Platypus born to translocated animals in Royal National Park despite series of pollution scares

Scientists re-homing a group of platypuses in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney, have located a new six-month-old baby platypus.

Transcript

00:00 A mere 850 grams of semi-aquatic perfection.

00:07 This is the first known platypus juvenile to be born in the waterways of the Royal National

00:12 Park since they disappeared over 50 years ago.

00:19 We were like over the moon.

00:21 It was just amazing and it was so rewarding and so again, like very humbling to be part

00:26 of this mammoth effort.

00:29 She's believed to be a child of one of the six female and four male platypuses rehomed

00:34 into the Hacking River last May as part of the state's first ever translocation project.

00:41 Before this project started we confirmed that there weren't any platypuses here.

00:45 She's here to call the Royal National Park her home.

00:50 Hopeful of a successful breeding season last year, researchers conducted a weekend of night

00:56 time surveys, but finding the mammal is no small task.

01:00 It's really looking for a needle in a haystack.

01:03 Last August, thick black sediment from metropolitan colliery contaminated Camp Gully Creek upstream,

01:10 threatening the park's biodiversity.

01:12 Fortunately there was no immediate harm to the platypuses.

01:16 We have this terrible irony here where we have the oldest running coal mine in Australia

01:22 operating right next to Australia's oldest national park.

01:26 At some point we have to ask ourselves, which do we value more?

01:30 The proof is in this project that the water quality is better than it was and that it

01:35 is able to hold and look after platypus in the wild.

01:41 That's why this project is so important.

01:43 The government says it will legislate stronger powers for the environmental watchdog, which

01:48 can't come soon enough for the state's future puggle population.

01:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]