The future of the platypus, a unique duck-billed, egg-laying mammal only found in Australia, is under threat because they cannot climb over tall river dams, according to a new study.
The future of the platypus, a unique duck-billed, egg-laying mammal only found in Australia, is under threat because they cannot climb over tall river dams, according to a new study.
The platypus is an oddity in many ways. As well as its duck-like bill and egg-laying, it is a rare venomous mammal, brandishing centimeter-long poisonous spurs on its hind legs.
They are also one of the only mammals who can locate prey by detecting electric fields and whose fur glows blue-green under an ultraviolet light. Platypuses even have 10 sex chromosomes—most mammals have two.
But the number of platypuses has fallen by 50 percent since Europeans settled Australia more than two centuries ago, according to previous research.
Its habitat has increasingly come under threat from climate change-fuelled extreme weather events including drought and fire. They are also preyed upon by invasive species such as foxes, cats and dogs.
A new study published in the journal Communications Biology this week identified a new threat: platypuses are not able to climb over large, human-madedams in rivers.
