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For those of you wondering what a typical day for Barak, our platupus, is - here is a brief outline.
Barak gets to sleep in until around 9am each morning, in his cosy timber nest boxes in the off-display area (he usually sleeps in the box lined with a soft sheepskin blanket). Meanwhile, his keeper (that would be me) is hard at work cleaning his tank, which mainly involves getting rid of all the freshwater crayfish (yabbie) pieces left over from his meals. Branches and floating enrichment items (bark, palm leaves etc.) may also be changed over or put in.
At 9am he is gently encouraged to head out to his tank through a series of pipes which act as a substitute burrow (or tunnel). At this time the lighting in his tank changes from bright 'day time' lights to dimmer 'night time' lights as platypuses tend to be most active during the night or at dusk and dawn.
He will then proceed to spend the rest of the day in the water swimming around, foraging for food or resting.
Just before our two daily platypus presentations he is fed a special treat of mealworms, earthworms and fly pupae (insects make up a large part of a platypus diet).
At 9pm the tank lights change back to 'day time' mode and that is his cue to start getting ready for bed. However, bed time for Barak can vary considerably - it could be anywhere from 7pm through to 3am! Whenever he does decide it is time for a snooze, he will climb out of the water and head back through his pipes, down to his cosy nest boxes once again. |
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Last Edited On: 2010-10-01 07:03:49 By Rebecca for the Reason |
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Rebecca (Head Mammal Keeper) |
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