The Times reporter Nicki Güles is currently in Australia on assignment for her paper and TimesLIVE. She’ll be blogging daily about her travels which so far have included a proper and personal introduction to some of the continent’s strange wildlife. Nicki writes:

“Many people visit Australia for its cities, food and cosmopolitan society. But it’s also a pretty cool desitnation for wildlife. Today, I went paddling – literally – with duck-billed platypuses along with Geoff Proctor, managing director of Australian Adventures .

The little creatures are less than 30cm in length and are one of only two species on earth of egg-laying mammals (the other is the Australian echidna). They have bills like a duck and suckle their young as mammals do. Goeff told me when Australian scientists, sent a animal to London for examination in the 1800s, the zoologists there thought they had been sent a joke and were trying to figure out where the duck bill had been sewn on to the animal sent to them.

Instead of just checking them out in an animal sanctury, Geoff took me paddling on a raft on the Gaulburn River about 90 minutes’ drive north of Melbourne. We saw at least five of the incredibly timid little things splashing about. It’s hard to believe they were once hunted for their fur.

Truly an experience and much recommended for those coming to the Melbourne area.”

PHOTO: A drawing of a platypus, taken from Beschryving van den of zonderbaar zoogend vogel-bek-dier van Nieuw-Hollandia (1803)

SOURCE: National Library of Australia

Related posts:

1. Australia: A whole lot of hot air
2. Australia: “Whale meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when…”
3. Australia: Eat. Or fry.
4. Australia’s badass piper and his “octopus of evil”
5. Kangaroos: Land invasions the Australian way