Platypus twins hatched on Oct. 3rd, 2007 at Healesville Sanctuary, Australia.

We got into a discussion today regarding what kind of animal the Platypus really is.

I mean, think about it - it has a duck bill, a beaver tail, otter feet, it lays eggs AND it has milk for the babies!!!

A friend of ours said “they’re like a Smörgåsbord species”, and I have to agree with her on that one! It’s like a mix of all sorts of animals, as if God had some extra parts left, put them all together and got a bit of a chuckle out of what he saw…

Hubby must have gotten confused about this whole Australian animals thing, because he said that maybe it was a marsupial…, well, kangaroos and koalas live in Australia, and THEY are marsupials, which means that they have a pouch on their stomachs in which the baby grows - but I’ve never seen a pouch on a platypus!

What’s that? “Houba”?!?

No, no, no - I said MARSUPIAL, not Marsupilami - get OUT of here!!!

It’s a matter of classification…, I thought it might be a mammal, but certain things about this particular animal just didn’t seem right for it to BE a mammal… You see, I always thought that a mammal gave birth to LIVE babies, and since the platypus lays eggs it simply couldn’t be a mammal…, but it IS.

The mother lactates through pores in the skin, it doesn’t have teats - and besides, how would the duck billed babies be able to SUCK? Instead they lap up the milk that comes out and sort of pools on the mother’s stomach.

(I should add that I’m a bit of a boob myself, it’s not just hubby who gets confused… I actually said “isn’t the Platypus a MAMMARY”!!! Mammal - mammary…, oh well!!!)

Australia sure has some STRANGE animals!

Here’s an absolutely adorable video of a platypus encounter in the wild, a little male baby platypus that doesn’t seem the least bit shy - very unlike normal platypus behavior, but I’m guessing he’s not old enough to know that he should be hiding from these people instead of coming up to them…

He even allows the humans to PET him!