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Operation Platypus
Nat was grinning from ear to ear. She had just heard there were platypuses living in the pond at our Lake Tinaroo caravan park. Before we had reached our site, she was planning a campaign to find them.
On the scale of being observable in the wild, I had the platypus sitting near the end of the list. I rated them one notch above unicorns and the fairies at the bottom of the garden. That said, they are such mysterious little monotremes, I was eager to defy the odds and spot one in the wild.
If I was eager, Nat was on a mission. The next morning, she had us up before sunrise.
Stillness and Quiet
The surrounding mountains were a dim silhouette against the early morning sky. Low cloud covered their peaks. Birds were starting their morning chorus and we were off to the platypus pond.
‘It’s still dark! They won’t be up yet.’ I was keen but tired. Nat was alert and ready for action.
‘We have to get there early. We don’t want to miss them. This could be really good.’
After speaking to the park staff we’d learnt platypuses were most active at dawn. What they didn’t make clear was whether activity equated to visibility. I hoped it did. The only other rule for platypus spotting was to be still and quiet.
There were a couple of stumps on the edge of the pond that made ideal platypus viewing lookouts. We’d decided not to get the kids up, so the requirement for still and quiet was easier to achieve than it might have been.
I sat on my stump surveying the duckweed, the steep muddy banks and the black pond water. If I was a small, dark coloured aquatic animal that didn’t want to be seen, this is exactly where I would live.
After forty-five minutes of unsuccessful watching, I asked Nat how long she thought the spotting window was open. She wasn’t sure, but insisted it was too soon to give up.
Our Camera Gear : For nature spotting we love the zoom on our Panasonic Lumix DC FZ1000
Platypus Path
An excited whisper broke the still and quiet.
‘Over there, I see something.’ I stared hard in the same direction as Nat’s gaze but saw nothing. Apparently though, there was movement amongst the duckweed. I looked hard, but whatever Nat had seen eluded me. ‘Something has made a path through the duckweed’. I looked again and sure enough there was a long narrow path dividing two clumps of the jade coloured weed.
I asked Nat if she had seen what had made the path. She hadn’t, but it bore all the hallmarks of a near platypus sighting. The path looked about the right width for a platypus. Most telling of all, she hadn’t seen a thing. It’s exactly what you would expect to see when looking for something very elusive.
Platypus Poo
As the gap in the duckweed closed we now noticed other corridors through the greenery. We debated whether they might lead to a hidden platypus den. I also started thinking again about the activity versus visibility issue. An excited whisper interrupted my thoughts.
‘Over there!’
‘Where?’
‘On the rock, on the other bank.’
I stared at the rock, trying to make out any flat, long, duck billed shapes.
‘Where? I can’t see it.’
‘Right there on the rock, look, I see poo.’
‘Poo?’ I was starting to wonder if the hushed tones were still necessary. There was something on the rock. It could have been what Nat described. If it had been recently deposited it was done with great stealth. Maybe it had been there all along and we had not noticed it. Perhaps it was a couple of days old and was left by a duck.
As we studied the pellets from a safe distance, Liam appeared. His arrival ended our platypus spotting session. We had seen paths through the pond weed and poo on a rock. Over the next three mornings they remained our platypus spotting highlights. Considering how difficult a platypus is to see in the wild, we felt we’d been as successful as we were likely to be.
Book a Tour : Go with the experts on a Nocturnal Rainforest Tour
Let’s try a Cassowary
The possibility of sighting a platypus was really a bonus. The main game for us was seeing a cassowary. A couple of weeks later we were in Mission Beach visiting Nat’s cousin. Encouragingly, the town is located on the ‘Cassowary Coast’. But the name of the region was just the first positive sign.
There are dozens of street signs around Mission Beach to prepare you for a cassowary encounter. There were signs where cassowaries cross the road. Signs showing the problems that hitting one with a car will cause. There were also signs explaining that these collisions are a major cause of cassowary death. We felt like we’d be seeing cassowaries on every street corner.
As our host Mandy drove us around Mission Beach she showed us where the birds had been recently spotted. She pointed out shops they had been chased out of. We heard stories of them being moved on from backyards. For days we were on the edge of our seat waiting to see one. But it didn’t happen. We started to wonder if the signs were just a tourist hoax.
Last chance
On our final day in Mission Beach we visited Lacey Creek – a lush rain forest park and supposed home to cassowaries. We walked along paths listening for the sound of cassowary movement. A couple of times Mandy had us stand still and quiet (platypus style…). We’d stop and strain to hear a cassowary making its way through the forest.
We couldn’t believe something six feet tall, weighing fifty kilograms, with a bright blue neck could be heard but not seen. We stayed for as long as we could before it started to rain. Then, as we were running to the car, we had a sighting.
Book Tickets : See Cassowaries at Port Douglas Wildlife Habitat
Same Result
It wasn’t the sighting we had been hoping for, but it was one we were familiar with. We spotted a pile of poo. Mandy told us it was from a cassowary because of the tell-tale marble sized seeds it contained. I decided to accept her expert judgement and took a photo of it.
We knew we weren’t the best nature spotters. Sometimes we put it down to the curse of the wildlife gods, other times to our poor planning. Either way, it was a bit of a low point when we realised Poo was fast becoming a substitute for seeing the thing we were looking for.
We finally saw a cassowary at Australia Zoo but took less satisfaction from seeing it than we should have. On the upside, at least we could say we had seen a cassowary in Queensland.
Read More : Wildlife Encouters in Queensland
We loved Lake Tinaroo Holiday Park. After four months travelling in northern Australia, we lapped up the green and cool. The facilities were great, and the kids gave the bouncy pillow the thumbs up. Lake Tinaroo is just a stone’s throw away and it’s the perfect base for exploring the region.
- Guided wildlife–spotting tour of Atherton Tablelands rainforest
- Follow interpretive rainforest walking trails to see native wildlife in their natural environment
- Look for animals such as the shy platypus, Lumholtz tree kangaroos, and tree frogs
- Enjoy afternoon tea at Lake Barrine, a natural volcanic crater lake
- Go platypus spotting at dusk
- Enjoy dinner at a country restaurant
- Small-group tour with a maximum of 11 participants provides a more intimate experience
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I was fortunate enough (and thrilled) some years ago to see three platypus at the same time in the evening, near Stanley in Tassie. One per linked lagoon on a private property, one male and two females, as apparently they don’t like to socialise with each other unless mating.
Our guide said to look for the ripple rings that come out from their bodies, you can see those ripples in the pic you’ve used in your blog. And that’s exactly how I spotted all three!
I was explaining the ripples to my hubby (who hadn’t yet seen a platypus in the wild) when we were taking an early morning walk last year, around the lake in Benalla, Vic, which we’d read was home to platypus. As we came to a small bridge, we could see ripples beyond the bank. I was saying “Just like those” to my hubby when he spotted the platypus! And sure enough, there it was, so close that we could almost reach out and touch it. Both of us were thrilled that day.
My hubby also saw a platypus at the Salmon Ponds near Plenty in Tassie. The groundskeeper told him that they travel up the overflow drains and feed on the crayfish/shrimps that live in the ponds to feed on the pellets that drop to the bottom of the ponds – the salmon only eat those on the top. The groundskeeper said that he’d once seen eight platypus at one time, feeding happily in the ponds. We visited the Salmon Ponds again last year but weren’t lucky enough to see any platypus on that day.
A long-winded comment but it may help you spot the elusive platypus…look for the ripples 😉
How wonderful and lucky you have been. We have camped out for ages on several occasions to try and spot a Platypus! We will keep trying, I think we will have to make a trip to Tassie in the near future.
Wildlife spotting (or searching) has always been a favorite pastime for our family. Once when we were driving through a forest in Colorado (U.S.) we told our young kids to watch for animals. All of a sudden our 7-year-old son said he thought he saw something, so we stopped the car and backed up. When we asked what he saw, he said he thought he saw a giraffe. LOL Hmmm. Probably not in Colorado. Anyway, many Australian animals are so unique to your area. I can see why you would want to be on the hunt for them. Thanks for sharing the adventure.
That’s hilarious Nancy! A giraffe in Colorado, he does have a good imagination 🙂
Going wildlife spotting with the kids is a special experience, getting off the screens in into the natural environment is something they will remember!