Platypus on a Train Sparks Australian Police Hunt

Snakes on a plane are so passé. Why not look Down Under for something different. A platypus being held by two commuters as they boarded a train in the Australian state of Queensland sparked a police hunt Thursday over concerns for the wellbeing of the rare monotreme.

Police said the couple were seen aboard a suburban train with the unusual piece of living luggage swaddled in a towel, AFP reports.

They said they believed the elusive duck-billed critter had been plucked from its natural habitat and appealed for its “timely surrender.”

“The concern we have got is obviously the well-being of this animal given it’s been removed from its natural environment,” Queensland police acting superintendent Scott Knowles told reporters Thursday.

Authorities were also worried about the platypus’s would-be adopters — male platypus have venomous spurs that cause excruciating pain when lodged in human flesh.

Footage captured showed the platypus being petted and shown off to fellow commuters by the suspects.

“According to the report that was provided to [the police], they were showing it off to people on the train, allowing people to pat it,” Queensland Police’s Scott Knowles told Sky News.

“The concerns around that would be some of the diseases that people may carry that might impact on the animal and vice versa.”

Knowles added someone who had spoken to the pair said they were planning to release it after it was found on the road and had earlier been taken shopping by the suspects.

Police, alongside the Department of Environment and Science are urging the pair to surrender the platypus to an emergency vet or police station as soon as possible, over concerns it may become ill or diseased, or even die, with the risk growing the longer it is away from its bush home.

Taking a platypus from its natural habitat carries a fine of up to $450,000 in all states of Australia.

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