Great excitement in Australia because of the stolen platypus
A surveillance camera recorded two people who boarded a train with the protected animal. You will face a fine of up to six figures.
Police ask for ‘quick return’: By law, it is forbidden to remove platypus from the wild in Queensland.
Photo: Biance De Marchi (Keystone)
Police in Australia are looking for two people who were traveling on the train with a rare platypus. On Thursday, police said passengers boarded the train with a sample wrapped in a towel. Officials assume the platypus has been stolen from its natural habitat in northern Queensland and demand a “quick return”.
CCTV images show a man wearing flip-flops and carrying a platypus – about the size of a small cat – under his arm at Brisbane North Train Station. Police said he and his companion wrapped the platypus in a towel and “stroked and showed it to the other passengers.”
CCTV footage shows two people with platypuses at North Brisbane train station.
Photo: AFP, Queensland Police Service
“We are concerned for the animal’s welfare as it has been uprooted from its natural habitat,” Queensland Deputy Commissioner of Police Scott Knowles told reporters.
But the police were also concerned about the animal’s potential adoptive parents: Male platypuses have venomous projections that cause excruciating pain when they burrow into human flesh.
By law, removing platypus from the wild in Queensland is illegal and can result in heavy fines. According to The Guardian, the maximum penalty is more than $430,000.
Platypus has a short, wide tail resembling a beaver, and a wide, flat beak. Native to the freshwater rivers of Australia, they belong to the monotremes – a rare group of egg-laying mammals.
AFP / Step
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