Word: fleay
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...baby female platypus puddling in the mud on the bank of the Albert River. The platypus saw Fleay and disappeared into a crevice, but a trap caught her during the night, and Fleay named her Pamela. Three days later he caught a male baby, Paul. Both Pamela and Paul took their captivity with resignation, but Paddy, another male, captured on Feb. 10, protested in a way that worried Fleay, who feared that Paddy might never see The Bronx...
Live Food. Back at West Burleigh, Fleay began the delicate job of conditioning the platypuses for life in The Bronx. They were installed in a Fleay-designed platypusary with a water tank and grass-lined burrows that simulated as closely as possible their natural habitat. Every afternoon Fleay took them from the burrows and put them in the tank. He encouraged visitors ("It helps them get accustomed to people and noise...
...problem is food. Platypuses eat half their weight daily, and they demand live food. So every day Fleay dispenses 2,000 earthworms. 200 meal grubs, 30 crayfish, chafer grubs and crickets. Favorite item with the growing platypuses: small, wriggling grubs that Fleay raises under his house in bran and meal moistened with beer...
Flight Test. Fortnight ago, Fleay gave his platypuses a flight test. He put them in grass-lined boxes and took them for a 60-mile ride to Brisbane on a Trans-Australia Airlines DC-3. At Brisbane they seemed cheerful, but when they got back home, they seemed slightly dazed and ignored tempting heaps of wriggling earthworms. Next day Pamela and Paul were back in form, but Paddy kept sticking his head underwater (a sign of distress). When he did not recover his spirits after two days. Fleay liberated him in a nearby river. "Paddy is so sensitive," explained Fleay...
...Fleay is still trying, without much hope, to catch a replacement for Paddy. Most of this year's crop of young platypuses are already too mature. Last week, building a platypusary for Pamela's and Paul's trip to the U.S., Fleay was hoping that they would be reconciled to traveling by air. But even air travel will not be carefree. Between Australia and The Bronx, Pamela and Paul will demand-and get -7,000 earthworms, 165 crayfish, 130 chafer grubs and 1,300 meal grubs. By the time they arrive, Fleay estimates, they will have cost...