On Thursday, the Australian authorities arrested two people they were chasing after they were spotted Thursday at a train station in the north of Brisbane , carrying a small platypus with them.

Thursday, a 26-year-old man was spotted with a woman on a local train with a wild mammal, a platypus, wrapped in a bath towel.

On Saturday, the man appears in court on charges of alleged violations of animal protection laws. He is accused of taking the animal from its natural habitat in a waterway in north Queensland, taking it on a train and then in a mall.

"The duo were spotted showing the animal to people in the mall," Queensland Police said in a statement, noting that the animal had been "re-released into the Kabultur River" but "the authorities have not yet located it."

Queensland laws prohibit the removal of platypus from nature, or a fine of up to 430,000 Australian dollars (about 300,000 US dollars).

The platypus is a nocturnal animal, and is one of the rare mammals that lay eggs, and can currently only be spotted in eastern Australia. It feeds on worms, insects and small molluscs.