A scientist was scouring the waterways of the Northern Tablelands for turtles when she instead made what is believed to be only the 13th sighting of a white platypus in 187 years.

Key points:

  • Bloop the white platypus was first spotted in the Gwydir River in 2021
  • Its white colour is due to the genetic abnormality leucism
  • The animal became the 13th documented sighting of a white platypus in Australia since 1835
  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    University of New England researchers were looking for turtles in a northern NSW river when one of Australia’s rarest wildlife phenomena popped up in front of them and had them gaping in amazement.

    It was a white platypus and it seemed just as keen to observe the researchers going about their work on the Gwydir River, near Armidale in the Northern Tablelands, as they were excited to see it.

    Now, photos of Bloop have been published in a research paper by the CSIRO, which has found the animal is not albino, instead attributing its white fur to the genetic abnormality leucism.

    The research states albinism usually occurs in an absence of an essential melanin production enzyme, but leucism arises from a defective pigment transfer process.

    Ms Streeting and her team scoured historical and scientific records to get an idea of how rare the white platypus actually was.

    She said the Gwydir River’s thriving ecosystem made it an attraction habitat for platypuses, which often foraged at the bottom for food, with snails, molluscs, crustaceans and worms on the menu.

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