Researchers over the moon as puggle is born in Royal National Park

March 24, 2024 6:36 PM

Researchers over the moon as puggle is born in Sydney's Royal National Park. (A puggle is the word for a baby platypus.) The six-month-old female platypus is the first-known animal of its kind to be born in Australia's oldest national park in more than 50 years, and its arrival comes despite a series of recent pollution scares in local waterways.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (12 comments total)

A puggle is the word for a baby platypus

Also the word for a baby wombat, which perhaps explains why platypuses often look surprised.
posted by flabdablet at 7:29 PM on March 24 [6 favorites]

Also the nickname for a tiny flat-faced bug-eyed dog that can barely breathe, and I think most are just tolerant of their birth not over the moon about them.
posted by hippybear at 8:59 PM on March 24

Perhaps they need to make a few more billions before they're worthy of your esteem...

I for one am very happy to hear this, and I think they're cute.
posted by Audreynachrome at 9:43 PM on March 24

Yay puggly p, yah pugga yee, little pee yoo jee jeeeee leeeee, we welcome ye

Ok so now, slight note: less photos of peoples (new story link) and more platypussian (?) images
(this is not for you, CPBC, excellent Aus content as always). I know what people look like, and
the content isn't about people, so stop showing them.
posted by winesong at 10:18 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]

Mod note: [G'day, thread! Here to point out that this post and chariot pulled by cassowaries' whole posting history, actually, have been added to the sidebar and the Best Of blog!]
posted by taz (staff) at 1:42 AM on March 25 [15 favorites]

Always Be PlatypusPosting! Always Be NashQuoting!

---

I like the duck-billed platypus
Because it is anomalous.
I like the way it raises its family
Partly birdly, partly mammaly.
I like its independent attitude.
Let no one call it a duck-billed platitude.
posted by lalochezia at 4:49 AM on March 25 [6 favorites]

Yay for Gilli, but 5 significant pollution events into a national park in the last couple years? Into a park with endangered species? I know the Australian government loves its mineral exploitation, but when does Metropolitan Colliery get its licenses pulled?
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:58 AM on March 25 [4 favorites]

Also the nickname for a tiny flat-faced bug-eyed dog that can barely breathe

A puggle is also a cross between a pug and a beagle and has somewhat healthier breathing apparatus (than a pug) as result.

Though I am totally here for baby Gilli.
posted by Glinn at 6:49 AM on March 25 [2 favorites]

when does Metropolitan Colliery get its licenses pulled?

Not before the first Greens-majority NSW State Government exists, is my best guess.
posted by flabdablet at 6:50 PM on March 25 [1 favorite]

I also was wonder "Why the hell are they excited about a dog?" Then I saw the word "platypus" and remembered. I didn't know about the wombats, though.

Side note: I'm pretty sure the Australians were drunk and gave those animals joke names to begin with but now they have to live with the joke.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 10:02 PM on March 25

Yay! Have a long and swimmy life little one.

I beheld a platypus up close for the first time the other day at an animal sanctuary, after giving up on various trips to viewing platforms with a ratio of about 100:1 leaning on railings squinting into distant water to seeing a blurry form which must be a platypus, surely it can be nothing else. They're surprisingly small; feels like they would fit comfortably in one hand like a computer mouse.
posted by womb of things to be and tomb of things that were at 1:28 AM on March 26 [1 favorite]

Side note: I'm pretty sure the Australians were drunk and...

late 18th century: modern Latin, from Greek platupous ‘flat-footed’, from platus ‘flat’ + pous ‘foot’

So, yeah, mixing teh latin and greek in a swirl is kind of unruly
posted by porpoise at 10:29 PM on March 26