Many people go their whole lives without seeing a platypus in the wild. We just saw four in one night

Ten platypuses were reintroduced into Sydney’s royal national park in 2023. This week, two new juveniles were discovered, leading one researcher to cry ‘Oh, give me a hug’

H

unting platypuses takes patience. On Thursday afternoon, I headed into the royal national park, south of Sydney, with researchers who had reintroduced a small population of the elusive monotremes two years ago.

There were nets and torches – and our dinner. It could be a long wait.

The platypus was thought to be locally extinct by the 1970s, after a chemical spill on a nearby highway washed through streams and the Hacking River, devastating the delicate ecosystem that platypuses need to thrive.