PLATYPUS! Have you seen one in the wild? They're secretive creatures, so if you have, you're lucky.
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If you see any this February, you're invited to add your information to a scientific study mapping current numbers and distribution of this remarkable animal.
The Australian Conservation Foundation has teamed up with scientists at the University of New South Wales to promote the "Platy-project".
If you live near a creek or river, find a quiet spot on the bank and record what you see and send in the results.
While the last two years have been bumper seasons, platypus numbers have been declining in recent decades.
Land clearing, dams, drought and bushfires are destroying critical platypus habitat, leaving them with nowhere to go.
More information about exactly where they are and how they're doing can help arrest that decline.
The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is one of the world's strangest animals.
Specimens sent back to London from the colony of New South Wales were at first thought to be a hoax.
It was as if someone had joined a duck's bill to a four-legged furry mammal.
"It naturally excites the idea of some deceptive preparation by artificial means," English zoologist George Shaw wrote in 1799.
Locally, of course, they'd been intimately known for millennia. Around the Macquarie Wambuul River, they were called biladurang.
Together with the four species of echidna, platypus are monotremes. These animals lay eggs and nurse their young with milk - a very odd combination.
Platypus young suckle from milk patches under the fur of their mother's abdomen.
Male platypi are venomous, with a spur on their ankles connected to a venom gland in the upper leg.
Their ideal habitat is a river or stream with earth banks with native vegetation providing cover and shade.
They eat aquatic invertebrates - things like insect larvae, shrimp, swimming beetles, water bugs, tadpoles, and sometimes worms, pea mussels and snails.
They tend to be more active at twilight or overnight, preferring to hide out in their short burrows in the river bank during the day.
How do you know you're looking at a platypus rather than, say, a water rat?
According to the Australian Museum, the platypus presents a low profile, with three small humps (the head, back and tail) visible above the water surface.
A diving platypus will create a spreading ring.
These characteristics coupled with the absence of visible ears distinguish the platypus from the dog-paddle style of the water-rat.
To find out more and to sign up for the Platy-project, go to https://www.acf.org.au/platy-project.
