Platypus

• You’d be forgiven for thinking water-dwelling animals like platypuses were spared.
• But our new research, published today in Biological Conservation, reveals platypuses are disappearing from waterways after fire.
• We found platypuses were less likely to be found in burnt catchment areas, six months after fire.

An evolutionary masterpiece

• They’re one of only five species of mammals that does – the other four are echidnas.
• And they have electroreceptors in their bills to help them find food in rivers and streams.
• There may be gradual changes over time, or rapid responses to a big disturbance, such as a fire.

DNA detective work

• Ideally we would have good data on species before and after a fire, to draw comparisons.
• Other research shows aquatic invertebrates (animals with no backbones) and fish can be harmed by bushfire, especially when rain follows fire.
• We took more environmental DNA samples from the same 118 sites at six months after the megafires, and also 12–18 months post-fire, giving us three data points for the same rivers and creeks.
• Read more:
  Scientists at work: We use environmental DNA to monitor how human activities affect life in rivers and streams

What we found

• But the difference between burnt and unburnt sites was negligible after 18 months.
• The combination of severe fire and rainfall minimised the chance of finding platypuses living at a site.
• We classified high severity fire as fire which removed all of the leaves from trees and burnt grasslands or pasture.

Understanding change

• Climate change is predicted to lead to more frequent, severe and extensive bushfires in south-eastern Australia, as well as to more extreme rainfall events.
• Our work adds to our understanding of how just one species could be harmed by the climate crisis.
• We need these types of systematic surveys to provide baselines and monitor how populations and communities are changing.

• Their shuffling walk, inquisitive gaze and protective spines are unmistakable, coupled with the coarse hair and stubby beak.
• Australia has just one species, the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), which roams virtually the entire continent.
• Tasmanian echidnas are much hairier and Kangaroo Island echidnas join long mating trains.

1: They’re ancient egg-laying mammals

• Our familiar short-beaked echidnas can weigh up to six kilograms – but the Western long-beaked echidna can get much larger at up to 16kg.
• These ancient mammals lay eggs through their cloacas (monotreme means one opening) and incubate them in a pouch-like skin fold, nurturing their tiny, jellybean-sized young after hatching.
• That’s because platypus fossils go back about 60 million years and echidnas only a quarter of that.
• Read more:
  Curious Kids: How does an echidna breathe when digging through solid earth?

2: From deserts to snow, echidnas are remarkably adaptable

• You can find echidnas on northern tropical savannah amid intense humidity, on coastal heaths and forests, in arid deserts and even on snowy mountains.
• The one most of us will be familiar with is Tachyglossus aculeatus aculeatus, widespread across Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.
• Kangaroo Island echidnas have longer, thinner, and paler spines – and more of them, compared to the mainland species.
• Tasmanian echidnas are well adapted to the cold, boasting a lushness of extra hair.

3: Mating trains and hibernation games

• You might have seen videos of Kangaroo Island mating trains, a spectacle where up to 11 males fervently pursue a single female during the breeding season.
• Pregnancy usually lasts about three weeks after mating for Kangaroo Island echidnas, followed by a long lactation period of 30 weeks for the baby puggle.
• T. aculeatus aculeatus has a similarly short lactation period (23 weeks), but rarely engages in mating train situations.
• After watching the pregnancies of 20 of these echidnas, my colleagues and I discovered this subspecies takes just 16–17 days to go from mating to egg laying.

4: What do marsupials and monotremes have in common?

• Marsupials bear live young when they’re very small and let them complete their development in a pouch.
• Despite this key difference with monotremes, there’s a fascinating similarity between Australia’s two most famous mammal families.
• At 17 days after conception, the embryo of the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii) hits almost exactly the same developmental milestone as echidna embryos.
• Monotremes branched off from other mammals early on, between 160 and 217 million years ago.

• Driven by social media algorithms, many of us now flock to natural places for the best selfie background.
• But what happens when our pursuit of the perfect selfie starts damaging nature – or even ourselves?
• Many people have been severely injured or killed by taking risky selfies and photos in dangerous locations.
• As our new research has found, Australia’s land managers are often at their wit’s end trying to keep people safe in nature.

Selfies make a new brand of tourist

• As one land manager told us:
  We noticed a massive increase in the number of people, and the kind of visitor that we were getting.
• We’re getting a lot more people who are maybe urban based, didn’t spend a lot of time in national parks, weren’t particularly familiar with the concept of bushwalking Land managers told us these new kinds of tourist were motivated to seek out photos and selfies.
• The problem was, many were willing to ignore warning signs or bans on drones to get their photos.
• People definitely, more so now than ever, I think, are coming for the photo.
• They’re not coming for a bushwalk and to look around at the trees and to experience nature.

Safe selfies?

• Perhaps the thorniest challenge for land managers is accommodating increased interest while keeping people safe.
• As one land manager told us:
  They want to get a photo without a fence in it.
• Look at me with my toes over the edge of the crumbly sandstone cliff.
• Nature-based content on platforms like Instagram and TikTok often performs very well, giving other would-be influencers the incentive to seek out new locations.

What can we do?

• As a result, there’s an urgent need to communicate risk and safety information in novel ways which resonate.
• The tools land managers have are often preventive – barriers, boardwalks and signs, coupled with punitive measures such as fines.
• Better risk communication, as New South Wales authorities are doing with time-sensitive risk warnings for Figure Eight Pools, may help.
• He is affiliated with Surf Life Saving Australia and Surf Life Saving NSW.

• Why are some Beanie Babies worth more than others?
• – Theo R., age 8, Rockford, Illinois
  Why are some Beanie Babies worth more than others?
• – Theo R., age 8, Rockford, Illinois Most Beanie Babies are not worth much money.
• That’s because Beanie Babies are made in large enough quantities that anyone who wants one can get one.

Beanie bubble

• Beanie Babies were launched in 1993 by a toy company called Ty.
• As more and more people started looking for certain Beanie Babies – especially those Ty had produced only in very limited quantities – resale prices went up.
• Some buyers believed collecting Beanie Babies was a great way to make money.
• A bubble is when a lot of enthusiastic people buy a particular thing at prices that far exceed its true value.

Rarity makes a Beanie worth more

• Today, only a tiny fraction of Beanie Babies are worth something.
• Valuable Beanie Babies are simply the ones that are very rare.
• For example, Pinchers the lobster was for a short time labeled as “Punchers.” To be worth money, rare Beanie Babies must also be in perfect condition.

Beanie Babies’ value is what people will pay

• Just because someone lists their Patti the platypus for $11,000 doesn’t mean a buyer will come forward to pay that amount for it.
• The best way to learn about the current value of something is to look at recent sales of items that are very similar.
• Even if some Beanie Babies are worth a lot of money today, nobody knows if they will keep their value in the future.
• The value of anything is what other people are willing to pay for it.