Monday, February 27, 2012

Territorial Behavior



The platypus is a territorial animal that uses the venomous spurs on its hind legs to defend itself. Females, however, do not have the venomous spurs and are in fact actually not quite as territorial as the male platypus. Males are not involved in raising the young, which results in females being more territorial regarding the protection of their babies. Furthermore males fight each other in pursuit of females during the mating season. This is another time in which the male platypus uses its venomous spurs for their personal gain.  Solitary animals, the platypus is generally a shy creature that spends most of its time in their personal burrows in the riverbanks with entrances only slightly higher than water level. Unfortunately, there isn’t very much known about the territorial behavior of platypus because of their solitary nature. Some of the most concrete indications of their territorial behavior comes from reports of fighting between platypus in specific areas.

While there isn’t a whole lot of information about the platypus territorial behavior I did learn some interesting facts while I was researching . Apparently, one really prominent aspect of the platypus behavior is grooming, which they perform meticulously in the water occasionally, but mostly on a surface out of the water like a log or a rock. I also sadly discovered that the platypus is sadly now extinct in South Australia, and that different regions have different names for the platypus. For example, some indigenous people call them “boondaburra, mallangong, tambreet,” or “tohunbuck”.

FUN PLATYPUS VIDEO OF THE WEEK!!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6JzvzUXwZ0


http://www.reptilepark.com.au/animalprofile.asp?id=159

2 comments:

  1. It is interesting that only males have venomous spurs on their hind legs. It makes me curious to know the evolutionary history of how/why these spurs came to be, and if there was a significant event that led to the production of them only in males? You would think that because females are more territorial in protecting their offspring, they would need the spurs. In the learning chapter, Dugatkin mentions that in some animal species, males that do not help in parenting show greater learning abilities than females. I wonder if this applies to the platypus.

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