Why no platypus in zoos outside Australia?

DavidBrown said:
Zooplantman, do you know where the platypussary at the Bronx Zoo was located relative to the modern zoo layout?
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The original one (1922) was attached to the east end of the Reptile House.

The second (1947) was north of the Safari Shop.
I believe that the third venture (1958) was in the same location.

This all according to William Bridges history of the zoo.
 
Platypus have not consistently bred well in captivity. Until such time as they do it is unlikely that any will be exported to overseas zoos. ZAA and AZA and WAZA are all working hard to manage many species in a global fashion with the best interests of the animals in mind. This effort is still in the works--look for changes in the not-so-distant future.
 
Tim May said:
Amazingly, The Zoological Gardens of Europe (C. V. A. Peel, 1903) records that Leipzig Zoo had a duck-billed platypus in 1899; the same book also lists a duck-billed platypus in Frankfurt.

I know no other details of these animals; if anybody can supply further information I would be extremely interested.
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Chlidonias said:
I can't give much credence to the other zoos having displayed live platypus (Leipzig, Frankfurt, Rotterdam). The London reference is certainly not a live specimen (it has been referred to before on Zoochat; it was not a live animal). In another case (Budapest) the "platypus" was in fact a long-beaked echidna (presumably due to translation error)
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Tim May said:
Regarding my comments about a platypus in Leipzig and Frankfurt, I must emphasise that I was only repeating the information from Peel’s book; I am not vouching for its accuracy.

It did occur to me, too, that Peel may have got his monotremes confused and really meant echidna rather than platypus. However, wherever Peel refers to platypus, he always calls it a duck-billed platypus; I doubt he would ever have referred to an echidna as duck-billed.

I have been puzzling over these references to platypuses ever since I first read the book more than twenty years ago......
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I've just been re-reading this thread, and then had a look in Peel's book. Where Peel mentioned the 1899 duck-billed platypus in his Leipzig account it seems clear he was providing a historical list of zoo occupants (i.e. not something he saw himself) and hence I can't see any good reason to believe it was anything other than a translation error for an echidna.

For Frankfurt, however, he pretty much states that he saw the animal itself, which is certainly interesting. However I'm not convinced it was actually a platypus because the actual paragraph is rather jumbled/badly-written. It reads "There are also three species of wombats (Perameles), including Phascolomys wombat, P. latifrons, belidens, echidna, etc. There is a duck-billed platypus, and a squirrel as big as a cat"

Perameles is a bandicoot genus, not a wombat genus.
Phascolomys wombat and P. latifrons are of course wombats (now Vombatus ursinus and Lasiorhinus latifrons).
Belidens is a misspelling of Belideus, the sugar gliders (now Petaurus).
Echidna is the short-beaked echidna (now Tachyglossus).
And then he mentions a duck-billed platypus and what was presumably either something like a greater glider (this part of the account being about marsupials) or an actual giant squirrel (Ratufa).

I would suggest that the wording was inadvertantly muddled (perhaps by the editor, perhaps by Peel) and "echidna" and "duck-billed platypus" are supposed to be connected.
 
"In contrast to CGSwans, I think real reason is that platypus are expensive to keep for their size (eat thousands of earthworms and similar invertebrates) and not interesting for general public, being nocturnal, small, brown etc. Compare kiwis in Frankfurt zoo, which are not bred because there is no demand for them. "

I respectfully disagree with you about there not being an interest by the public - any successful marketing director can take just about any animal and make it a celebrity and in the case of the platypus it wouldn't be too hard to sell. If the zoo or aquarium was smart it would create a whole exhibit showcasing the playpus's ecosystem and the animals that live there with the monotreme as the center attraction.. Having it be nocturnal would actually be a plus if you made the exhibit indoors - though from what I've seen they seem to be fairly active in captivity. No I don't think any zoo or aquarium would be hurting for guests if they had a platypus exhibit.
 
a bit of an old DavidBrown thread, but worth re-awakening because platypus may be coming to San Diego Zoo.

I started a thread in the USA forum, but for anybody else who is interested and wouldn't see it there, I'm linking it here as well: San Diego Zoo - Platypus...
 
I remember they have no stomach. Bony and cartilaginous fish with reduced digestive tracts often do not ship well: Taeniura, Zanclus etc because they cannot horde energy as body fat. I wondered if that's also why platypus don't ship alive well, seeing as they have no blubber. I might be wrong but they might be physiologically prone to stress while shipping.
 
In his book The Zoological Gardens of Europe (1903) C. V. A. Peel records that Leipzig Zoo had a duck-billed platypus in 1899; the same book also lists a duck-billed platypus in Frankfurt.

@Tim May

What excactly writes Peel about the Platypus at Frankfurt ? Did he name a year in which the animal supposedly was kept? The Frankfurt Zoo never had a platypus, but they got an echidna in 1897. I think, Peel just mistook the echidna for a platypus. The german name for the echidna is Schnabeligel, the german name for the Platypus is Schnabeltier.
 
Bib Fortuna said:
In his book The Zoological Gardens of Europe (1903) C. V. A. Peel records that Leipzig Zoo had a duck-billed platypus in 1899; the same book also lists a duck-billed platypus in Frankfurt.

@Tim May

What excactly writes Peel about the Platypus at Frankfurt ? Did he name a year in which the animal supposedly was kept? The Frankfurt Zoo never had a platypus, but they got an echidna in 1897. I think, Peel just mistook the echidna for a platypus. The german name for the echidna is Schnabeligel, the german name for the Platypus is Schnabeltier.
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Peel does not give the year that the alleged platypus arrived. He writes:-
"There are also three species of wombats (Perameles), including Pliascolomys wombat, P. latifrons, helidens, echidna, etc. There is a duck-billed platypus, and a squirrel as large as a cat."

Given that the German names for echidna and platypus are so similar it seems plausible that Peel just got the monotremes confused although it is interesting that he mentions echidna and duck-billed platypus in consecutive sentences.
 
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Bib Fortuna said:
In his book The Zoological Gardens of Europe (1903) C. V. A. Peel records that Leipzig Zoo had a duck-billed platypus in 1899; the same book also lists a duck-billed platypus in Frankfurt.

@Tim May

What excactly writes Peel about the Platypus at Frankfurt ? Did he name a year in which the animal supposedly was kept? The Frankfurt Zoo never had a platypus, but they got an echidna in 1897. I think, Peel just mistook the echidna for a platypus. The german name for the echidna is Schnabeligel, the german name for the Platypus is Schnabeltier.
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See post #43, literally four posts above your post, where I quoted the paragraph and broke down the jumble of words in it. I think that "duck-billed platypus" and "echidna" are supposed to be connected in the sentence and either the author or the editor messed up the content.
 
Chlidonias said:
See post #43, literally four posts above your post, where I quoted the paragraph and broke down the jumble of words in it. I think that "duck-billed platypus" and "echidna" are supposed to be connected in the sentence and either the author or the editor messed up the content.
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Thank you. I was simply responding to the question "Bib Fortuna" asked me a couple of hours ago.

I didn't go back to read your post from more than six years ago.

I do agree with you, though, that Peel's wording appears rather muddled.
 
Tim May said:
Peel does not give the year that the alleged platypus arrived. He writes:-
"There are also three species of wombats (Perameles), including Pliascolomys wombat, P. latifrons, helidens, echidna, etc. There is a duck-billed platypus, and a squirrel as large as a cat."

Given that the German names for echidna and platypus are so similar it seems plausible that Peel just got the monotremes confused although it is interesting that he mentions echidna and duck-billed platypus in consecutive sentences.
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Thank you. The Frankfurt Zoo has published annual reports since 1858, which are all from 1859 can be found in the Internet. In each of them, most speices, in any case, the most important animal species the zoo got in that year, are listed. Even fallow deer and raccoons.In no annual report for the period in question is a platypus listed, and that would be certain if the zoo had got one, even if it had died in the year of arrival. Also in the zoo archives, even in the 2011 published inventory of mammals, a platypus isn't included. Also, there were no three wombat species at the same time, only two. Between 1898 and 1903 Vombatus ursinus and Lasiorhinus latifrons were kept. At the beginning of the 20th century, Frankfurt had the largest stock of Australian animals outside Australia, including 19 species of kangaroos. But Unfortunately, no platypus.
 
Would you possibly have a link to the Frankfurt Archives as I would be very interested in reading them please?
 
AdrianW1963 said:
Would you possibly have a link to the Frankfurt Archives as I would be very interested in reading them please?
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I'm Sorry, it is not a single link to a Frankfurt archive, there are several links to diffrent places. You can find the annual reports in the german"Zoo magazine"Der Zoologische Garten".
 
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birdsandbats said:
It's well known on this site already, but I'm adding this for anyone who doesn't already know: two Platypus will go on exhibit at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park on November 21.
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Some day i need to come to North America to See the only platypus Outside of Australia
 
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