Platypus DNA

If you’ve ever walked through an Australian national park past a water source signposted as a platypus habitat, you will know these unique creatures are intensely aloof. Increasing scientific interest in platypus populations has been sparked by concerns of localised extinction in some areas, as well as the endearingly odd-looking creatures being recently reclassified as ‘near threatened’ on the list of endangered species. Which is why researchers at Western Sydney University and the Melbourne University have both recently launched projects to detect them using something called environmental DNA, or eDNA