A semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal with a duck-like bill, beaver-like tail and dense fur, native to rivers and streams of eastern Australia. It hunts with its eyes, ears and nostrils closed, detecting prey by electrolocation, and males carry venomous spurs on their hind legs.
Taxonomy
- Order / family / genus
- Monotremata · Ornithorhynchidae · Ornithorhynchus
Conservation
Near threatened
· NTClose to qualifying for a threatened category in the near future.