Platypus survey success

The recapture of a 12-year-old male platypus in a Wimmera Catchment Management Authority spring survey has waterway managers hopeful for the population’s future.

The authority ran a combination of live-trapping and EDNA sampling in the Mackenzie River in the northern Grampians, checking in on the monotreme’s condition.

Senior wildlife ecologist Josh Griffiths, who has been monitoring the only-known Wimmera population for the past decade, captured three platypuses, including a male he previously found in 2010.

Mr Griffiths said the platypus was found 10 kilometres from its first capture, when he estimated the animal to have been about two to three years old at the time.

He said the find provided evidence that Wimmera Catchment Management Authority’s environmental flow program was on track.

“It’s fantastic to recapture him and know that he has survived the past nine years,” he said.

“Also exciting is the fact that I have not caught anything this far downstream of Zumsteins since I started surveying for the CMA 10 years ago.

“This capture backs up EDNA results from the past four years, which have indicated platypus are in this section of the river, and demonstrates that environmental water releases have provided the opportunity for them to move further downstream.”

The other two captures in the survey included a two-year-old male on the first night of live-trapping, and another two-year-old male on the third night, which Josh named ‘Rupert’ in memory of a survey volunteer’s father.

Mr Griffiths said despite the survey’s success, the team had initially hoped for more live captures.

“It’s a reminder that this is still a small and fragile population,” he said.

“Platypus are slow to breed, so it is going to take a long time for them to recover from the millennium drought and Grampians bushfires.

“We also had summer floods in 2011 and are not sure how many platypus, particularly the juveniles who would have still been in their burrows, survived.”

Laharum Primary School students and Laharum Landcare Group were also involved in the spring surveys as part of a hands-on science session.

Mr Griffiths said community involvement and volunteers were key to ensuring the population’s survival.

“We rely on the community to help us keep track of this population by having them report their sightings,” he said.

People can report platypus sightings to the platypusspot app or online at website www. platypusspot.org.

Wimmera CMA has also put out a community call to help name two platypus captured in the spring surveys.

People can suggest names on the authority’s Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages.