Two Logan City waterways have been identified as areas where the platypus has disappeared in the last four years.
Researchers from the University of Queensland, the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland, the University of Southern Queensland and EnviroDNA Pty Ltd have been tracking the mammals since 2016.
Findings have determined platypus no longer live in the Slacks Creek and Scrubby Creek waterways based on a lack of platypus environmental DNA. Researchers blame urbanisation, which has affected water and habitat quality.
Following a spate of recent studies of national platypus populations, national conservation groups including Australian Conservation Foundation, have nominated the platypus to be listed as a threatened species under Commonwealth and New South Wales processes due to declining numbers.
Paul Sinclair from the Australian Conservation Foundation says there is a real concern that platypus populations will disappear from some of our rivers without returning, if rivers keep degrading.
“We’ve looked in detail, and the numbers of platypus aren’t doing well in lots of rivers, not everywhere, but in lots of rivers,” Mr Sinclair said.
“We’ve actually seen a decline in the observation of platypus on the rivers. That’s put down to some of the major changes occurring in our rivers, particularly where we’ve got lots of threats, such as large dams, land clearing where it affects platypus burrows, and increasingly in urban areas we’re finding pollution as well.”
But Professor Kingsford says there are ways people can help to keep platypus off the endangered list by keeping our riverbanks clean and free of threats, like yabby traps and fishing tackle which can drown platypus.
“If we got our rivers really healthy and clean, and didn’t take too much water out of the rivers, then things would certainly improve,” Mr Sinclair said.
