![]() He says: ”There is an urgent need for a national risk assessment for the platypus to assess its conservation status, evaluate risks and impacts, and prioritise management in order to minimise any risk of extinction.”Īlarmingly, the study estimated that under current climate conditions and due to land clearing and fragmentation by dams, platypus numbers almost halved, leading to the extinction of local populations across about 40 per cent of the species’ range, reflecting ongoing declines since European colonisation. Lead author Dr Gilad Bino, a researcher at the UNSW Centre for Ecosystem Science, said action must be taken now to prevent the platypus from disappearing from our waterways. Published in the international scientific journal Biological Conservation this month, the study examined the potentially devastating combination of threats to platypus populations, including water resource development, land clearing, climate change and increasingly severe periods of drought. The study was led by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney’s Centre for Ecosystem Science, funded through a UNSW-led Australian Research Council project and supported by the Taronga Conservation Society. This does not mean that it is free from threats, and sadly a new study has for the first time examined the risks of extinction for this animal and found that Australia’s drought is having a huge impact, with rivers drying up and platypuses being stranded. Until the early 20th century, humans hunted the platypus for its fur, however it is now protected throughout its range and has been since 1905. Local changes and fragmentation of distribution due to human modification of its habitat have however been documented. Platypuses were once considered widespread across the eastern Australian mainland and Tasmania, although not a lot is known about their distribution or abundance because of the species’ secretive and nocturnal nature. ![]() On land, however, they are a bit more awkward, although the webbing on their feet retract to reveal nails that allow it to run and dig burrows – in which, the females lay eggs, only one of two mammals to do so (the other being the echidna). Platypuses do not have teeth, so the bits of gravel help them “chew” their meal.Īs well as the adaptations listed above, they have folds of skin that cover their ears and eyes when underwater and their nostrils can close to form a watertight seal. All this material is stored in cheek pouches and, at the surface, mashed for consumption. They scoop up insects and larvae, shellfish, and worms in their bill along with bits of gravel and mud from the bottom. They are also, somewhat surprisingly, a venomous animal – males have sharp stingers on the heels of their rear feet and can use them to deliver a strong toxic blow to anything that comes too close.Īs their strange bodies indicate, they are at home in the water where they hunt for food using their sensitive bill that detects the electric fields generated by the muscular contractions of its prey. It can probably be best described as a mixture of several other animals – a duck, with its bill and webbed feet, an otter’s fur and body and a beaver’s tail. ![]() So unlikely that the first scientists to examine a specimen thought it was a hoax. ![]() ![]() The duck-billed platypus is one of nature’s most unlikely animals. Kuhnert.Ĭopyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 Wellcome duck billed platypus (watermole). Colour lithograph afterĬredit: Wellcome Library, London. By Alex Taylor on 26th January 2020 in Animal Conservation, Climate Change, Research, World Conservation Issues Image: V0021174ER A duck billed platypus (watermole). ![]()
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