With Australia's native animals under growing threat from urban sprawl and the destruction of their habitats, an organisation dedicated to saving them is also working to increase the number of women in what is still a man's world.
The Australian Platypus Conservancy, a non-profit-making research and education body devoted to the conservation of this small, furry mammal, has courses aimed at redressing the under-representation of women in Australia's major wildlife conservation programmes.
The women undertaking the arduous and intensive courses will face sleepless nights, long hours wearing waist-high rubber waders and standing in streams where platypus live trapping and tagging the little creatures.
The conservancy's director, Geoff Williams, says that is what fieldwork is all about. And without such experience women will continue to be intimidated by it and lack the confidence to apply for jobs in the field.
'Most of the fieldwork teams around Australia are still largely male-dominated. I think it has been one of the areas where women have been slow to take up their full responsibilities and opportunities,' he says.
'Even when they get the opportunity women often lack the confidence. There can be a tendency for the men to take over because it is perceived as hard physical work and unfortunately some of the women stand back and let that happen,' Mr Williams says.
