Background: Extensive land use change has dramatically altered the riparian and instream habitats used by the platypus across much of its distribution. The resulting habitat degradation in many rivers has raised concerns about the species’ resilience to increasingly extreme climatic events. While factors influencing the distribution and habitat selection of platypuses are reasonably well documented, how platypus-habitat relationships vary over time and under changing climatic conditions remains poorly understood.
Methods: To address this, we used acoustic telemetry to track the fine-scale movement and behaviour of platypuses in the Fish River, NSW. We also quantified riparian habitat structure with LiDAR and assessed the availability of instream features using a river habitat survey.
Results: Movement data from 28 platypuses reveal the discrete home ranges sizes, dynamic daily movements, demographic differences, and individual circadian activity patterns. By analysing movement of platypuses across a gradient of habitat quality, we aim to establish baseline platypus-habitat relationships under contemporary conditions.
Conclusions: This data will be used to investigate how climatic variability, including drought and flood events, influence the key habitat relationships that underpin platypus persistence. The findings will have direct implications for river management and conservation planning in increasingly variable and human-modified freshwater ecosystems.