Australian Mammal Platypus on 'Brink of Extinction', because of Climate Change: New Study Reveals

Australia has plagued since last year because of the severe drought that has plagued has been considered as one of the worst in recent decades also dried up the river habitats of these poisonous and nocturnal animals which are endemic to eastern Australia and Tasmania.

The platypus, is on the brink of extinction who is an iconic Australian mammal with a duckbill and a beaver-like tail. As per the studies published on Monday, Climate change is the main reason behind this and the loss of its habitat due to human development.

Australia has plagued since last year because of the severe drought that has plagued has been considered as one of the worst in recent decades also dried up the river habitats of these poisonous and nocturnal animals which are endemic to eastern Australia and Tasmani, Efe news reported.

Gilad Bino, a researcher at the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), said in a statement:

"These dangers further expose the platypus to even worse local extinctions with no capacity to repopulate areas."

The platypus lives in areas where human and urban expansion has endangered their lives and destroyed their habitats, indicated by the director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science of the UNSW, Richard Kingsford.

Kingsford said:

"These include dams that stop their movements, agriculture which can destroy their burrows, fishing gear and yabby traps which can drown them, and invasive foxes which can kill them."

Under current climate conditions, and due to land clearing and fragmentation by dams, platypus abundance will decline by 47 to 66 per cent over the next 50 years, estimated by the study, published in the scientific journal "Biological Conservation."

According to this study:

"This would cause extinction of local populations across about 40 percent of the range."

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has classified the Platypus as "near-threatened", but many authorities in Australia have not included the platypus on any list, except for the state of South Australia, which has classified it as an endangered species.

At the end of the 18th century, the platypus, numbers of which have been dwindling since the British colonization of the country, is considered one of the most primitive mammals from an evolutionary point of view.