Understanding the Sixth Sense of the Platypus

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With a beaver’s tail, webbed feet, and a duck’s bill, platypuses are one of the world’s strangest-looking creatures. They are such an unusual mammal that the first scientists to study them believed they were the brunt of a hoax. Despite their awkward appearance, the platypus has a superpower-like sixth sense that it uses to hunt for food.

In the video above filmed by National Geographic, you can watch this incredible sixth sense in action. The platypus uses its super-sensitive bill to find its dinner. A platypus bill may look like a duck’s bill, but it has a secret ability. The bill contains receptor cells that detect the electric signals made by all living things. As it swims in the water, it’s looking for a sign of life.

Where Do Platypuses Live?

Unless you live in Australia, the only place you can see a platypus in action is at the zoo. In the wild, they live near freshwater creeks and rivers across east and south-eastern Australia. They can also be found on Kangaroo Island, which is located off the southern coast of Australia. Although, even if you’re in Australia, a platypus may be hard to find roaming the wild. They are nocturnal animals and only come out at night.

A Mammal, Bird or Something Else?

Platypuses may have some duck-like characteristics, but they are a rare type of mammal called a monotreme. Monotremes differ from other mammals because they lay eggs instead of giving birth. There are only five species of monotremes, and they include the platypus and four species of echidnas (spiny anteaters). While most modern mammals begin showing up in fossil records dating back 60 million years, monotremes are thought to have evolved around 130 million years ago.

How the Platypus Uses Its Sixth Sense to Hunt Food

Platypuses eat small fish, worms, crayfish, and insect larvae that they find on the bottom of rivers and streams hidden within the rocks and leaf material. If you watched the video, you will have seen how the platypus swims through the water with its head swaying from side to side. It’s this motion that allows the platypus to easily find its food beneath the debris.

The platypus doesn’t find its meal through eyesight, in fact, it closes its eyes while hunting. Instead, the platypus relies on its bill. A platypus bill has three different types of receptor cells that allow the mammal to detect movement, and also the electric fields produced by the small creatures it hunts. Every living thing produces electric signals that are so subtle, most of us can’t detect them. However, the specialized cells on the platypus’s bill allow it to pick up electric pulses. This sixth sense in the platypus is called electrolocation and it’s a highly effective method of hunting.

How Does Electrolocation Work?

The little creatures that the platypuses eat emit electrical signals as their brains send signals to their muscles to contract. Every living thing, even algae, produces electrical activity. Although invisible to us, some animals are able to sense it. In addition to the platypus and other monotremes, sharks, rays, bees, some fish, and dolphins can also detect electric fields. The electroreceptors on the Platypus bill pick up these tiny electrical signals. This strategy works well for the platypus because electricity travels quickly through water.

The Platypus also uses push-rod mechanoreceptors to be able to feel changes in motion and pressure. By waving its head from side to side, the platypus takes in all of this information, making it an efficient predator. Once the platypus detects a creature is nearby, it dives in the ground and digs rocks and debris out of its way with its bill.

The Monotreme With the Most Complex Senses

Other monotremes also have developed the ability to electrolocate, but the platypus is the best at it among the monotremes. While the echidna species has 400 to 2,000 electroreceptor skin cells, the platypus has 40,000 across the top and bottom of its bill. Scientists believe that at some point during platypus evolution, the mammal lost its teeth to make room for the many nerve cells needed to send information from its bill to its brain.

Graceful Swimmers, but Awkward on Land

While the platypus’ bill helps them find their food, their webbed feet and beaver-like tail let them swim efficiently through the water in search of prey. They use their front feet for steering and their back feet to paddle quickly through the water. They can even close their ears and nose using tiny flaps of skin to prevent any water from entering. Once underwater, they have up to two minutes to swim around and locate their next meal before needing to come up and take a breath.

Is the Platypus Endangered?

The Platypus is not listed as Endangered, but it is “Near Threatened.” Its population is trending downwards due to loss of habitat from climate change and land clearing. Like many other species, platypuses need healthy freshwater systems to thrive.