It's the middle of the night on a chilly, cloudless evening along the banks of the Snowy River.

And while it might have all the hallmarks of a great camping trip, researchers Dr Gilad Bino and Tahneal Hawke are actually hard at work.

With laser-like focus on the river, they're watching for the slightest twitch in nets they've set for the elusive native platypus.

"This is an amazing animal," University of New South Wales Professor Richard Kingsford told me by the banks of the river.

"It's an icon in biology for the world, we're talking about an egg laying mammal, and I guess for me and for our team we're really concerned about its future."

Nobody has done a comprehensive national assessment of its status according to Professor Kingsford.

Professor Kingsford is concerned for the future of platypus. ( ABC News: Jake Sturmer )

This study is setting out to work out how well they're faring and what's likely to happen to the species in the next 50 to 100 years.

"For some time we've been hearing from platypus researchers around Australia that things are not looking so good," he said.

Researchers say there are a range of threats facing the platypus — such as foxes and riverbank erosion — but central to this research is what effect dams have in breaking up populations.

"We know that small breeding populations is likely the first step to extinction," Professor Kingsford said.

"So we've seen in a lot of places where platypus used to be they've become extinct in different river systems and as we break up these river systems we're essentially creating a whole lot of smaller and smaller pockets of platypus populations all of which have much greater probability of becoming extinct."

Where do you even start looking for platypuses?

But how on earth do you decide where to start the research given platypuses are nocturnal and can be tricky to find?

Well, part of this study is analysing tens of thousands of records of platypuses from newspapers stretching back to the 1800s.

From there, the team can work out whether they are still in the areas from hundreds of years ago.

The research has led to some bizarre findings too.

"Probably the craziest was from the late 1800s there was a record of a seal that had died and they just opened up its gut contents to see what it had been eating and there was a platypus inside without a head," researcher Tahneal Hawke said.

Researchers race to the nets to untangle the platypus. ( ABC News: Jake Sturmer )

Back at the nets, after hours without any movement, suddenly there's a twitch.

Researchers race to their boat to get out to the river and untangle the platypus.

When they've got the platypus safely out of the net, it's taken into a tiny bush ER.

In reality, it's just a shed with a sterile table and some lights on it.

There, it's knocked out using a special platypus-sized gas mask.

Some platypuses are implanted with tiny trackers. ( ABC News: Jake Sturmer )

While it's unconscious, it's given a thorough check up.

Researchers weigh the animal, shave a little bit of its fur off, remove ticks from its feet and in some cases implant tiny trackers.

All the collected information helps because scientists can study it to work out where the animals have been, and are likely to go in the future.

The captured platypus is given a thorough check-up. ( ABC News: Jake Sturmer )

"I think in terms of the ecology of the species and what's been happening in the river systems, how the diets have been changing over time, if the rivers have changed in how they've been managed you can detect that," Taronga Zoo Senior Vet Larry Vogelnest said.

The study is expected to continue for the next two years.