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Australia is set to open the world’s first platypus sanctuary in order to help the native species from going extinct.
The duck-billed platypus, a species unique to Australia, is facing extinction due to bush fires and drought linked to the climate crisis.
By 2022, the Taronga Conservation Society Australia and the New South Wales State government will open the specialist facility at a zoo 391km from Sydney. The facility will consist mostly of ponds and burrows for the semiaquatic creatures.
The refuge will be the first of its kind around the world and will hold up to 65 platypuses in time of crisis.
Taronga chief executive officer Cameron Kerr said: “Right now there is so much to learn about the platypus, and we know so little.
“These facilities will be critical in building our knowledge so that we don’t let this iconic creature slip off the earth.”
Intense wildfires in Australia in late 2019 and early 2020, as well as droughts and reduced rainfall, severely threatened the egg-laying mammal’s existence.
Over the last three decades, platypus habitats have shrunk by up to 22 per cent, or about 200,000 square kilometres.
The platypus is currently listed as endangered in South Australia and is recommended to threatened status in Victoria.
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