Extreme Heat, Drought Just More Garbage On The Pyre For The Platypus, Facing Habitat Destruction,

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According to a new study published in the journal Biological Conservation this month, the severe drought conditions and heat, combined with habitat loss and other impacts of human activities, are pushing one of Australia’s most enigmatic and iconic endemic species, the duck-billed platypus, toward extinction.

The study, led by researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, examines the potential impacts on platypus populations from the range of threats the animals are facing, including water resource development, fragmentation of river habitats by dams, land clearing for agriculture, invasive species, global climate change, and increasingly severe periods of drought.

Richard Kingsford, director of the UNSW Sydney Centre for Ecosystem Science and a co-author of the study, noted that platypuses live in areas undergoing extensive human development, which threatens their long-term viability. “These include dams that stop their movements, agriculture which can destroy their burrows, fishing gear and yabby traps which can drown them and invasive foxes which can kill them,” Kingsford said in a statement.


New UNSW research shows the possibility of the iconic Australian platypus becoming extinct because of threats including climate change and human-related habitat loss. Picture: UNSW Science.

According to the research, current climatic conditions together with the impacts of human activities and other threats could lead to platypus abundance declining anywhere from 47% to 66% over the next 50 years and cause the extinction of local platypus populations across about 40% of the species’ range. The study’s lead author, Gilad Bino of UNSW Sydney’s Centre for Ecosystem Science, said that action must be taken immediately to prevent the disappearance of the platypus. “There is an urgent need to implement national conservation efforts for this unique mammal and other species by increasing monitoring, tracking trends, mitigating threats, and protecting and improving management of freshwater habitats,” Bino said in a statement.

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https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/severe-drought-and-other-climate-impacts-are-driving-the-platypus-towards-extinction/