A 26-year-old man, accompanied by a woman, was spotted Thursday on a commuter train with a wild platypus swaddled in a bath towel.
The man will appear in court on Saturday for alleged animal welfare offences. He is accused of removing the animal from its natural habitat, a waterway in northern Queensland, and taking it on a train and then to a shopping centre.
Queensland Police said in a statement that “the couple were seen showing the animal to people in the mall.”
The animal would have since “was released into the Caboolture River” but would not have “not yet located by the authorities”casting doubt on his condition, police said.
CCTV photos taken on Tuesday show a man in flip-flops walking on the platform of a train station north of Brisbane while carrying the platypus – the size of a kitten – under his arm.
The man and woman then wrapped the animal in a bath towel, “by tapping it and showing it to other passengers”police said.
Queensland conservation legislation prohibits taking platypus from the wild, under penalty of a maximum fine of 430,000 Australian dollars (264,000 euros).
A nocturnal, shy animal, the platypus, one of the rare mammals that lays eggs, is now only found in eastern Australia. It feeds on worms, insects and small crustaceans.
With a short tail like a beaver and a duck’s beak, British scientists thought it was a hoax when they first saw it in the late 18th century.
