Josh will discuss his work on platypuses over the last 13 years including their conservation status and threats.
The platypus was recently upgraded to ’Near Threatened’ due to mounting evidence of population declines, localised extinctions and increasing degradation of their aquatic habitat. However, platypuses are a difficult species to study in the wild as they are not easily observed and traditional monitoring methods are time and labour intensive, which has limited systematic data collection over large spatial scales. This means there is insufficient data on population status or trajectories throughout their range to fully understand their true conservation status and impacts of various threats.
Josh’s research has led to the development of environmental DNA (eDNA) as a highly sensitive and efficient method to detect presence/absence of platypuses. This technology is now being implemented in the largest survey of platypuses ever undertaken - The Great Australian Platypus Search.
Josh Griffiths is a wildlife ecologist with research groups cesar/EnviroDNA, specialising in the iconic platypus.
Like our previous talks, this talk will be delivered online with time for questions and conversation at the end. Please register for the session and you will be emailed a link before the event.
