The birth of two baby platypuses at Healesville Sanctuary has achieved a world first.

Minister for Tourism and Major Events, Tim Holding said the newborns were second generation captive bred platypuses – the first to be bred anywhere in the world.

“The Australian Platypus is an iconic mammal and like no other on the planet,” Mr Holding said.

“The parents of the baby platypuses, Barak and Binarri, were both born in captivity and are now the proud parents of twins.”

“The baby platypuses and their parents are healthy, eating and swimming.

“The difficulty associated with breeding the platypus makes this a milestone occurrence for the award-winning Healesville Sanctuary, Zoos Victoria, Melbourne and Australia.”

“This creates an unbeatable experience at Healesville Sanctuary by providing an opportunity to see a platypus and its offspring in its natural environment.”

The platypus eggs were hatched on or around 3 October 2007, followed by an incubation period of a little over 120 days. 

The as yet unnamed platypuses were born in the first week of February. The sex of both babies is yet to be determined.

When the two platypuses hatched they would have been around 17mm in size and after emerging from their burrow they were a healthy 300mm. 

Mr Holding said Healesville Sanctuary has the world leading platypus captive breeding program and this latest achievement will further assist in maintaining a captive population of the platypus.

“Healesville Sanctuary has had a captive breeding program for platypuses since 1933. In 1944 the first captive bred platypus, ‘Corrie’, was born making headlines around the world,” he said.  

“The state-of-the-art BHP Billiton Platypusary was purpose built and officially opened in 2005 to assist in this captive breeding program and has become a tourism draw card for Healesville Sanctuary and the surrounding area.”

Healesville Sanctuary is one of the Victoria’s leading tourist attractions and last year attracted 300,000 visitors, including 90,000 from overseas. This figure is expected to rise significantly from the large number of cruise ships visiting Victoria over the next year.

Both baby platypuses will remain with their parents for a year and they will then join the Platypus Breeding Program as part of the Australian Regional Association of Zoological Parks and Aquaria (ARAZPA) captive management program where they will be sent to other zoos that have platypus facilities.

Photo: Ian Elton