Printable Platypus Mask

printable platypus mask for kids

When European scientists first saw a platypus specimen, they thought it was a hoax - a beaver's body, a duck's bill, an otter's feet and a venomous spur on the ankle. Our printable platypus mask is just as brilliantly bizarre as the animal itself! Perfect for Australian animals school plays, amazing animals classroom projects, World Book Day, birthday parties, and wonderfully weird imaginative play.

The platypus is one of the most scientifically extraordinary animals alive - a mammal that lays eggs, navigates by detecting electrical fields and has a bill packed with sensory receptors. Every classroom conversation about it ends with genuinely stunned children. Every mask comes with a full colour version AND a black and white line art version for colouring in.

5 Interesting Facts About Platypuses!

  • The platypus is one of only five surviving monotremes - egg-laying mammals - and one of only two venomous mammals. Males have a hollow spur on their hind ankle connected to a venom gland, capable of causing intense pain.
  • Their bill is packed with around 40,000 electroreceptors that detect the tiny electrical fields generated by muscle movement - they hunt with their eyes, ears and nostrils closed, navigating entirely by electrical sense.
  • When European scientists were first sent a platypus specimen in 1799, they were convinced it was a taxidermist's joke - they prodded it with scissors looking for the stitches where the duck's bill had been attached.
  • Platypus milk is secreted through patches of skin rather than nipples - the mother sweats milk through her belly and the puggle (baby platypus) laps it up from pools in her fur.
  • Platypuses glow under ultraviolet light - researchers discovered in 2020 that their fur absorbs UV light and re-emits it as blue-green fluorescence, a property shared by very few other mammals.