Penelope (platypus)

Penelope (disappeared July 1957) was a platypus at the Bronx Zoo known for faking a pregnancy and abandoning her mate, Cecil.^[1] In 1947, when she and two other platypuses were sent to New York City, they became the only platypuses living in captivity outside of Australia at the time.^[2] Penelope made headlines for her repeated refusal to mate with the zoo's male platypus, Cecil. The New York Times said that Penelope was not lovesick but "sick of love" when she escaped from the zoo's platypusary in 1957, never to be seen again.^[3]

Bronx Zoo and attempted courtship

On April 25, 1947, three platypuses along with Burleigh zoologists David and Sigrid Fleay arrived at the Bronx Zoo. The platypuses were named Penelope, Cecil, and Betty. The zoo built a platypusary for them to live in, where each animal had its own swimming pool and private burrows.^[4] However, Betty died of a cold after arriving to the United States, so just Penelope and Cecil, who weighed two and four pounds respectively, lived in the enclosure.^[2] Cecil and Penelope slept during the days except for their hour-long break to see visitors. At night, they came out to eat dinner of "25 to 35 live crayfish, 200 to 300 worms, one frog, several scrambled eggs," and mud.^[2]

Zookeepers tried, over and over, to get the platypuses to mate. However, Penelope resisted Cecil's advances. "Penelope does not like Cecil, so their engagement is off, at least until next autumn", wrote the Townsville Bulletin on June 17, 1952.^[5] According to Time magazine, Cecil would court Penelope by biting onto her flat tail and holding on as Penelope waddled around the pool, dragging him in circles. Penelope did not appear to like him.^[2][6]

Zookeepers were eager to see captive platypuses mate.^[6] At this time only one platypus couple, Jack and Jill, had bred in captivity, and that was in their native Australia.^[7] In the spring of 1951, when zookeepers put Cecil in Penelope's enclosure, she began behaving with erratic aggression: "scratching furiously with all of her 20 sharp claws," running into the water, and rolling over. The next year, during the North American spring, Penelope was more receptive to Cecil's presence. This time, when they were near each other, Penelope did not behave unusually.^[6]

Faking a pregnancy

Penelope made headlines when she began behaving like an expectant mother, as she would have been the first platypus to lay a batch of eggs away from the species' homeland of Australia. Zookeepers became certain that Penelope was guarding young in the mound of dirt where she lived.^[6][2] The first indication of Penelope's pregnancy was when she took eucalyptus leaves into her burrow, since those are the leaves that wild platypuses use to make breeding nests.^[6]

Then, on July 9, Penelope retreated to her burrow and remained there for six days. She then ate a meal that Time magazine described as "enormous". At this point, zookeepers prepared themselves for the possibility of platypus eggs or young, hairless platypus infants who were in the nursing stage. Penelope began eating larger quantities of worms and larvae. Australian zoologists, including David Fleay, expected the young to be ready for the outside world in seventeen weeks.^[2][6]

After sixteen weeks, zookeepers made plans to explore the mound to see the potential offspring. In the presence of fifty newspaper reporters and photographers, zookeepers dug through the 250 cubic feet (7.1 m³) of earth for hours.^[6][8] However, they did not find any young platypuses – only Penelope. Despite her maternal behavior and increased food consumption, she had not been rearing any young. Zookeepers reported that they "had been duped" by Penelope, calling her a "faker" and accusing her of "posing as an expectant mother just to lead a life of luxury on double rations".^[9]

Representatives of Penelope sent a cable to Fleay that said: "No babies this year. There's always next year. — Penelope."^[9] Fleay believed that Penelope had indeed hatched young but that "something apparently went wrong".^[9]

Escape from the zoo

In July 1957, Penelope disappeared and the zoo assigned a fifteen-person team to search nearby waters including the Bronx River. Though male platypuses have a venomous spur, females do not, making them more vulnerable in the wild.^[3] On July 26, 1957, the Bronx Zoo stopped its weeks-long search through the ponds and streams on the premises and announced her "presumed lost and probably dead". The New York Times wrote that Penelope was "believed to have scrambled out of her burrow and escaped over a wire fence in resisting the advances of her mate, Cecil".^[1]

Cecil appeared affected by her disappearance. He spent considerable time scratching his head, an activity he had never done before.^[3] He lost weight and died one day after the search for Penelope was called off.^[10]

On August 19, 1957, a Time magazine article wrote that she was "one of those saucy females who like to keep a male on a string".^[2]

Aftermath

Several weeks after Penelope disappeared, Australian zoologist David Fleay expressed his disappointment with Penelope and agreed to send more platypuses to New York.^[11]

In 1958, the Bronx Zoo received three more platypuses named Paul, Patty, and Pamela. All three died within their first year in North America.^[12] The United States did not get another platypus until 2019, when a pair arrived at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. As of 2019,^[update] they are the only platypuses on display outside of Australia.^[13][14]

See also

• Fauna of Australia
• Venomous mammal

References