With a duck bill, beaver tail, webbed feet and a pouch, the platypus is one of the strangest, yet cutest critters around.
Unfortunately, while they may be iconic, we don’t yet have enough information about platypus numbers or distribution. We know that the areas where they still live are shrinking, and that platypus populations are declining. Despite this, we’ve been unable to prove that the rates of decline meet the federal government’s formal threshold to be listed as a threatened species. What this means is that even though they are struggling, platypus need to be formally listed as threatened before they can be nationally protected and receive additional conservation support.
Luckily, there are incredible people on the ground working to gather that critical data.
In partnership with UNSW platypus researcher Dr Gilad Bino, ACF has been running the citizen scientist-powered platy project for the past five years. As part of this year’s project, we joined Gilad on a platypus survey in the upper reaches of the Nerang River in the beautiful Gold Coast Hinterland in South-east Queensland.
Using a gillnet, Gilad carefully caught four platypuses. He then sedated them in order to safely collect samples including DNA, blood, hair, poo and even food from inside their cheek pouches! It’s in these pouches that platypuses store the water bugs they catch before grinding them between the rough pads in their soft rubbery bills.
Surveys provide critical information about platypus populations. Credit: Chris Grose/ACF
The four platypuses were also measured, weighed and micro-chipped so they could be easily identified for future surveys, before being released back into the river.
The average adult platypus measures 400-630 millimetres (males), 370-550 millimetres (females). Credit: Chris Grose/ACF.
Gilad was assisted by volunteers from local conservation organisation Watergum, and the survey was warmly hosted by a local farmer, who, along with her farm manager, had replanted the banks of the Nerang River that ran along their property with native vegetation.
"Platypus are the canaries in the coal mine of our waterways” said Jess Abrahams, ACF’s National Forest Campaigner. "If waterways are healthy, they will provide habitat for wildlife like platypus.
"Farmers have a key role to play in ensuring the health of rivers that run through or alongside their properties. By maintaining stream side vegetation, avoiding chemical runoff, minimising erosion and sedimentation, and keeping livestock away from riverbanks, they can help ensure that their farms provide homes for elusive wildlife like platypus.”
Dr Gilad Bino (UNSW) and Jess Abrahams (ACF). Credit: Chris Grose/ACF.
Over the last five years of the platy project, we’ve added 2,500 sightings to our national map. We now have a measure of survey effort, and that indicates a 25% drop in platypus distribution, but more detailed surveys like this one on the Nerang river give scientists invaluable data on specific populations.
Citizen scientists and academic researchers alone cannot gather the data needed to prove that the platypus is threatened. That is why we are calling on the Albanese Government to invest in a national platypus research and monitoring program. The 10-year program would fund research including environmental DNA sampling and remote river surveys, especially in the western reaches of the species range where climate change, habitat destruction and drought are really taking a toll.
Add your voice: sign the petition to protect our precious platypus.