Exciting news for nature lovers Down Under! Platypuses are back within the boundaries of Australia’s Royal National Park after disappearing from sight in the 1970s. So, what facilitated this fantastic turnaround in residency? Unfortunately, this isn’t one of those “Oh, we thought they were extinct” moments where decades later, the animals are seen on a […]
Tag: Platypus
Tiny, Spiny Mammal Finds Interesting Ways to Stay Cool in the Heat
We all have tricks for keeping cool when it gets a bit too toasty out. Maybe it’s a wet cloth on our necks or a kiddie pool with some cold water for our feet. A spiny, egg-laying mammal found in Australia and New Guinea has its own tricks. The echidna, which has a lower body […]
Fears for platypus populations after flooding in Queensland and NSW
There are fears that platypus populations might have been wiped out by recent floods in greater Brisbane, sparking new calls for the species to be nationally recognised as threatened. While the platypus is endangered in South Australia and was listed as vulnerable in Victoria last year, the iconic monotreme is not officially considered threatened in […]
‘Glum future for the platypus’: why the elusive mammal is disappearing under our noses
It is dusk beside a creek and we are instructed to look for a trail of bubbles, under which could be one of the world’s weirdest mammals. When you’re desperate to see a platypus in the fading light, everything looks like one. Floating logs from bank-side paperbark trees, gyrating leaves caught in a dance with the […]
‘Something’s going to give’: Platypus staring down the barrel of extinction
Platypus are one step closer to being listed as vulnerable to extinction in Victoria. Citing “mounting evidence” that numbers of these aquatic monotremes have “reduced significantly”, the Scientific Advisory Committee issued a preliminary recommendation that it be listed as threatened. Drought, bushfire, climate change, habitat destruction and human population growth have all been listed as […]
Petition: Ask Queensland to Protect Declining Platypus Population!
Platypuses are beautiful, odd little creatures. The best way to describe them is a combination of duck, otter, and beaver. But they are very special in Australia and people love randomly seeing a platypus in the wild. However, their populations have been sadly declining silently. They can typically be found along the East Coast, but […]
Platypus milk: unlikely weapon in fight against superbugs
They are duck-billed, egg-laying, semi-aquatic mammals with poisonous spurs on their webbed feet: the Australian platypus is so weird that early European zoologists thought it must be an elaborate hoax. But now a team of Australian scientists have found something else unique to the strange little animals: their milk has a novel chemical structure that […]
Platypus | Ornithorhynchus anatinus
Early one morning during my Australian trip I headed out along the Condamine River to a quiet spot that I had noticed on a previous excursion. Here the river widened around a bend, forming a slow-flowing, lagoon-like stretch of water that had reeds and grasses along its edges. When I first saw this part of […]