\u201cI\u2019ve seen other platypus in the same river system, just regular coloured ones,\u201d he says. \u201cProbably about five to eight of them over the years, from memory. Normally, they just pop up at the top of the water and then disappear once they see me.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Stylinaou shared footage of the monotreme, commenters online speculated that it could have been a rare albino platypus. But the biologist Jeff Williams says it is just lighter in colour than what most would expect.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlatypus do vary a lot in colour,\u201d the director of the Australian Platypus Conservancy says. \u201cAnd this one\u2019s at the extreme end of the light ones. It\u2019s not one that we consider should be added to the list of albino and leucistic ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just as humans have different coloured hair or skin pigment, platypus also come in different variations, Williams says. He said the platypus captured on video was \u201cunusual but not exceptional\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019ve seen and what every other leading platypus person has looked at, it says, is that it\u2019s well within the sort of variation in colour that one would expect,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s put it this way, it\u2019s cute, but it\u2019s not a breakthrough \u2026 We think this is just one of the extreme ends. Every so often, you will get a genetic anomaly that just throws up things, just as it does with some humans, who have more freckles and so on.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s somewhat unusual, but it\u2019s nothing to get particularly excited about, we\u2019re afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Sniffer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766452748_749_1920.jpg\")
Sniffer dogs are being trained to track down threatened platypus populations \u2013 video<\/p>\n