Using historical data to highlight population declines in the iconic Australian platypus

2018

Long-term population data is essential for accurately assessing species status and for the correct management of endangered species. However, not all species are easily monitored and have been historically overlooked, giving inadequate data to form population estimates. Analysis of historical data is a relatively new technique for conservation management, often providing long-term population changes which would be otherwise undetectable using contemporary ecological monitoring. In this study we investigated long-term population changes for the iconic Australia platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), by collating 257 years of historical data from newspaper archives, museums, natural history boo…