Larila was in crisis.
The young platypus was stuck on a concrete bridge, frantically searching for safety as flood water thundered below.
Onlookers followed her with phone cameras. Footage of the lost little creature went viral.
This was the first time the world met the platypus that would go on to be named Larila.
She survived the flood, but close inspection of the images shows she was already entangled by the piece of twine …
… that would eventually end her life.
Larila's fate is a warning to us all.
A city mourned the death of one animal, but is Australia putting the platypus in peril?
Platypus swim in the freshwater ecosystems of Australia's east, from tropical Queensland rivers to icy glacier-carved lakes in Tasmania.
Larila was part of a population of platypus that live in the Hobart Rivulet.
The rivulet is born on kunanyi/Mount Wellington.
It starts among the boulder fields and forests of tree ferns, tea trees, and eucalypts.
It tumbles down the mountain and then flows past the historic Cascade Brewery in South Hobart. Here, thorny and invasive blackberry thickets appear on its muddy banks.
Wending its way through a linear park, it picks up escaped rubbish from picnics, pockets, and the nearby tip.
This watercourse was once a crucial source of fresh water for the Muwinina people but, by this stage in its journey, it has become polluted.
Eventually, the Hobart Rivulet reaches the city where its banks of soil and stone morph into concrete drains until the now-polluted water drains into the Derwent Estuary.
Satellite imagery: ESRI
Months after the flooding was long forgotten, Larila came to prominence again when South Hobart woman Westerly Isbah spotted her by the boulder trap that creates an artificial pool on the rivulet at Cascade Gardens.
The boulder trap sits at the bottom of Cascade Gardens, built to recreate a pool to help control the flow of the water.
Ms Isbah said, as she watched Larila swim about in the pool, she "saw this deep indentation in its fur".
She called wildlife rescue and the platypus was taken into care.
It had been six months since the flood and the piece of twine that was wrapped around Larila then was now cutting deeply into her neck and foot.
"When she went to the vet initially, she was really dehydrated and hypothermic," said Melissa Irons, the manager of critical care at Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary.
"She had low blood sugar because she probably hadn't been eating."
The twine had worked its way so deeply into Larila's flesh that it needed to be removed surgically.
Hobartians were horrified when they saw news and social media reports about the little monotreme's situation.
Gardeners collected worms and grubs from their yards to help feed her, and an internet poll came up with the name Larila — the palawa kani word for platypus.
"She did improve a little bit over a few days," Ms Irons said.
But Larila's injuries had been too severe and she died just over a week after being taken into care.
"Everyone was so elated when she was rescued, and everyone was utterly shattered when we found out she had died. We were in tears," Ms Isbah said.
Have humans made the environment unsuitable for platypus?
Rubbish, such as the twine that entangled Larila, is relatively new to Australia considering her ancestors have been on this land for more than 125 million years.
"To me, it's by far and away the most amazing Australian mammal because it's an ancient survivor from the age of dinosaurs," said Professor Tim Flannery, visiting fellow of the Australian Museum.
Platypus, and their spiky echidna cousins, are monotremes — the only mammals that lay eggs.
Around 180 million years ago, when all mammals were furry critters scurrying under the feet of dinosaurs, monotremes separated from the lineage that would eventually become non-egg-laying mammals.
Early monotremes evolved a complex ability that still gives them an edge today — the power to sense electrical impulses created by the muscle movement of their prey.
When platypus dive they close their eyes, ears, and nostrils and sense for prey by moving their leathery electro-sensitive bill back and forth like a metal detector.
This ability is evidenced by the 126-million-year-old fossil jawbone of the earliest and smallest monotreme species, a shrew-like creature called Teinolophos trusleri.
"It didn't have a bill, but the structures in the jaw suggest it could sense the electric impulses of its prey," Professor Flannery said.
The specimen was found at Flat Rocks near Inverloch in Victoria, which at the time of Teinolophos trusleri would have been in the Antarctic Circle, part of the land mass known as Gondwana.
Earth was warmer then and there were plants and dinosaurs living at the poles.
Teinolophos trusleri looked more like a shrew than what we know as platypus.
The first recognisable platypus fossil is about 72 million years old — Patagorhynchus pascuali — and was found not in Australia but in South America, which was also part of the Gondwanan supercontinent.
This creature would have looked like a "platypus with teeth", according to Professor Flannery.
Loading...Toothed platypus survived the extinction event that ended the reign of the dinosaurs, and their fossils can be found in the Lake Eyre Basin dating back 25 million years.
Platypus only ditched their teeth around three million years ago, replacing them with grinding plates inside their bills and becoming the monotreme we know today.
By now, the platypus was restricted to the Australian continent, which was in glorious isolation slowly drifting north — as it still is.
Platypus versus humans
The land known today as Australia has changed a lot since humans first arrived at least 65,000 years ago when they would have encountered megafauna such as thylacoleo (the "marsupial lion") and diprotodon, a car-sized relative of the wombat.
While those mighty species had died out 25,000 years ago, the unassuming platypus paddled on.
It became a culturally significant animal, featured in the stories, myths, and art of many Aboriginal nations, and was valued for its pelt and rich, fatty meat.
Estimating the range and abundance of platypus pre-colonisation would be "relatively meaningless and inaccurate", according to Dr Gilad Bino, platypus biologist and senior lecturer at the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of NSW.
However, historical newspaper articles uncovered by platypus researcher Tahneal Hawke hint at a time when the now-elusive creature was more plentiful.
On August 31, 1865, in the Queanbeyan Age and General Advertiser, the Sydney Morning Herald's wandering reporter wrote:
" … Platypi are very numerous indeed on the Shoalhaven River, and that a gentleman resident there informed me that he could usually shoot 16 or 18 in a few hours … "
The article also shows the casual intensity with which they were being hunted:
"Mr Crommelin, of Araluen, showed me a very handsome coat he had made from the skins of the platypi shot by himself.
"It was in the shape of the ordinary shooting coat, and contained between 70 and 80 skins.
"As you may guess from the nature of the animal, the skin is impervious to wet, and the coat is consequently a waterproof of the very first quality."
The demand for platypus fur, which after the sea otter is the second densest of all mammals, was intense.
On August 26, 1938, AG Miller reported in the Nowra Leader that a trapper in Illawarra had said:
" … that he had sold 29,000 furs before the war. Even allowing for exaggeration, this man did more than his share towards exterminating Australia's strangest mammal."
We don't really know how the platypus is doing
Comparing historical records to sightings logged by citizen scientists on a platform called The Platy-Project has allowed Dr Bino and his team to begin estimating how the population has declined.
The project also creates a picture of where platypus are found today.
"There are a whole swath of areas where platypuses have been where they are now extinct," Dr Bino said.
"We've driven them to extinction in South Australia, and they have experienced significant declines, even local extinctions, in many of the rivers throughout the Murray-Darling Basin due to river regulation and land clearing."
In many of the areas where platypus persist their numbers have declined but, without rigorous records detailing how many used to be there, our understanding of that decline is compromised.
Loading...Today, teams of researchers are actively monitoring select populations.
"What we really need is a coordinated way of monitoring platypuses across their range and a better understanding of their threats in each one of those areas," Dr Bino said.
"You do need a coordinated approach [across states] … political borders don't impact it [the platypus]."
While Dr Bino does not think the platypus is in immediate danger of going extinct entirely, he does warn that local extinctions are common.
Platypus under threat from all sides
Loading...Modern threats to the platypus range from the cataclysmically huge to the heartbreakingly small.
"The biggest problem they are facing is climate change and all that goes with it," said Dr Jessica Thomas, platypus keeper at Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria.
The changing climate is increasing the intensity and severity of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and fires.
Platypus nest in burrows. They live long lives and only raise a few platypups at a time, often taking a year off between breeding seasons.
"Those nesting burrows flood and the young die or the female platypus can't find an appropriate place to dig her nesting burrow. Having multiple years of flooding in a row can have a huge impact on a population," Dr Thomas said.
Dr Bino agreed climate change was a huge threat and pointed to how the impact of drought was compounded by the damming of rivers, water management, pollution, and invasive species such as foxes.
Platypus are voracious predators — eating up to 20 per cent of their body weight in freshwater invertebrates every day, even more when they are producing milk for their platypups. Without enough rain, this food becomes scarce.
Roads and dams divide habitat and prevent individual platypus from moving when their patch gets too dry or prey is limited.
"Our urban rivers are really fragmented and over time will lead to the extinction of platypuses in the rivers," Dr Bino said.
But even when times are good, platypus are in peril — drowning in yabby traps, getting caught in fishing line, and becoming tangled in rubbish.
Urbanisation of the platypus
Animals like Larila prove the species can live even within walking distance of a major city.
But it is in these urban environments that individual platypus are often in the greatest danger.
Dr Thomas often sees those attacked by dogs — these attacks can be quick with a dog grabbing, shaking, and killing a platypus without the dog's owner even noticing.
"They get tangled in rubbish all the time," she said.
Small items, like the piece of twine that entangled Larila, or hair ties are often enough to end a platypus's life.
What can we do?
Platypus need protection at a national, state, and local scale, according to the researchers.
"At a national scale we need monitoring and data to know whether what we are doing is beneficial or not," Dr Bino said.
"Either at a national or a state level you need a conservation plan for when the next drought hits.
"If need be, we might need to undertake interventions and rescues."
Platypus populations can also benefit from restoring vegetation in freshwater ecosystems.
This could be done by replanting and "making sure there are incentives for fencing off cattle from rivers so they don't destroy riverbanks", Dr Bino said.
Once rivers are restored, platypus can be returned to places where they have been extinct.
"That has been done in the Royal National Park [in NSW]; that river can now support platypus so we have reintroduced them."
Grassroots action from communities in platypus habitat is also crucial for their survival, Dr Bino said.
In South Hobart, residents have been galvanised by Larila's death and are determined to protect platypus that still live in the rivulet.
Posters sprung up around the suburb and a clean-up of the rivulet was organised by South Hobart Primary students Eva, Audrey, and Eilis.
"In a perfect world, the platypi and other creatures in the rivulet would be OK ... we don't live in a perfect world, but if we all make a choice to be kind to the environment and animals, we can all work together to make that happen," Eilis said.
"We need to remember to think about our animals — rubbish in the bin, pick it up if it's on the ground, even if it's not yours — and remember Larila. Do it for her."
Watch The Platypus Guardian on ABC iview.
Credits
- Reporting: Zoe Kean
- Design, mapping and digital production: Teresa Tan
- Digital editor: Carol Rääbus
- Mobile footage: Angus Thornett
- Video: Wildbear/Tetrapod, @HobartRivuletPlatypus (Instagram/Facebook), Teresa Tan
- Stills/Photography: Wildbear/Tetrapod, Adam Fry, @HobartRivuletPlatypus (Instagram/Facebook), Teresa Tan
- Special thanks: Pete Walsh, Ben Masterman, John Gooderham