Victorians urged to help scientists count vulnerable platypuses
We’re sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later.
Dismiss
Normal text size
Advertisement
By the end of the millennium drought, the creeks in Victoria s Wimmera region had dried out and contracted so much that parched river beds and isolated muddy pools were all that remained.
Locals in the Western Grampians reported seeing up to a dozen platypuses struggling in one muddy puddle on the Mackenzie River, and the local population of these shy monotremes almost disappeared.
One method to determine the distribution of platypus, is to look for traces of their DNA that have been washed downstream. Here, a member of the research team for EnviroDNA, Lisa Kirkland, draws a sample of water in a syringe.