Habitat use by platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) in a modified Australian Wet Tropics catchment, north-eastern Queensland.

The article presents a study which examines the influence of human-induced habitat modification on platypus affiliations in a Wet Tropics river system in Queensland. The study was conducted in the upper Barron River and its tributaries on the Atherton Tableland, with a tropical climate that featured marked seasonality and very high rainfall during the summer season. Researchers examined a number of habitat variables in order to analyze riparian and in-stream site conditions in the field. Key findings indicated that the presence of platypus in a stream was linked to pool habitats with different levels of intact to low riparian continuity and fine soil substrates present.