Man who took platypus on train trip to appear in court
Forget Snakes on a Plane, an Australian man is in trouble for allegedly taking a platypus on a train.
Police launched an appeal after the 26-year-old was spotted with a woman on a suburban train with a wild platypus wrapped in a towel.
The man is accused of removing the animal from a river in northern Queensland and taking it to a shopping centre.
He is due to appear in court on Saturday over alleged animal protection offences.
“It will be further alleged the pair were observed showing the animal to members of the public at the shopping centre,” Queensland police said.
Railway officers caught the man and have spoken to the woman, police said.
But the fate of the platypus remains a mystery.
“Police were advised the animal was released into the Caboolture river and has not yet been located by authorities,” police said.
CCTV from Tuesday showed a man wearing flip-flops carrying the animal, about the size of a kitten, under his arm on a train platform north of Brisbane.
Under Queensland’s conservation laws, it is illegal to take a platypus from the wild, with a maximum fine of more than A$430,000 ($288,000).
Male platypuses have venomous spurs. “If you are lucky enough to see a platypus in the wild, keep your distance,” police said.
British scientists in the late 18th century thought it was a hoax when they saw their first platypus – with its webbed feet, stubby tail like a beaver’s and bill of a duck.
The animals are native to Australia’s freshwater rivers and are part of a rare group of mammals – the monotremes – that lay eggs.