Jack Ashby

What, really?

Yeah, they're some of the most flexible animals I've ever seen.

And that's because all aquatic mammals tend to have really, with fur, should I say semi-aquatic mammals, tend to have really dense under fur because it's strange to think of, but a platypus can spend 20 odd hours underwater without getting wet.

So their fur is so dense.

in a healthy platypus, that under fur will keep them dry.

And unfortunately for them, that became a major target of the fur industry.

They are the animals with, in the 19th century at least, with the most valuable fur of any Australian mammal.

The young ones have been described as growling in their nests, which I find quite adorable.

You've not heard this yourself?

I've not heard this myself, but people who have excavated them have just described this kind of little puppy-like growl, which is quite adorable.

So again, I think they burrow better than any other burrowing animal I can think of.

If you ever watch most burrowing animals, what they're doing is kicking out soil behind them.

So they kind of excavate a bit and they'll push the soil backwards and then you'll see these big spoil heaps of soil outside their burrows.

Which makes them easy to find.

Exactly.

Plus, if you watch marmots, which are kind of like the European version of a wombat, and they just...

just seeing showers of soil flying out the ground behind them.

But what platypus do is they, at least where the soil's soft enough, is that they kind of just push the soil into the walls.

So they make no spoil heaps, which means they're really hard to find.

They're really strong.