SYDNEY - Australian scientists pushed on Monday to list the platypus as a vulnerable species after a report showed that the habitat of the semi-aquatic native mammal had shrunk more than a fifth in the last 30 years.
"There is a real concern that platypus populations will disappear from some of our rivers without returning, if rivers keep degrading with droughts and dams," said Professor Richard Kingsford, director of the university's Centre for Ecosystem Science. The duck-billed animals with webbed feet lay eggs and live mostly across Australia's eastern seaboard, from the far north of Queensland state to the island state of Tasmania, close to rivers and streams whose beds and banks they forage for food.
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