Platypus

Platypus' good side

One afternoon a few months ago I was lucky enough to spot a glimpse of a platypus in the river at Perth. Since then I have had many excursions to Perth hoping to see it again and hopefully get a photograph of it. Every time we've been there with our cameras armed and ready we haven't seen so much as a platypus shaped ripple. That is until the other day. I spent about an hour sitting beside the river, watching and waiting before I finally saw the platypus just before sunset. At first I was overjoyed to see it, but then I saw that the poor little thing had a huge skin lesion on one side of its face. Platypus in Tasmania have a fungal disease called mycormycosis spread by introduced frogs. I've read about the disease, but I didn't think it was as  widespread as it is, and I certainly didn't expect my platypus pal to have it. Its a horribly disfiguring disease and it is eventually fatal. I've decided not to upload the photos that actually show the lesion because they are quite depressing.

So I'm afraid that my story doesn't have a happy ending. I will have to continue to search for a healthy platypus to photograph.