The Taranga Zoo in Sydney bills itself as the Zoo
with a VIEW, and it truly is. You take the ferry across Sydney harbor to get there...then a bus or cable car takes you to the top entrance, and you walk your way downhill.
To tell the truth I came to see my favorite animal, the platypus and I DID! Yay!
What an amazing animal!
It's a mammal that lays eggs(usually 2) and suckles its young from its stomach (no nipples) .
Apparently when the baby sucks, milk oozes out (from somewhere...I have no idea where or how)
It has only 1 opening for elimination, sex, and giving birth. The echidna is the only other animal like this.
Scientists think these animals are caught somewhere between reptiles and mammals in the evolutionary food chain, and are very ancient animals.
It has webbed feet, but used only its front feet when swimming.
It uses the hind feet for making a burrow.
It's bill is leathery...and has sensors in it to find food when it dives, because the platypus shuts its ears and eyes underwater.
Platypuses eat crawfish, and since they have no teeth, they have to gum them.
When the female is building her nest, she scoops up mud and puts it into her tail, which she then curls up and takes it to its burrow.
It has a double coat of hair, which keeps it warm and dry in and out of the water.
It's nocturnal and shy.
It has a tail that looks like a beaver's.
The male has poisonous spurs on its hind feet.
When Australian scientists first sent a preserved platypus to their counterparts in England, nobody believed it was real...they thought it had been sewn together as a hoax.
The Taronga Zoo finally bred platypuses in captivity several years ago...the first time ever, under their romantic outdoor waterfall. When I was there it was daytime, so they were most likely sleeping. At least I got a chance to see them in the nocturnally lighted tank! Yay!
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