![]() Scientists have discovered platypuses also emit a cyan glow under ultraviolet light. The platypus’s distinctive bill contains electricity sensors for detecting prey underwater - and that’s not even the animal’s wildest feature. Anich’s hunch is that it helps camouflage the mostly nocturnal platypuses from nighttime predators that have UV vision, since, by absorbing some of the UV light, platypuses reflect less of it. What, if any, purpose this fluorescence may have remains a mystery. “Next time I’m out trapping, I’ll take a UV light with me and test it out.” ![]() “I’m curious to know myself now,” says Josh Griffiths, a wildlife ecologist with the environmental consulting company Cesar in Parkville, Australia, who has been working with platypuses for over a decade. It’s also likely that the living animals glow like their pelts, she says, as that’s been the case for all other known fluorescent mammals. Sure enough, it also glowed, the researchers report online October 15 in Mammalia.Īnich is confident that the glow isn’t an artifact of preservation, because several of the examined squirrel species and the echidna pelts didn’t fluoresce. To make sure the glow wasn’t something unusual about the Field Museum’s pelts, the team also examined a platypus specimen at the University of Nebraska State Museum in Lincoln. And they were incredibly, vividly fluorescent green and blue.” “So, we pulled the monotreme drawer, and we shined our light on the platypuses. “We were curious,” says Anich, of Northland College in Ashland, Wis. And it just so happened that the drawer of monotremes - an early branch of mammals that, today, is represented only by platypuses ( Ornithorhynchus anatinus) and echidnas - was the next one over from marsupials. ![]() After examining the museum’s preserved squirrel skins and finding that fluorescence occurred in at least three flying squirrel species, the team decided to examine pelts from marsupials too, as those were the only mammals previously known to possess fluorescent fur. A chance sighting of a fluorescent flying squirrel in the wild had led the researchers to the mammal collection at the Field Museum in Chicago. ![]() Platypuses’ dense, waterproof fur absorbs ultraviolet light and emits a blue-green glow, mammalogist Paula Spaeth Anich and colleagues discovered somewhat serendipitously. Now, researchers have found that this Australian oddity has another unexpected feature: It fluoresces under ultraviolet light. You can park near the campground and start the walk from there.Between the electricity-sensing bill, venomous heel spurs and egg laying, the platypus was already one of the strangest mammals alive today ( SN: 5/8/08). Getting there: Lake Elizabeth is an hour from Lorne (one of the nearest towns) and over 2 hours from Melbourne. The Otways is an incredible area for wildlife watching and we detail lots more opportunities in this post. We visited at dusk but I would recommend dawn if you can stomach an early start as we heard sightings are more frequent then and platypus prefer cool weather. It's worth noting that the loop does not hug the lake the whole way, it goes into dense bush at points which means you don't have the ability to be constantly on the lookout for platypus, which is why we chose to sit and wait quietly at the jetty. When you get there you can wait at the jetty or take the lake loop walk which is just under 5km in total. To reach the lake you need to take a 1km walking path (each way) which has one short steep section (despite the sign at the trail head making you think it will be much harder!). The drive to get here from Thredbo or Jindabyne is absolutely stunning through vast open plains dotted with huge rocks and boulders.ĭespite not getting as good a look at the platypus as we'd have liked it's still a magical spot and we were surrounded by wild koalas growling for over an hour which was a pretty special experience in its own right. Getting there: You’ll definitely need your own wheels for this one and the setting is quite remote. Unfortunately for us we were unlucky with actually catching sight of a platypus itself but I read so many reviews of people seeing them here that I still wanted to include it in this blog. There's a large viewing platform over the river and it was easy to spot the platypus burrows. The reserve is a beautiful place on the water and it would be a peaceful place to bring a picnic as you wait. It's actually quite far from the main areas most people stay when visiting the Snowy's (1 hour 50 from Thredbo and 1 hour 25 from Jindabyne) so it's a quiet spot and on our visit we were the only ones there! Bombala Platypus Reserve in the Snowy Mountains is known as one of the best spots in NSW to catch a glimpse of one of these elusive creatures.
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