A popular city-dwelling platypus has died after it became entangled in twine, days after a call went out for the public to supply earthworms for its recovery.
The young female animal, which lived in the rivulet which runs through and under Hobart's CBD, was found earlier in November with twine wrapped around its body, causing several lacerations to its neck and leg.
Dubbed Larila, the animal was popular with locals and had several social media accounts dedicated to its activities in the metropolitan waterway.
On November 10, Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary said its veterinary team had "examined the platypus and found that a piece of twine was the offending litter that was caught around her neck and leg".
"This alone could have killed this beautiful creature.
"The twine had cut through the platypus' neck and one of her front legs, so deep in one place that it was almost down to the bone. Dr Luke spent a number of hours doing surgery on the platypus yesterday to stitch up her wounds and give her the best chance to recover fully.
"She will continue to be monitored closely over the next couple of weeks while she heals from her injuries, and we have everything crossed she will be able to return to the rivulet soon.
"This serves as an important reminder of how even a small piece of rubbish left in the environment can have devastating consequences for our precious wildlife, do the right thing."
Just yesterday, Bonorong put out a call for earthworms.
"Platypus have high care needs and must eat a large amount per day. We are doing a call out to anyone that may be able to help supply us with large sized organic earthworms for her to eat while she is in our care.
"If you can help, the earthworms must be dug up from your pesticide free garden, not from a worm farm. The platypus will eat up to 100g per day."
But on Friday, the Facebook and Instagram pages dedicated to the platypus posted that the animal had died overnight.
In a Facebook post, Bonorong said it was the "unfortunate reality of what we face running a wildlife hospital and rescue service with critical care patients".
"We hope that her life can be used in a positive way to inspire community action and change.
"We need to keep our waterways rubbish free to prevent incidents such as this from occurring again and to help protect the remaining platypuses that live in the Hobart Rivulet. So please do your bit and make sure you spread this message in her honour."
The Tasmanian government advises people who find an injured animal to follow four steps to "increase the chances of successful release back into the wild".
- Keep the animal in a warm, dark and quiet place
- Do not feed it anything (this can do more harm than good)
- Keep handling to a minimum
- Keep away from people and domestic animals
People are urged to report finds to Bonorong Wildlife Rescue on 0447 264 625 (all hours).
