As in other monotremes, the limbs of the platypus are set in a permanent push-up position, the upper limb bones extending out from the sides of the body, horizontal to the ground, the lower limb bones going straight down. The body is somewhat flattened and streamlined. As the platypus dives, the two fur layers trap a layer of air next to the skin, thus keeping the body dry and helping to insulate it against cold while the platypus swims, often throughout the night, and sometimes in temperatures close to freezing. The fur has two layers, an undercoat with a woolly texture and an overcoat of coarser hair. Platypus fur is fine, soft, and dense, with up to 900 hairs per square inch of skin. The pelt color varies from dark amber to very dark brown on the platypus's back and sides, and from grayish white to yellowish brown on the underbelly. Most of the body is covered with fine, soft fur. The scientific name, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, means, in Latin, 'bird-snout, resembling a duck.' The plural is 'platypuses' or just 'platypus.' The word 'platypus' means 'flat feet,' referring to the animal's webbed, somewhat ducklike feet. The nostrils are set close together on the top of the upper bill. The bill has an upper and lower section, like that of a mammal or bird, and the jaw hinging and motions are like those of mammals. The snout, despite its duckbill shape, is soft, moist, and rubbery in texture, not hard like a bird's beak. An adult platypus, about the size of a house cat, weighs from 3 to 5 pounds (1.5 to 2.5 kilograms), its adult head and body length runs 12 to 18 inches (30 to 45 centimeters), and the tail adds another 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 centimeters). Platypuses need intact riverbanks, says Gilad, because it’s where they burrow and nest (platypuses don’t have a pouch, so the female will curl herself around the egg to keep it warm).ĭroughts that could be worsened by climate change affect the freshwater habitats, as waterways dry out or become too shallow.DUCK-BILLED PLATYPUS: Ornithorhynchidae PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICSĪ platypus, at first glance, resembles an otter with a duck's bill on its face and a beaver's tail in back. Water extraction from rivers and creeks, the building of dams and weirs that create obstacles, and river bank erosion from land clearing all have an impact. Gilad says its modern-day threats are compounding. They’re a monotreme – an egg-laying mammal – and have an evolutionary history going back at least 120m years. The platypus is known to exist from far north Queensland to Tasmania – a distance of about 2,900km (1,800 miles) – in freshwater rivers across a range of habitats from tropical to semi-arid, temperate and alpine areas. Most Australians have never seen one,” he says. He says there are historic newspaper reports of people describing seeing “platypus migrations”, with dozens seen at once. Once gone from these suburban waterways, Brunt says it’s unlikely platypus could find their way back in.ĭr Gilad Bino, a platypus researcher at the University of New South Wales Centre for Ecosystem Science, helped compile research that went to the Australian federal government to ask the platypus be listed as a vulnerable species. “Because of how elusive they are, we could be losing them without knowing because we’re just not regularly monitoring them,” says Brunt.

In 21 of the waterways, they had records of platypus sightings between 19.īy analysing water samples for the DNA of platypuses (excreted mainly in poo and wee), researchers can tell if the animal is in the water without having to see them. That makes them not only hard to see, but difficult to monitor.īrunt and her colleagues used a new environmental DNA sampling technique to check 28 rivers and creeks for platypuses. They’re nocturnal, skittish and tend not to make a literal splash. The researchers joined conservationists to nominate the platypus for threatened species status. In November, researchers at the University of New South Wales found the habitat for platypus had shrunk by almost a quarter in the past 30 years. “It’s scary to think that we have already had these populations disappear under our noses,” Tamielle Brunt, lead author and a researcher at the University of Queensland, says.īrunt runs the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland’s PlatypusWatch network. Brisbane’s Kedron Brook, where researchers took water samples in their search for platypusesĪ new study, in the journal Australian Mammalogy, is further evidence the once widespread mammal is in trouble in Australia – it’s only home on the planet.

Blue platypus