3 min read It Took 7 Years To Capture This Extremely Rare Footage Of A Duck-Billed Platypus

<p><a class="checked-link" href="http://vimeo.com/106131061">Vimeo/Max Moller</a></p>

Duck-billed platypuses - with their distinctive mashup of seemingly incongruous physical features - are not only one of the most striking-looking animals on the planet, they're also one of the most elusive, too. The species is so rarely seen, in fact, that filmmaker Max Moller says it took him seven years of waiting in the wilderness of Tasmania before one of the odd creatures finally came into view to be filmed - and even then he could not believe it.

This browser does not support the video tag. (Vimeo/Max Moller)

"We were filming platypus in the area when he saw something moving through the grass. Thinking it was some huge lizard, we couldn't believe it when we saw this platypus walking between one creek to another," Moller told Australian Broadcasting Corporation. For several glorious moments, the egg-laying mammal can be seen trotting across a grassy divide before slipping back into the water where the species is more at home.