THE PLATYPUS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 24, 29 January 1935, Page 4

THE PLATYPUS

ADDITIONS TO SYDNEY ZOO

Two young platypuses which were re'ccntly installed in specially-prepared quarters at Taronga Paik, Sydney, are making excellent progress, to the great guitificatiou of the zoo authorities. The eccentricities of tho platypus '(which is a mammal, but has some of tho .characteristics of icptiles, birds, and nshes) make it especially difficult to rear in captivity. When tho zoo authorities recently obtained two young male specimens from Mr. George'Goote, of Manilla, New South Wales, they set out to reproduce as ncaily as practicable tho conditions under which the creature normally lives. They had misgivings, but the experiment was successful, even beyond their hopes. In its wild state the platypus lives in rivers and dams, and makes a long tunnel fiom the river bank to an inner chamber, which serves as a nest. This tunnel is narrow, and ono of its functions is to rid the platypus of the water in its fur. The authorities built an artificial pool and an mtificial nest, but an artificial tunnel was out of the question. They provided, instead, a simple, but ingenious device having the same effect. It consists of a scries of planks, each containing a hole- just sufficiently huge to enable tho platypus to pass. To go from the-pool in which they are fed to tho nest, the cx-catures must squeezo through these holes, and the device effectively dries their coats. The zoo's two specimens spend most of the day in sleeping, but they know that food is available at 4 p.m., and are usually to bo seen at that time. So far the public have evinced little interest in them, and most of their visitors are tourists from overseas.