Event details
Join Geoff Williams from Australian Platypus Conservancy (APC) for a Platypus Group Watch training session, and receive professional advice on observational monitoring of platypus.
Platypus Group Watch has been developed by the APC to provide a standardised protocol for teams of volunteers to record the number of platypus (and rakali/water-rats) observed in a given water body, ideally at regular intervals with one or preferably more sessions conducted annually.
Two or more observers are stationed at each of 5 to 12 sites dotted along 1 to 3 kilometres of stream or river channel. They then scan for animals for one hour near dawn or dusk. Group Watch sessions are most likely to be informative and rewarding if they are carried out in an area where reasonably high numbers of platypus or rakali occur.
The Platypus Group Watch methodology has been adopted successfully by a wide range of Landcare and Friends Groups and other organisations, such as ACT Waterwatch, Upper Murrumbidgee Waterwatch and Wildlife Queensland’s PlatypusWatch program.
Header image courtesy of Doug Gimesy.
Requirements
Although children are welcome to attend, the training is aimed at adults.
Please wear:
- enclosed flat-soled shoes
- long pants
- clothing appropriate to the weather.
BYO food and water.
This event is free, but registration is essential: