The platypus is a mammal unique to eastern Australia and Tasmania. It is biologically unusual, possessing the bill of a duck, the tail of a beaver, and venomous spurs on its hind legs. This oddity extends to its reproduction, as it is one of the few mammals that lays eggs. This unique life cycle prompts the common question about what its young are called.
What to Call a Baby Platypus
The most widely accepted and popular term for a baby platypus is a “puggle.” The word is purely colloquial, and there is no official scientific designation for the young. The name “puggle” is also used for the young of the echidna, which is the only other mammal species that lays eggs.
Some people occasionally refer to the young as “platypups” or “hatchlings.” However, “puggle” remains the favorite and most commonly used term by researchers and the general public. This informal term provides a simple name for the tiny, helpless creature that begins its life deep inside a riverbank burrow.
The Unique Way Platypuses Reproduce
The platypus belongs to a specialized group of mammals known as monotremes, distinguishing it as one of the few mammals that reproduce by laying eggs. After mating, the female retreats to a specially constructed nesting burrow, which can extend up to 30 meters into the riverbank. The burrow is sealed with soil plugs to protect the nest from water. The female then lays one to three small, leathery eggs, with two being the most common number.
The eggs develop internally for about 28 days before being laid, followed by a short external incubation period of roughly 10 days. During this time, the mother curls around the eggs, pressing them against her body with her tail to provide warmth. This egg-laying method contrasts sharply with placental mammals.
How Puggles Are Raised
After the short incubation period, the tiny puggles emerge from their eggs, measuring less than three centimeters long and completely blind and hairless. The newly hatched young are entirely dependent on their mother for survival inside the nesting burrow. They are born with a temporary “egg tooth” and a fleshy nub called a caruncle, which they use to break through the leathery shell.
The mother feeds her young in a unique way, as she lacks nipples. Milk is secreted from specialized mammary glands through pores in the skin on her abdomen, often described as “sweating milk.” This rich, thick milk collects in grooves on her belly fur, and the blind puggles lap it up.
Puggles remain in the burrow, suckling milk for three to four months. During this time, the mother leaves the burrow only for short foraging trips to maintain her milk supply. By the time they are ready to leave the burrow and begin their aquatic lives, the young are fully furred and about 80% of their adult length. They have lost their temporary teeth, replacing them with keratinous grinding pads.