Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images
While not officially listed as a threatened species, new research suggests the platypus could be on the brink of extinction due to damaged waterways, land clearing and climate change. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
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Fears droughts and extremely dry conditions over the coming summers in New South Wales could have a devastating impact on the state’s platypus population, have prompted a purpose-built solution.
Taronga Western Plains Zoo will later this year open the doors to its dedicated platypus hospital – a haven for the small Aussie native, complete with everything the little creatures could need.
It will be the only centre in Australia completely dedicated to curious mammal.
Newable speaks with the zoo’s Wildlife Conservation Officer, Phoebe Meagher, this morning, to find out what makes a platypus hospital, and to learn a little more about the curious critter.
Below is an edited transcript of the interview, which you can listen to in full here.
Why is there a need for a dedicated hospital – are platypus numbers declining?
Sadly we’ve seen a 40% decline in platypus numbers since records began, and also a range reduction. So, in a lot of areas where we used to see platypus, we’re no longer seeing them when we do population surveys.
And the really scary thing, is when we put climate modelling into it and we make population predictions, it’s pointing to a 50% further loss over the next 50 years unless we do something about it.
PETER MENKHORST/Sydney Morning Herald
The platypus was recently added to Victoriaâs threatened species list.
Can you explain to us what droughts and extremely dry conditions mean for the platypus?
Platypus pretty much spend most of their time in the water – they do go in to burrows for layineg eggs, but most of the time they do all their foraging, all their mating and other activities in the water. So without water, these platypus don’t have a home.
What happened in the 2019-2020 bushfire-drought season was that these poor platypus had nowhere left to live, so they were then trying to walk through the bush to find refuge and were getting burnt. So, they really were getting attacked from all angles from droughts, to fires.
What does a platypus hospital look like?
We try make it as comfortable as possible. We provide things like waterfalls, and different water temperatures and climate controlled areas. We have earth banks for the platypus to dig in, each platypus has their own 10,000 litre stream of water. We’ve really gone all out for them because that’s what they require.
We also have a research facility which is where we’ll monitor them and we’re going to try and crack the code of breeding, and then hopefully [be able to] release puggles [baby platypus] into the wild.
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