The platypus is one of Australia’s most unique and wonderful creatures, but without valuable research and legal protection, we could risk losing them forever.
The mysterious platypus is incredibly elusive and we have limited data on their numbers in the wild. And if we don’t know exactly how an animal is faring, we can’t take the steps needed to adequately protect it. Through the work of platypus researchers and citizen scientists, we now know that platypus populations are in serious decline.
These amazing monotremes are facing constant threats from land clearing, dams, bush fires, and droughts, and yet despite what we now know about their declining population, they are not currently listed as a threatened species under Australia’s national nature laws.
ACF, alongside platypus experts around the country, are calling on the Federal government to fund a $30 million ten-year national platypus research and monitoring program. A national program will provide the critical data needed to prove that the platypus really is threatened. Once that happens, our national nature laws will kick in, requiring:
- federal approval for nature destruction that will significantly impact platypus,
- a recovery plan to revive platypus populations,
- threat reduction plans which will have a flow on effect for other animals that rely on the same waterways that the platypus calls home.
Sign our petition now:
Petition demands
“Dear Minister Watt,
The platypus is unlike any other animal on Earth and is an irreplaceable part of our natural and cultural heritage.
We know the species is in serious decline across much of its range, but we don’t have the data to know precisely how fast we’re losing platypus from our waterways.
Which is why I’m asking that you fund a $30 million ten-year national platypus research and monitoring program that would gather the data needed to prove that the species is vulnerable to extinction under Australian environment law, helping to secure the platypus the protection that it vitally needs.
The platypus faces growing pressures from land clearing, dams, climate change, drought and bushfire, yet the species has no national conservation status and no national program to tell us how it is faring.
Platy-Project citizen scientists have done their part to help gather the missing data on platypus decline. Now the Federal government needs to step up and help save this iconic creature.
Please fund this program and help save the platypus”