Key Facts:
Three years after their historic reintroduction to Royal National Park, platypuses are now breeding, dispersing and being spotted by visitors along the Hacking River, say UNSW scientists.
Scientists from UNSW Sydney have confirmed a reintroduced platypus population in Royal National Park has now grown to 20 known individuals, following the release of four additional animals and a new round of surveys across the park in May 2026.
Lead researcher Associate Professor Gilad Bino, from UNSW's Centre for Ecosystem Science and co-founder of the Platypus Conservation Initiative, says reaching 20 known platypuses is a defining moment for the program.
"It is a privilege to be part of bringing platypuses back to a part of their former range where they had been missing for generations," A/Prof. Bino says.
A/Prof. Bino is part of a team of researchers from the Platypus Conservation Initiative, who have just completed a third translocation event for the project, releasing four platypuses into the Hacking River – males Absinthe and Duckie, and females Hydra and Dawn.
The release coincided with comprehensive surveys, during which the team re-encountered two males from the founding 2023 cohort. They are Prometheus – confirmed last year as the father of Gili, the first juvenile born in the park – and Noris.
The team also captured a new subadult male hatched in the park during the most recent breeding season, providing further evidence that the reintroduced population is reproducing and recruiting young animals into the wild.
"To capture males from the original release still in great condition, alongside a young male hatched here in the park, tells us this is no longer just a reintroduction – it is a recovering population," says A/Prof. Bino.
"Adding Absinthe, Duckie, Hydra and Dawn will strengthen both the numbers and the genetic diversity underpinning its long-term resilience."
With this latest cohort, 17 platypuses have now been translocated to Royal National Park since the program began. There were 10 founders in May 2023, three additional animals in May 2025 – and now, four more in May 2026.
A remarkable trajectory
A/Prof. Bino says before 2023, platypuses were absent from the park for more than 50 years.
"And now visitors are reporting platypus sightings along the Hacking River – something that simply hadn't been possible in living memory," he says.
"That public connection – people seeing platypuses back where they belong – is one of the most rewarding outcomes of this work."
UNSW's Dr Tahneal Hawke, a co-lead on the project, says the latest surveys provide strong evidence that the population is establishing across generations.
"The results are exactly what we want to see at this stage of the project," Dr Hawke says.
"We now have multiple age classes in the park, evidence of breeding across consecutive seasons and animals interacting with the river system as a healthy platypus community should," she says.
"That is the signature of a population that is starting to stand on its own."
Not the end
Each animal carries a small transmitter, so the team can follow their movements as they settle into their home on the Hacking River.
The four new platypuses were sourced from healthy populations in NSW and underwent health checks, assessment and transmitter fitting before release.
The reintroduction of platypuses to Royal National Park remains the first successful platypus translocation in NSW and one of the most ambitious wildlife recovery projects ever undertaken in the state.
Dr Hawke says each new translocation is carefully planned to complement the current population within the park, "boosting numbers and broadening the gene pool without compromising the source populations the animals come from."
The Platypus Conservation Initiative will continue to monitor survival, movements and breeding outcomes in the months and years to come.
