Monitoring at Bullockhead Creek with @BrisbaneCityQLD and @Wildlifeqld reveals a platypus travelled over 18km, highlighting the importance of connected waterways for their survival. Collaborating with diverse stakeholders is crucial to protect our waterways Ecosystem Science

Puggles hatch from eggs after ~10 days and nurse from milk patches in their mother’s burrow for 3-4 months. At emergence, they’re about 80% of adult size, with venomous spurs already forming in males. They start hunting small prey like insects and crustaceans right away

An important CEWH funded research project is looking at the impact of #waterfortheenvironment on Northern Basin platypus. UNSW & CEWH staff conducted monitoring in the Severn River (NSW) & also visited Ashford Central School to deliver a platypus ecology session. Platypus Conservation Initiative

The platypus sports the second-densest fur among mammals—up to 800 hairs per square millimeter, just behind the sea otter's 1,000 hpsm. This waterproof coat, with coarse guard hairs and soft underfur, traps air to insulate against cold water, perfect for chilly streams.

Fossil find shakes up platypus & echidna origins! A 100M-year-old bone suggests their ancestor, Kryoryctes, was a swimmer, not a land-dweller. #Science #Wildlife edition.cnn.com/2025/04/30/sci…

Ahrens (2025) shows Melbourne’s smaller dams (~30-40m) allow platypus gene flow, sustaining connectivity. But Mijangos (2022) finds tall dams (>70m) block migration, increasing genetic divergence. Bypass structures and translocation across large dams are key for platypus

After 62 years, it lives! Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna, one of the world’s rarest mammals, has been rediscovered in New Guinea. Guided by Indigenous knowledge, researchers captured it using camera traps. nature.com/articles/s4418…