Australia's platypus has joined the ranks of koala bears and rock wallabies facing near extinction from heat and raging fires which have created an ecological disaster.
Also known as the duck-billed platypus, the animal - considered one of the world's most peculiar - is under severe stress and is fighting for survival.
Amid a prolonged drought rivers, which are home to the part bird, part reptile and part mammal, have dried up.
Dry river beds, along with other factors such as land clearing, dam construction and climate change, is making the semi-aquatic animal's prospects of existing in future uncertain, scientists say.
"The platypuses are dying in many rivers and the situation seems to be getting worse," said Gilad Bino, an academic from the University of New South Wales.
"These are evolutionary relics unique to Australia, and factors such as the increasing frequency and duration of droughts are definitely going to drive many populations to extinction."
Platypuses are elusive, strange-looking duck-billed animals with webbed feet that spend most of their time underwater. According to their gene map, they are part bird, part reptile and part mammal.
The species is endemic to the eastern Australian region, much of which is tinder-dry after years of drought and has faced months of intense bushfires. It is classified as "near threatened" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
"The ash in the water and the lack of oxygen would have a severe impact on some areas that coincide with platypus populations," said Mr Bino, who stated in a recently published research paper that action must be taken to prevent the platypus from disappearing from Australia's waterways.
The prolonged drought, intense heat and raging fires have created an ecological disaster in Australia that is threatening several species, including koalas and rock wallabies.
In recent months, academics, rescuers and conservation groups have been fielding calls from people urgently seeking help for animals dying in drying rivers.
Video footage taken by conservation group Aussie Ark shows river animals, including platypuses, getting stranded and dying as their habitats dry out.
Aussie Ark president Tim Faulkner said the group was struggling to save platypuses stranded in drying rivers in New South Wales.
"In our region, they are all dead, they are gone," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
