Platypus
Ornithorhynchus anatinus
- Size
- About 50cm long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Rivers and pools of eastern Australia and Tasmania
A sleek brown animal with a flat bill like a duck's, webbed feet and a tail like a beaver's.
The platypus that follows you
This page is a billabong: a quiet pool left behind by a river. Move your pointer across the water and your animal will swim after you. Choose a different animal at the bottom, and tap the notes to open them.
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01 · EggAn egg-laying mammal
The platypus lays eggs, yet feeds its young on milk. Only echidnas do the same.
02 · BillA bill that feels electricity
It hunts with its eyes shut. Its bill picks up the tiny electric signals of shrimps and worms.
03 · SpurA venomous spur
The male has a sharp spur on each back ankle that can give a very painful sting.
04 · HoaxThought to be a fake
When the first skin reached Britain in 1799, scientists thought someone had sewn a duck's bill onto a mole.
05 · GlowIt glows
Under ultraviolet light, platypus fur glows blue-green. Nobody knows why.
06 · FoodCheek pouches
It stores its catch in its cheeks, then surfaces to chew. It has no teeth, only grinding pads.
Meet them all
Who's who in the billabong
Saltwater crocodile
Crocodylus porosus
- Size
- Up to 6m long: the biggest reptile alive
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Rivers, swamps and coasts of northern Australia and south-east Asia
A huge, heavy crocodile with a broad snout and armoured back, at home in rivers and in the sea.
Black swan
Cygnus atratus
- Size
- Wingspan up to 2m
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Lakes, rivers and estuaries, mainly in southern Australia
A black swan with a long neck, a red beak and white wing-tips that show when it flies.
Barramundi
Lates calcarifer
- Size
- Usually about 1m long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Rivers, billabongs and coasts of northern Australia
A big silver fish with large scales, a pointed head and a humped back.
Eastern long-necked turtle
Chelodina longicollis
- Size
- Shell about 25cm long
- Look for it
- September to December, then January to April
- Where
- Ponds, swamps and slow rivers of eastern Australia
A dark freshwater turtle with a neck almost as long as its shell.
Australian pelican
Pelecanus conspicillatus
- Size
- Wingspan up to 2.6m
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Lakes, rivers and coasts all over Australia
A very big white water bird with black on its wings and an enormous pink bill with a pouch.
Through the year
When to look for them
Water animals are about all year. These ones do not all live in the same part of Australia: the platypus is a southern animal, the crocodile a northern one. The animal following you is shown in red.
Platypus
Saltwater crocodile
Black swan
Barramundi
Long-necked turtle
Pelican
Good to know
Six things about a billabong
What a billabong is
When a river changes course, a bend can be cut off and left as a pool. That pool is a billabong.
Wet and dry
Northern Australia has two seasons. In the wet, rivers flood for miles. In the dry, they shrink back to pools.
Be croc-wise
In the north, any water may hold a crocodile. People keep well back from the edge.
Bird cities
As the dry season goes on, thousands of water birds crowd onto the last pools.
Water lilies
Lily leaves shade the water and give cover to fish, frogs and young turtles.
An old story
Rock paintings in Kakadu show barramundi and turtles, painted thousands of years ago.
Photo gallery
Real photos of the animals on this page. Tap one to see it bigger.
Platypus
Saltwater crocodile
Black swan
Barramundi
Eastern long-necked turtle
Australian pelican
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons and are used under free licences. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews. Open a photo to see who took it.
Water in a dry land
In a dry country, a pool that lasts all year pulls in life from miles around. Billabong comes from the Wiradjuri language, and Aboriginal people have known and cared for these places for tens of thousands of years.
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