San Diego Zoo Safari Park Platypus at San Diego Zoo Safari Park

Been almost two months since the last post... still no farther information it seems.

Any members from San Diego area seen anything going on with the house that was built or heard anything?

 

I’m really hopeful that they do exhibit them or at least have them. Me and my girlfriend have a whole trip planned to both parks in early November. I’m uber excited to the see the Walkabout Australia and then the zoo’s Africa Rocks exhibit. From the chatter I’ve seen on this thread, they may be at the park but not confirmed. I do have tickets to see the behind the scenes of Walkabout Australia so if I see or am told anything about the platypus, I will post the day of the event. It will be my first time there and can’t wait to experience it!

 

I went last week, I have big news but its confidential....I swore not to say what it was....but good news coming your way...

 

It’s fair enough to say my excitement levels are ever expanding now haha

 

And I was almost about to concede that my source was mistaken on my last trip, excited to hear more!

 

Typically when something is confidential you simply don’t mention it, you don’t announce that there’s something confidential.

 

Well, I'm not a typical person, so when you put those two things together, I guess you could kinda see why I hinted a bit at this...

 

Uh, what does this mean?

 

@ZooBinh i hav a feeling u know something about the Platypus. Plz don’t tell me what ur hiding is bad news...

 

GUYS HES AN ALIEN

 

You especially don't do this when you the context makes it glaringly obvious what you have to say. This is, however, a good way to ensure that no one will ever tell you anything significant again, and/or that said source of information at the zoo will never trust anyone to off-record information again. Hopefully your source won't get chewed out by their supervisor later...

As far as I'm concerned, though, with absolutely no permits filed yet and not a peep new-wise from anyone other than a select few on this thread, I won't believe a thing until the zoo makes an official announcement.

~Thylo

 

No we should not!! This is a horribly dangerous sentiment and it should 100% be discouraged. Too many people on this forum severely underestimate just how closely some zoos watch us and just how damaging leaks can be. People have lost their jobs due to loose lipped posters and, in a few cases, entire transfers/imports have been cancelled before they ever happen. There's a reason Chester Zoo won't allow "walk and talks" anymore and why many zoos have become a lot stricter on allowing zoo nerds behind the scenes peaks. Don't fool yourself, we should discourage leaks and condemn them, else next time no one will get them.

~Thylo

 

Yeah, no.

 

There are a number of people on this site who work at zoos, yet are very cautious about what they post to avoid upsetting their institutions. I followed that myself when I worked at one. Admin normally doesn't appreciate someone spilling their secret before they announce it to the public. Hopefully not a fireable offense, but probably unpleasant depending on the circumstance. Most zoos will not announce an animal till the animal has cleared quarantine, giving time to make sure the animal is healthy and thriving. Same for pregnancies. Often zoos don't allow photos on bts tours either, at least in my experience. We like knowing developments as soon as they come about, but encouraging leaks is NOT acceptable, it is how we lose trust and opportunities become less!

And yes, I do want to know about the platypus just as much as you do, but even if @ZooBinh has given us a solid hint, if his information is confidential like he says, I feel he shouldn't be forced to say more at present.

 

He is spreading an unfounded rumor, not giving an update.

If San Diego ever gets platypus they will shout it everywhere and put up billboards. Claimed hints of "secret knowledge" that are gleaned from asking bus ticket takers and concession workers about things they would have no way of knowing are not helpful.

 

Nail, meet head.

This is exactly how those ridiculous rumors that SDZSP had Saiga running around behind the scenes started a few years ago..

~Thylo

 

For what it's worth, searching "platypus" on SDZ's website and the safari park's just now yielded no results at all.

Also no photos/drawings or anything either.

 

Im actually going to back down on this one, I agree with everything you said and I underestimated the impact it has. I had no idea zoos watched zoochat, or for that matter cared what we thought considering what a small group we are compared to the public they tend to as a whole. If there really are cases of people losing there jobs over posts on this forum, I agree we should discourage it. And the idea that potential positive transfers getting sidelined because of rumors on this forum, while bizarre to me, is terribly distressing considering we are talking about it because we care about the well being of captive populations. Behind the scenes access is a privileged as well, and if our talking with employees can get them into trouble we should limit what we share.

Again disregard what I said, I assumed that this kind of sharing was inconsequential but apparently I was wrong, my apologies.

 

We have discussed this at length off-site and there's no real need to reprise that conversation. The one thing we did agree on is that the situation is more complex than presented here: ie there are reasons Chester cancelled the walks and talks (which are also not going to be reviewed!)

It is the zoo's responsibility to protect information, not ZooChat's. In the case of someone being told something in confidence or explicitly off the record, as here, of course they shouldn't share that information on the site. But if a zoo employee tells a random stranger something without asking for that information to be kept private then whose 'loose lips' are at fault here?

The pressure that some zoos would seemingly like to exert on ZooChat in order to control information, I can only view as them identifying the weak link in the chain. They should get their own houses in order.

I don't want to be seen as being unnecessarily disagreeable; we've never met in person and I know we would both like to. However, this sentence simply reveals that, for quite a number of people I suspect, the leak itself is welcome, it should just be shared within a smaller inner circle rather than the whole forum.