![]() ![]() Officials accused her of posing as an expectant mother just to lead a life of luxury, on double rations. The zookeepers had been befooled by a platypus. ![]() After several hours of digging, they found a network of burrows but no leafy nest. With small trowels and under the presence of some fifty newspaper reporters and photographers, they dug into the dirt towards Penelope’s lair. They decided that they should wait no longer. Then the weather turned for the worse unexpectedly and zoo officials feared that the cold might hurt the babies. All the signs pointed to platypus eggs, perhaps even hairless platypus infants wriggling in the nest.įor the next sixteen weeks, the curators waited in patience as the young platypuses passed through the nursing stage. Penelope began eating larger and larger quantities of worms and larvae. The zookeepers were convinced Penelope was pregnant and ready to lay eggs. When she emerged, she ate an enormous meal and went back to her retreat. Since wild platypuses make their breeding nests out of just such leaves, the curators grew hopeful.Ī few weeks later, Penelope retreated to her burrow and remained there for six days. When the curators provided her with eucalyptus leaves, Penelope took them into the burrow. This time, Penelope was more receptive of Cecil’s moves, and the two platypuses seemed to get along nicely. The next year, during breeding season, the zookeepers tried again. Penelope’s revulsion to Cecil and the curators' earnest desire to make the platypuses mate even made the news, with the Time reporting that Penelope “was one of those saucy females who like to keep a male on a string.” As soon as she saw him, she dashed into the water, rolling over and over, and scratched furiously with all of her 20 sharp claws. One time, the zookeepers placed Cecil in Penelope's half of the platypusary. At times Cecil would let go and roll over and over in the water. Cecil would grab Penelope’s flat tail in his duckbilled, toothless mouth, and hold on while Penelope dragged him around the pool in slow circles. With some encouragement from the curators, Cecil began to court Penelope, crawling into her enclosure whenever he had the chance. At night, they came out to eat dinner, where each consumed about 25 to 35 live crayfish, 200 to 300 worms, one frog, several scrambled eggs, and mud. They slept throughout the day, with an hour’s break for visitors. The zoo built a lavish platypusary for them to live, where each had its own little swimming pool and private burrows. The Bronx curators were determined to learn all they could by making Penelope and Cecil mate. Even in their native Australia, only one platypus couple (Jack and Jill) have bred in captivity, and they produced only one offspring. Very few people have seen platypuses breed. Only after about four months do the young emerge from the burrow.Ī wild platypus in a creek in Tasmania, Australia. The blind, hairless hatchlings then nurse by licking milk that the mother secrete out of pores in the skin. Although their blood is warm and they have mammal-like fur, they lay eggs like reptiles. But here’s the thing-platypuses are not quite mammals. They were brought to New York’s Bronx Zoo all the way from Australia where the mammals are endemic to. In 1947, there were only two platypuses in America-Penelope and Cecil. ![]()
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