Climate change pushing Australia's platypus towards extinction: researchers

https://news.yahoo.com/climate-change-pushing-australias-platypus-towards-extinction-researchers-020707585.html

AFP•January 19, 2020

Prolonged drought and other effects of climate change are pushing Australia's unique platypus population towards extinction, scientists warned in a study published Monday.

The river-dwelling animal has already disappeared from up to 40 percent of its historical range on Australia's east coast due to the drought, land clearing, pollution and building of dams, which fragment their habitat, the researchers said.

They predicted that if the current threats persist, platypus numbers will fall another 47-66 percent over the next 50 years.

If projections about worsening climate change are taken into account, the numbers of the duck-billed, egg-laying mammal could plummet up to 73 percent by 2070, they wrote.

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The survey estimated the total platypus population had fallen by 50 percent since European settlement of the continent two centuries ago.

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The new study comes as unprecedented bushfires ravage vast areas of eastern Australia, fuelled by the drought and record-high temperatures.

The platypus, which along with four species of echidna are the only mammals that lay eggs, is one of the world's strangest animals, with the bill of a duck, tail of a beaver, otter-like feet and a venomous spur on its hind leg.