THIS JUST IN: Tiny Velvety Platypi

by Meg on August 11, 2008

Check these morsels out. They’ve got a combination of velvety Sharpei rolls, evil webbed otter paws, and perfectly machined drilled nostril holes.

Snork-snork [double nostril-hole sniffing sound]

5

Let’s dip them in chocolate and call it the "Pudgy ‘n’ Velvety" bar, then smoosh it in our faces, OK Sasha F.?

{ 104 comments }

1 Dara 08.11.08 at 2:28 pm

Cutie-pie platypi!

2 Juniper Jupiter 08.11.08 at 2:30 pm

So THAT’S what Ornithorhynchus Anatinus Platypus looked like when she was born…but I thought she had red hair, not bald, and had a twin? That’s how she looked on Mr. Rogers! :)

3 Katrina 08.11.08 at 2:30 pm

Gotta hand it to ya, Meg, you’ve outdone yourself in the exotic animal category!
Cute little puppies, kits, lambs, things…..

4 Juniper Jupiter 08.11.08 at 2:31 pm

^^^should read, not bald, and DIDN’T have a twin…sorry, carry on!

5 Kris 08.11.08 at 2:34 pm

AWESOME! They look so soft!

6 Babs 08.11.08 at 2:36 pm

Okay, those? Are AWESOME! So anerrrrrrrable! I lof dem! I must haf dem! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Ahem.

7 Wombats 08.11.08 at 2:39 pm

OMG! Chubbeh Platypushumuses!

8 Toni 08.11.08 at 2:42 pm

Puggles!!!!

I loves Puggles

9 Desdemona 08.11.08 at 2:44 pm

There you go, proof positive that behbeh anythings are cute!

10 Angela 08.11.08 at 2:50 pm

Dunno why, but those remind me of a boy I went to pre-school with. His name was Peter Valentine.

11 aloria 08.11.08 at 2:53 pm

OMG. look at the chub rolls on the armz!

12 Barbara 08.11.08 at 2:55 pm

Oh my God!!

WANT
WANT
WANT

13 ashagato 08.11.08 at 2:57 pm

desde, you took the words right outta my mouf…

if it’s a bebeh, it’s cute!

14 Michelle 08.11.08 at 2:59 pm

The cutest thing about em? THEY HATCH OUT OF EGGS, PEOPLE!

<3 <3

15 embertine 08.11.08 at 3:02 pm

That picture actually made me gasp loudly enough to alarm my colleagues. I want to rub them all around my face.

16 Erebella 08.11.08 at 3:03 pm

Wow, they sorta look like teeny seals with beaks. A sealypus!

17 syber 08.11.08 at 3:07 pm

this is too much cute to be real – it must be a fake! (hat tip to the early australian explorers).

Please sir, I want some more.

18 Eastie 08.11.08 at 3:14 pm

Awwww…the chub rolls! So cute. They do look soft. *pets screen*

19 steppy 08.11.08 at 3:14 pm

me wants all to myself for snorgling. Too precious . . . . Ker THUD

20 cheesybird 08.11.08 at 3:26 pm

Me too, embertine! I very rarely literally gasp, but this post elicited an huge, audible *GASP* from me! Me loves me some platybabies!!!

21 Cait 08.11.08 at 3:29 pm

I second Toni. Puggles!!!! (I just lurve it when the name of a thing is as cute as the thing itself, and bebeh platypi are actually called puggles. It doesn’t get much better than that.)

22 MAB 08.11.08 at 3:32 pm

http://www.australianfauna.com/platypus.php

Baby platypus- not puggles actually.
“A baby platypus is not called a puggle, which seems to be a common misconception. There is no official name for a baby platypus, but a common suggested name is “platypup”.”
-according to Australia’s Flora/Fauna website.

Rats.

23 Limegirl 08.11.08 at 3:36 pm

I have eaten
the platybabies
that were in
the nestbox

and which
you were probably
saving
for nomming.

Forgive me
they were velvety
so sweet
and so pudgy.

24 chapeaunoir 08.11.08 at 3:36 pm

Actually, ahem, the plural of platypus is “platypode.” Platypus is a Greek word, not Latin, so the us=i suffix doesn’t apply.

How do I know this you ask? Daughter did a school project.

(This doesn’t qualify as nufferdom, does it?)

25 Theresa 08.11.08 at 3:37 pm

[gasp] WHERE ARE THEY????!!!
I DEMAND TO KNOW!!!

26 Seven Paws 08.11.08 at 3:42 pm

For some reason, this calls to mind the official word for those rolls of fat: “collops” You could look it up.

27 scooterpants 08.11.08 at 3:48 pm

just let me hold them just for one moment… i promise i’ll give them right back. (;

28 Jen 08.11.08 at 3:49 pm

Limegirl–BRILLIANT!! Bwahahaha!

29 Jen 08.11.08 at 3:50 pm

And, heck, platypup is quite an adorable name in and of itself…*squeee*

30 claudia 08.11.08 at 3:50 pm

HOLY cow! I had no idea they started out so small… and so pudgy!

31 Tony James 08.11.08 at 3:51 pm

ChapeauNoir – seconded. I get into all sorts of trouble when I refer to multiple octopusses as “octopode”.

32 chanpon 08.11.08 at 3:54 pm

OMG, platypus rolls! They look so chunky and nomable.

33 Erebella 08.11.08 at 4:00 pm

Reminds me of a funny shirt I saw the other day. “I used to skinny dip, now I chunky dunk.”

34 Jessica 08.11.08 at 4:00 pm

OMG!!!! They are lovely!

35 cheesybird 08.11.08 at 4:01 pm

Limegirl, that was brilliant!!

36 amyj 08.11.08 at 4:02 pm

Wow. Too cute for words!! I can feel that velvety softness through my monitor. And the teeny feet, smooth heads, and rolls and rolls of chub are killing me – ded.

37 ceejoe 08.11.08 at 4:05 pm

Yes, I third the idea that all bebehs are cute. Whatever kind of babehs. I saved the life of a babeh possum Friday morning. And he hissed (!) at me. He was so cute and feeeeerce acting. Course he could not bite me (I don’t know anything about possums, so I don’t know if he would have…) because his widdle hayd and one widdle arm, all the way up to his shoulder, were stuck in one of those stupid dome lids on the plastic cups that Wendy’s uses. Stoopid neighbors for leaving stoopid trash laying around outside! But I digress… He was laying there, I’m assuming he was exhausted from struggling. And I’m so glad I came along before the neighbors found him! So… after I put some gloves on, I tried to pull the stoopid lid off, and it wouldn’t come off – I don’t know how on earth he got himself SO stuck in there. I took him into my garage, hissing some more, and cut the stoopid lid a little bit, just enough to pull it over his widdle hayd. Then I took him over to the side of my yard, with overgrown bushes and plants – a dream come true for urban wildlife. And I set him down, and he just laid there. I petted him a little, and I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t know if he was dying, or injured… although he didn’t seem to be injured. I was so worried. So I stepped back.. and he got up and ambled away. HA! playing possum, he was… I hope he was able to find his mama possum.

38 Gus 08.11.08 at 4:10 pm

I don’t wanna be a wet blanket, but isn’t it kind of dangerous handling those guys? Don’t they have a venomous claw or something? That doesn’t detract from the cuteness.

39 Michelle 08.11.08 at 4:14 pm

Collops? Srsly? Who names stuff? I demand to know. Collops, while funny, sounds a bit like some sorta growth you should have surgically removed. I’m gonna petition the name be officially changed to “chub”.

40 WannaSmile 08.11.08 at 4:15 pm

Of all the species, this has to be the most random…yet adorable:)

41 Janeyferr 08.11.08 at 4:16 pm

notice for those in the UK: at 6pm on channel 5 the first episode of “Michaela’s Zoo Babies” begins. eee!

42 Kris 08.11.08 at 4:27 pm

Limegirl – that was EXCELLENT!!!

Wonder if the platypode would mind if I rubbed their velvety collops? (Learning by doing! Vocab is FUN!) :o D

Yay for saving the possum!
My dad saved a bird last Friday. It had gotten its head caught in the bird feeder!!! The seed wasn’t far enough out for him to get and he must have forced himself in. My dad had to take the bird feeder down and press and pry to get him out. Must have been one hungry little bird!

43 Annie 08.11.08 at 4:28 pm

CeeJoe nice Rescute.

Tony James and ChapeauNoir
: ) I learn something new all the time on CO.

44 Lyndse 08.11.08 at 4:32 pm

Look out, they’s venomous!

45 Kris 08.11.08 at 4:43 pm

Per the above link, re the venom:
If you thought this was a cute and cuddly Australian animal, well, you are only half correct. The male platypi have a hollow spur about 15 milimetres in length on the inside of both hind legs. This in turn is connected to a venom gland, and the platypus uses this spur to defend itself against predators.

Amazing Fact: The male platypus has venom strong enough to can kill a small dog, or cause excruciating pain among humans.

Since only the male platypus has this venomous spur, and the gland peaks during mating season, many suggest it is normally used in aggressive encounters between other male platypus.

46 doafy 08.11.08 at 4:49 pm

Limegirl, William Carlos Williams would be proud!

47 Aoife 08.11.08 at 4:49 pm

These babies obviously need snorgling. I volunteer!

ceejoe, in my younger days, I did volunteer work at a wildlife center. One summer day, a man brought in an (a?) opossum that had been hit by a car ahead of him. He stopped to check on the opossum, but she had died; however, she had a pouch full of live babies, so he put mom in a box and brought them all in. The babies were uninjured, and I was assigned to care for them because everyone else thought they were too nasty to handle (whereas I’ll tend to any critter that needs help, cute or not). They were wonderful, and tending to them one of my best experiences there. As with cats and dogs, each had it’s own distinct personality. One of our favorite activities was baths. They had to be washed several times a day because they’d poop in the nest I made them, so we’d do nice, warm baths, and, boy, did those little stinkers enjoy the spa treatment!

48 darkshines 08.11.08 at 4:50 pm

I luffs dem.

49 Laura 08.11.08 at 4:56 pm

Aww, platypups! :D

Terry Pratchett says that the platypus is a duck designed by committee. I love them. They’re just so darned ODD.

50 BBM 08.11.08 at 5:14 pm

Oh My! Oh My! (snork, snork) I want to put them in my pockets – for now.

51 littleturkeylegsmom 08.11.08 at 5:16 pm

SHRIEK!

I MUST HAVE AND HUG AND RUB AND EAT THEM! LOOOOOOVE!

*fans self*

And limegirl, awesome! My mom read that poem to me when I was five or six, and it’s still one of my favorites.

52 Kerri 08.11.08 at 5:17 pm

NOM! NOM! NOM! ooh the velvetyness, the perfectly round little nostrils…make it stop…

53 Destiny 08.11.08 at 5:30 pm

Aww! *squee*

WANT!

54 ss 08.11.08 at 5:31 pm

yeah, the platypus poison is supposed to be VERY painful. not necessarily deadly, but very painful. i saw a tv show about venomous creatures and the guy who was stung by a platypus said it was pretty much one of the most painful things he had experienced, worse than being shot.

55 Dogbreath 08.11.08 at 5:35 pm

platypode!!

platypup!!

collops?!

There’s no end to what we can learn at CO.

56 Dogbreath 08.11.08 at 5:39 pm

And, Limegirl, that was brilliant!

And yay to ceejoe, Kris’ dad, and Aoife (and the guy who brought the baby possums in) for their kind-hearted rescues. It’s stuff like that that keeps us all going.

57 Redzilla 08.11.08 at 5:47 pm

Platypupkins! Their squinty sharpei eyes are keeeeling me with qteness.

58 Samantha 08.11.08 at 6:11 pm

So flubtastic! And are these the first platypi to grace CO? If so, I hope there are many more to come.

59 Nooooooo 08.11.08 at 6:15 pm

No larger picture available???????

60 carmen 08.11.08 at 6:22 pm

I want to squeeze them, love them ,and kiss them!

61 Monique 08.11.08 at 6:24 pm

Are they really as soft as they look!?!? I wish that someday, somehow I could pet one!

62 genevieve 08.11.08 at 6:28 pm

If ever a photo needed a C.O.X.C.U., it’s this one. we wuzrobbed of detailed velvets!

63 jmuhj 08.11.08 at 6:34 pm

Fangksez tew thoz whu saiv lyvz. AWL kynz uv lyvz. An KNOW, possi dew KNOT hav “venomous claws”, knoar wud tehy harmyu.

64 Barbara 08.11.08 at 6:47 pm

Well can’t we put some kind of softpaws thing over their scary venomous claw, and then we can snorgle to our hearts’ content?? :-D :-D

65 Lizzy 08.11.08 at 8:07 pm

Dogma flashbacks, anyone? “So please before you think about hurting someone over this trifle of a film, remember: even God has a sense of humor. Just look at the Platypus. Thank you and enjoy the show. P.S. We sincerely apologize to all Platypus enthusiasts out there who are offended by that thoughtless comment about Platypi. We at View Askew respect the noble Platypus, and it is not our intention to slight these stupid creatures in any way.”

Noble Platypi.. platipode… platipuppitude! I bet they fee like pony-noses… so soft! Soooooo velvety. Are they legal pets? Because I WANTS ONE!

I <3 the Unusual Aminals CATegory. Echidnas, pwease?

66 Miss Ruth 08.11.08 at 8:13 pm

At first I thought that these were house hippos.

Yay Barbara – slippers for the platypods!

67 foxy 08.11.08 at 8:34 pm

Yay for house hippos!

That’s what I thought they were at first. I used to love it when that ad came on.

For any of you who didn’t get Canadian TV, just google house hippo and YouTube has it there.

68 berthaservant 08.11.08 at 8:51 pm

And on the seventh day, God lit a doobie and invented the platypus.

69 MoniMe 08.11.08 at 9:27 pm

They are only called collops if you happened to live in Shakespeare’s time. ;)

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=collops&r=66

70 amaretto_bunny 08.11.08 at 9:33 pm

Okay, so I watched the house hippos ad on youtube, since I had no idea what it was, but watching it immediately reminded me of that Looney Tunes cartoon with the tiny elephant. It’s called “Punch Trunk”, and I think that episode is so funny. I had never seen the entire episode until now, after looking it up on youtube, because the only place I had ever seen it was in Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters, and that only showed a few clips of this episode.

Anyways, here’s the episode, if anyone is interested =) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKoNSYFzA_k

71 kat 08.11.08 at 9:41 pm

OMG!! Girlie squeal!!!!!

72 mberkie0 08.11.08 at 10:44 pm

Baby platypuses = platypapooses, non?

73 Berg 08.11.08 at 11:23 pm

Those are either some really big hands, or platypode are smaller than I realized… Too cute!

74 crazyweinerdoglady 08.11.08 at 11:33 pm

I might have to change my name to crazyplatypuslady! Put a rubber stopper over that claw and HUG HUG HUG!!!

75 Angel 08.12.08 at 1:19 am

This just made my day. They are my all time favorite animal, I loves them. After my little kitty passing away over the weekend, this made me smile for the first time in awhile.

76 Gail (the first one) 08.12.08 at 1:49 am

Verrrry cute!!!

@amaretto_bunny: Thanks for the link to the cartoon!!! I loved it!

77 Molly 08.12.08 at 1:50 am

Aack!I want a platypus! More platypus pictures!

78 writtenwyrdd 08.12.08 at 2:12 am

OMG those are the cutest thing ever! Just avoid them poisoned spines on the back feet.

79 Totalee Puppy 08.12.08 at 2:37 am

Velveteen Platypups…Pleez
can I hold? Can I carry out to the wading pool? (Throw rocks in pool for splashing sounds while Totalee Puppy escapes with
platypups…)

80 Totalee Puppy 08.12.08 at 2:44 am

ANGET…Sorry about the little kitty you miss so much…Glad that tender images like this one can give a smile and a little comfort…it takes a little
time…please treat yourself extra nice.

81 Totalee Puppy 08.12.08 at 2:46 am

ANGEL…Sometimes I don’t read a name right…Hope you know that the message above was for you. Warm fuzzies to you,
Totalee Puppy

82 Tugs 08.12.08 at 3:06 am

Juniper Jupiter – Was that the doctor’s wife or daughter?
I always liked Dr. Platypus but Daniel Tiger was my favorite. I was sure I was going to marry him when I grew up.

Angel – I am very sorry for your loss. My furry babies all send you hugs.

83 Fegli 08.12.08 at 3:27 am

Awwww little wrinkly babies! Love ‘em!

84 Totalee Puppy 08.12.08 at 4:16 am

In “The Little Mermaid,”
remember those two little guys in the dark hides who made Ariel’s life miserable because they were
commanded by the Sea Witch?
They were the evil swimmers…Oh no…there can’t be any resemblance..!!

85 eikoleigh 08.12.08 at 5:05 am

omg, what a cute little footsie…. :-)

I can’t believe how cute these guys are. They’re cute as adults and even cuter as little babies/puppies/kits/?????!

86 mya 08.12.08 at 6:37 am

OMG that sweet little footie hanging down all pudgie and webbie and cute!!! That is the bestest – other than those soft squeeeeshie bills and those velvety squeeeeshie bodies – squeeeeeeee :)

87 Subhangi 08.12.08 at 7:01 am

SQUEEEEEE!!! So adorable! Be careful, though – adult platypode are poisonous. Do not attempt to snorgle one!

88 January 08.12.08 at 11:59 am

Eggs, poison claws…these must be from a different hemisphere. Too cute nonetheless.

89 snorglepup 08.12.08 at 12:13 pm

I would risk the claw for a platysnorgle.

90 Tiffany 08.12.08 at 12:22 pm

My mouth literally fell open when I saw this…LITERALLY!

91 snorglepup 08.12.08 at 1:10 pm

OMG! Such freaks of nature! Can’t you see they’re suffering!!!
I’ll “take care” of them for you. No really, I don’t mind.
Please??!!11!

92 bucky 08.12.08 at 1:30 pm

OK here is the new word to use for rolls of fat:

CHUBBLES

93 turbofloof 08.12.08 at 1:41 pm

Hee!

I just changed my logon password to “VelvetyPlatypi”

94 Hon Glad 08.12.08 at 3:15 pm

Days not Platy podes days Moles doing Duck impressions.

95 Theo 08.12.08 at 3:35 pm

TurboFloof — should I check & make sure it works, for you?

96 clair 08.12.08 at 8:43 pm

sooooo cute i love it

97 MMc 08.12.08 at 11:23 pm

OOOH… They’re so leeeettle!!

98 meadowgirl 08.13.08 at 12:53 am

omg all the chub rolls! i can’t. take. the. chuuuuub. rolls.

i love it.

99 Too Late 08.13.08 at 2:32 am

Is it just me or do the hands look like they have some paint on them??? strange…
Love the lil platties… just hope they’re both girls (no poison)

100 rachsne 08.13.08 at 2:56 am

OMG, can I say velvety yumminess? Can i just snorgle the babyfat rolls? please!!!

101 Londoner 08.13.08 at 10:13 am

Omigod I just whimpered at my screen. Aloud. In work. I like them but had no idea they were so cute as babies – and they do look like miniature hippos!
Angel, I’m so sorry about your beastie. Mine send snorgles.

102 anastasia 08.13.08 at 5:18 pm

platypie #1:put me dowwwwn!
platypie #2:just chill, dude.

103 roxysprocket 08.14.08 at 9:54 am

OMG! I want to eat them. NOM

104 Matt 08.21.08 at 8:54 am

Hey. Nice page. I just posted a piece about platypii. I think you will also particularly get a kick out of “KoaLa La Land.” I figured out how I am the missing link between koalas and Matthew McConaughey.
M-

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