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A Tame Platypus

Abstract

RECENTLY an observant and interested resident at Healesville, which is about forty miles from Melbourne, prepared an artificial rectangular trough filled with water and mud to which was attached a straw-lined tube above the water level. He then placed a platypus in this structure and fed him regularly on the only diet available in quantity, namely, earthworms. Mollusca and shrimps were not procurable, at all events in quantity. Within three months this excessively shy creature emerged when whistled for and took worms furnished by hand. The diet required was from twelve to fourteen ounces daily for an animal which weighs less than three pounds.

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BARRETT, J. A Tame Platypus. Nature 132, 446 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132446a0

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