A female platypus, dubbed Zoom, preps a nesting site after the mating season. Female platypus can dig up to 30 feet into the riverbank to make a safe place to lay their eggs and raise their young.
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TRANSCRIPT
The nest building is like a miracle of nature, in my opinion.
(water rushing softly) I didn't know that Zoom could curl up her tail like that.
Her grip needs to be strong to hold onto that vegetation.
To see Zoom come out of the water with her full load of nesting materials and then disappear into a tiny burrow, it's incredible.
How does all that stuff even fit in the burrow?
The platypus can hardly fit through that hole.
She's constructing that nest in 100% darkness.
We were super fortunate to find Zoom's burrow.
So my strategy is to place a number of trail cameras around that burrow, out of her way, and just leave them running.
When they see something happen, they'll send me an alert.
When I woke up one morning and looked at my phone I saw two or three alerts from the trail cameras around that nesting burrow.
It was like, something's gone down.
Easy.
All right, the moment of truth.
To see a youngster come out of Zoom's burrow was such a magical feeling.
(laughing) And the next day I'd come down to the pond here and I've just been walking around for a few minutes looking for him.
There's me walking around looking for him everywhere, but the whole time he'd been behind me.
(light music) (water rushing softly) Young platypus are so vulnerable and so clumsy.
(water splashing) But Zoom's work as a mother is done.
Now her baby's out of the burrow, he'll have to find his own way in the world.
(birds chittering) Zoom's youngster gives me hope that platypus can continue living in this city.
(light music fades out)
