.

    2. Wikipedia says: “There is no universally agreed plural of “platypus” in the English language. Scientists generally use “platypuses” or simply “platypus”. Colloquially, the term “platypi” is also used for the plural, although this is technically incorrect and a form of pseudo-Latin; the correct Greek plural would be “platypodes”.

      I like the ring of pla-TI-pə-deez!

  4. Healesville Sanctuary is about 30km from where I live, and it’s a pleasant ride through undulating hills, open farmland, and a diverse range of wineries. The sanctuary itself is top class and well worth a visit and all the money goes into its upkeep, so don’t worry too much about the cost. These places are expensive to run if done properly.

  6. Well this is embarrassing: I always assumed they were bigger. Wikipedia tells me females average 50cm/20″ in length. They are much cuter in action than I would have imagined, too.

    Looking ath the video close-ups, I had to go back and read (again from the Wiki-P):

    George Shaw, who produced the first description of the animal in the Naturalist’s Miscellany in 1799, stated it was impossible not to entertain doubts as to its genuine nature, and Robert Knox believed it might have been produced by some Asian taxidermist. It was thought that somebody had sewn a duck’s beak onto the body of a beaver-like animal. Shaw even took a pair of scissors to the dried skin to check for stitches.

    This little cutie definitely looks like a mole or beaver in a duck costume! Spectacular.

    2. The “Platypus Trophy” is presented each year to the winner of the Oregon vs Oregon State football game. The trophy design was chosen because of the platypus’s resemblance to the mascots of the Oregon and Oregon State teams (‘Ducks’ and ‘Beavers’, respectively).

      2. 10 make that 12 sports (alumnus of USC and UCLA), I’d never wondered whence the name of that trophy! The Civil War has been pretty consistently green&gold for the past 40 years.

  7. I always assumed they were bigger like others, and it’s soooo cute! What a cool beast! Another place to add to the list of places I want to visit, although as this one is only in Australia, my wish much more likely to come true.

      2. That looks like so much fun, but they used to be quite a lot bigger and had teeth, in the Miocene. Or at least one tooth, as that’s all we have from the ‘giant’ species; and I was the first person to see it, dissolving out of a limestone block in a vat of acetic acid.

  8. It even does the little leg kicky thing when you rub its belly, just like a d*g!

      1. You know…there might be something interesting there from an evolutionary perspective.

        Dogs and platypudlians do this, but humans and cats don’t.

        b&

        1. I happen to do the leg shakey thing when someone is kind enough to scratch my back, but then maybe it’s a learned behavior;-)

  9. I saw these cuties in a tank in Australia at an aquarium. They are really cute & I’m not surprised by how lovely this one is!

  11. Cute! Especially how she wiggles with her hind legs when the humans hit the spot. Maybe they are just canines in disguise?

    We once had an Aussie postdoc at our institute, who worked on platypuddlians. She told us about how the males’ venom (in humans) can lead to strong systemic pain for up to weeks or even months – and that no known pain killers have an effect, including morphine. Ouch.

    Biology nit-pick of the day: It’s not a poisonous animal, it’s a venomous one (bad effect from: injection = venomous, ingestion (or touch) = poisonous).

    1. He didn’t say that the animal was poisonous, but that the spurs/darts were poisonous. I’m pretty sure that’s the correct use of the word “poison”.

      “males have poisoned spurs on their hind legs. With a cat, the penalty for an unwanted belly rub is a swat or a bite, but with a male platypus it’s a poisoned dart!”

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