Scientists from UNSW Sydney have confirmed a reintroduced platypus population in Royal National Park has now grown to 20 known individuals, following the release of four additional animals and a new round of surveys across the park in May 2026.<\/p>\n
Lead researcher Associate Professor Gilad Bino, from UNSW\u2019s\u00a0Centre for Ecosystem Science\u00a0<\/a>and co-founder of the\u00a0Platypus Conservation Initiative<\/a>, says reaching 20 known platypuses is a defining moment for the program.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a privilege to be part of bringing platypuses back to a part of their former range where they had been missing for generations,\u201d A\/Prof. Bino says.<\/p>\n A\/Prof. Bino is part of a team of researchers from the Platypus Conservation Initiative, who have just completed a third translocation event for the project, releasing four platypuses into the Hacking River \u2013\u00a0males Absinthe and Duckie, and females Hydra and Dawn.<\/p>\n The release coincided with comprehensive surveys, during which the team re-encountered two males from the founding 2023 cohort. They are Prometheus \u2013 confirmed last year as the father of Gili, the first juvenile born in the park \u2013 and Noris.<\/p>\n The team also captured a new subadult male hatched in the park during the most recent breeding season, providing further evidence that the reintroduced population is reproducing and recruiting young animals into the wild.<\/p>\n \u201cTo capture males from the original release still in great condition, alongside a young male hatched here in the park, tells us this is no longer just a reintroduction \u2013 it is a recovering population,\u201d says A\/Prof. Bino.<\/p>\n \u201cAdding Absinthe, Duckie, Hydra and Dawn will strengthen both the numbers and the genetic diversity underpinning its long-term resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n With this latest cohort, 17 platypuses have now been translocated to Royal National Park since the program began. There were 10 founders in May 2023, three additional animals in May 2025 \u2013 and now, four more in May 2026.<\/p>\n A remarkable trajectory<\/p>\n A\/Prof. Bino says before 2023, platypuses were absent from the park for more than 50 years.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now visitors are reporting platypus sightings along the Hacking River \u2013 something that simply hadn\u2019t been possible in living memory,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThat public connection \u2013 people seeing platypuses back where they belong \u2013 is one of the most rewarding outcomes of this work.\u201d<\/p>\n UNSW\u2019s Dr Tahneal Hawke, a co-lead on the project, says the latest surveys provide strong evidence that the population is establishing across generations.<\/p>\n \u201cThe results are exactly what we want to see at this stage of the project,\u201d Dr Hawke says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe now have multiple age classes in the park, evidence of breeding across consecutive seasons and animals interacting with the river system as a healthy platypus community should,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is the signature of a population that is starting to stand on its own.\u201d<\/p>\n Not the end<\/p>\n Each animal carries a small transmitter, so the team can follow their movements as they settle into their home on the Hacking River.<\/p>\n The four new platypuses were sourced from healthy populations in NSW and underwent health checks, assessment and transmitter fitting before release.<\/p>\n The reintroduction of platypuses to Royal National Park remains the first successful platypus translocation in NSW and one of the most ambitious wildlife recovery projects ever undertaken in the state.<\/p>\n Dr Hawke says each new translocation is carefully planned to complement the current population within the park, \u201cboosting numbers and broadening the gene pool without compromising the source populations the animals come from.\u201d<\/p>\n The Platypus Conservation Initiative will continue to monitor survival, movements and breeding outcomes in the months and years to come.<\/p>\n