By Jack Colantuono, ABC Gippsland
Cody Stylianou captured footage of an albino-looking pink platypus in September. Photo: ABC/ Cody Stylianou
When Melbourne fisherman Cody Stylianou made the long drive to a quiet river in the Australian state of Victoria's east a few months ago, he expected a routine day of exploring.
Instead, he found himself face to face with a rare sight - a pink platypus suspected of having albinism. Only a dozen such sightings have been confirmed in about 200 years.
The unusual colouring first appeared as a pale shape drifting beneath the tannin-rich surface, moving differently to the fish that Stylianou had been tracking.
"I was fishing early morning and thought I'd seen a huge trout moving under the water, but quickly realised it was the platypus as it was only a couple metres in front of me," he said.
When it surfaced, the animal's features were unmistakable: light fur, a soft pink bill and pink feet, signs of a rare genetic quirk that interrupts normal pigmentation.
Stylianou nicknamed the albino platypus "Pinky".
Research from experts say colour variations of this kind, whether caused by albinism or leucism, are exceptionally uncommon in platypuses.
Cody Stylianou is keeping the location secret. Photo: ABC/ Cody Stylianou
Possible second encounter with Pinky
For Stylianou, the moment carried a sense of familiarity.
Several years earlier, in a similar area, he encountered a smaller platypus with the same distinctive pink colouring.
He believed the animal he spotted in September was the same one, now older and considerably larger.
"Though that first time I only got a glimpse before he left out of sight," Stylianou said.
"The recent time seeing him, he was happily feeding in front of me for 15 minutes or so, being that he was almost a yellow glow in the tannin-stained water.
"I could track him quite well and get some good footage of the surface."
Location kept a secret
To protect Pinky from being disturbed, Stylianou has chosen not to reveal the location, a remote stretch of river in East Gippsland that he enjoys visiting.
The isolation has likely played a role in Pinky surviving unnoticed for so long, and the brief encounter has left Stylianou hopeful he may see him again on future travels.
"I was pretty stoked to finally back up what I told people I saw a few years prior," he said.
"I knew he [Pinky] was super rare as again, when I'd seen it the first time, I quickly realised pictures of them with pink bills and feet didn't exist."
The discovery adds an entry to scientific records and highlights just how little is known about colour variation in one of Australia's most iconic species.
'Very solitary' species, ecologist says
EnviroDNA wildlife ecologist Josh Griffiths said spotting a regular platypus in the wild was already uncommon enough, so to encounter an albino-looking platypus made the sighting more extraordinary.
"They're just often difficult to see in the wild because they're mostly active at night, so they don't sort of hang out in large groups," Griffiths said.
"They're very solitary creatures. So generally, they're just difficult to see.
"They're still fairly widespread throughout."
Griffiths said albino animals did not survive long as their light appearance made them easy prey.
But he said albino platypuses may live longer as they do not have any natural predators trying to hunt them.
Ecologist Josh Griffiths says regular platypuses are difficult to spot, making an albino platypus sighting very rare. Photo: ABC/ Brett Worthington
"Because platypuses are in rivers, they're usually the apex predator in these rivers [and] there's nothing really that eats them. So they're generally pretty safe in that regard," he said.
Griffiths said he believed it was most likely that Stylianou had spotted the same platypus on both occasions.
"I don't know how far apart those sightings were, but it means that this animal has survived for that period of time," he said.
"And it's probably that platypus' home range, and so it's not moving too far out of that area."
- ABC