希少な野生のカモノハシ連れ電車に　男を検挙　豪

【シドニーＡＦＰ＝時事】オーストラリアで６日、希少な野生のカモノハシを連れ、電車に乗ったりショッピングセンターに行ったりしていた男（２６）が検挙された。（写真はーストラリア・クイーンズランド州ブリスベン近郊の駅で、野生のカモノハシを連れて歩く男。同州警察提供）
　北部クイーンズランド州ブリスベン北郊の駅のホームの監視カメラは同日、ビーチサンダルを履いた男が子猫ほどの大きさのカモノハシを手に歩いている様子を捉えていた。
　同州警察によると、カモノハシは州内の生息地から連れ去られたとみられている。男と同行の女性が、タオルに包んだカモノハシを電車内やショッピングセンターで他の客に見せていたという。
　男は州の自然保護法違反に問われ、８日に出廷する予定。一方、このカモノハシの行方が分からなくなっている。警察によると、 カモノハシは地元の川に放されたとされるものの見つかっておらず、健康状態も不明だという。
　同法によりカモノハシを生息地から持ち出すことは禁止されており、違反者には４３万豪ドル（約３８００万円）以下の罰金が科される。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/04/07-16:57）

Forget the Hollywood thriller Snakes on a Plane, an Australian man is in trouble for taking a platypus on a train.
Police launched a public appeal after the 26-year-old man, accompanied by a woman, was spotted on a suburban train with a wild platypus swaddled in a towel.
The man, who faces court Saturday over alleged animal protection offences, is accused of removing the elusive critter from a waterway in northern Queensland and taking it on a train trip to a shopping centre.
It will be further alleged the pair were observed showing the animal to members of the public at the shopping centre, Queensland police said in a statement.
Railway officers nabbed the man, and they have spoken to the woman who was with him, police said.
But the platypus' fate is a mystery.
Police were advised the animal was released into the Caboolture River and has not yet been located by authorities, police said.
Its condition is unknown.
CCTV photos from Tuesday showed a man in flip-flops strolling along a train platform north of Brisbane while cradling the platypus -- about the size of a kitten -- under his arm.
The man and his female companion then wrapped it in a towel, patting it and showing it to fellow commuters, police said.
Under Queensland's conservation laws, it is illegal to take one or more platypus from the wild, with a maximum fine of Aus$430,000 (US$288,000).
Taking a platypus from the wild is not only illegal, but it can be dangerous for both the displaced animal and the person involved if the platypus is male as they have venomous spurs, police said.
If you are lucky enough to see a platypus in the wild, keep your distance.
With stubby tails like a beaver and the bill of a duck, platypuses were famously seen as a hoax by British scientists encountering their first specimen in the late 18th century.
Platypuses are native to Australia's freshwater rivers and are part of a rare group of mammals -- the monotremes -- that lay eggs.