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

I must confess to a very large extent I don't understand all the secrecy.
I really don't understand how a leak could would or should interfere with a planned hoped for or wished acquisition or transfer.

Zoo: we like to get some Arizona ridge nosed rattlesnakes
Gossip the zoo is trying to acquire some Arizona ridge nosed rattlesnakes
Zoo: we're calling off the ridge nosed rattle snake deal somebody leaked it

It just doesn't make any sense, to me.

As for SD and the platypus- frankly (and perhaps this is just selfish on my part) I would appreciate
some honesty and updates. Why? well I'm planning on a little trip at the end of next month and
San Diego is one of the three contenders as to where we are going. If San Diego gave a press release that platypus are planned to be on exhibit by such and such a date it would make my planning easier. If they said August 1 well then I will probably go to San Diego, if they said Oct 1
then I would probably go there at a later time. What would severely hack me off is if I went there on August 30 and on Sept 2 they announced platypus are now on display.

I know they want specimens to be adjusted and healthy blah blah blah, but what if we go
six months from now and we haven't heard a peep? Everyone (zoochat wise because again 98% of San Diego zoo goers are not going to care one whit whether they see platypus or not) is going to assume something went wrong and they died.

I understand the point about the confidence of the leaker thing- but even that doesn't make a lot of sense. There must be a couple hundred people in the San Diego organization that know the exact deal with the platypus and I would be shocked beyond belief if each and every one of them hasn't told at least 5 people each. Sheesh

 

Certainly a ******** move, but if I was running Collection A or B I don't think that would have stopped me.

 

According to one of the animal ambassador presenters (not a random concessionaire), the people at Taronga just want to make sure that everything is good for the transfer and evebtual care of the platypus. As a move like this has never been achieved before, they want to make sure everything is right down to the details. The habitat is built; they're just waiting for approval.

Given the discussion about leaks, I just wanted to give the hard facts and that is: nothing is confirmed yet but the zoos are both working to make sure this happens.

Photo taken looking inside the new habitat:

 

@The_UltimateBea So visitors are allowed to go into the (empty) exhibit?

 

Oh god, I hope this doesn't open up a new can of worms.

 

No. I was able to see the sign through the fencing on the building. Definitely no actual entry possible.

 

The bottom line here is that nobody outside of the zoo's management knows when (or really yet if) the platypus is coming.

There is an exhibit waiting for the animals at the Safari Park, so the assumption is that they are actively working to get them, but there is no publicly known timeline.

Trying to schedule a time to visit the Safari Park specifically to see the platypus at this time is likely to end in disappointment, but there are many other reasons to visit the Safari Park if you are a zoo enthusiast headed to San Diego.

If you specifically want to go there to see the platypus then would recommend waiting until the zoo announces specifically that the exhibit is open. Even if they get platypus in the facility it could be sometime before they open the exhibit. San Diego has had dholes for almost 20 years and never really put them on exhibit, ditto tuataras. I don't expect that this would happen with platypus because they have an exhibit built for them already, but the bottom line is that until the zoo says that the exhibit is open, you probably won't see platypus.

 

At this point, we know San Diego and Taronga are working to make the transfer happen. Things must be promising since San Diego built a house and even has platypus signage in it. We're just going to have to be patient now to see what happens, hard as that may be.

 

That doesn't really mean anything, though. Beardsley built an enclosure for Vincuna and they never showed up, LA built an enclosure for Golden Snub-Nosed Monkeys and they never showed up, ABQ built an enclosure for Tasmanian Devils and none were sent to the US for years after that, Omaha even built an enclosure for Platypus and they've never received them. It doesn't matter how promising things look when it comes to imports like this, which is why I won't be holding my breath until the zoo announces something. The thing we must also all remember about Australian imports is that Australia doesn't approve them until the enclosure is done. All the house being built means is that San Diego is serious about wanting them, but they could never get approved until after the enclosure is finished and inspected.

~Thylo

 

I know, I'm not holding my breath either. Could well be a long time before anything arrives, at best probably many months to a year.

 

Well, interestingly enough there is now a page in the mammals section for platypus. This page did not exist two weeks ago. See here : Duck-billed Platypus | San Diego Zoo Animals & Plants

It does not give any indication of the species in the collection, but the wording is interesting. "Currently, we do not have duck-billed platypuses in the collection."

And the plot grows thicker with still no confirmation from SDZ...

 

Yes, I'd seen it too, though it was a good while ago. Although it's interesting because I looked for it during the last round of discussion in this thread and couldn't find it. Hence this post on July 12th.

 

The page was deleted shortly after I linked it, though it appears it is back now.

 

Which enclosure is that? The one in the Australian section of Kingdoms of the Night that currently holds freshwater crocodile?

 

Yes.