Wildlife: Wildlife Encounters 3: Monotremes, 1 by kennedyh

kennedyh wrote:
The other Australian monotreme is much less frequently seen. This is one if the strangest of all mammals, the Platypus - Ornithorhynchus anatinus, with their duck-like bill, webbed feet, flat beaver-like tail and again laying eggs.
I saw 4 or 5 in the time I was in Tasmania, but most were very distant views of an animal that soon disappeared.
One day we drove over to the site of a long-abandoned saw mill, to get a trailer full of old saw-dust to use as a mulch.
When we arrived we found that a large party of bush-walkers had just completed a hike and were gathering around their vehicles before moving off. We decided to leave loading the trailer until they had gone and we strolled down the hill towards the creek. There was large water-hole part way down to the creek and Fay and the boys reached it well ahead of me. They called out that there was a platypus in the water-hole. I didn't even hurry as I expected it to be long gone before I could get there. To my surprise it was still there, swimming about in the middle of the water seemingly unconcerned at our presence. I then went 200 metres back up the hill and got my camera and telephoto lens and hurried back to the pool and the platypus was still there and I was able to take my first platypus picture.