A rescued female platypus puggle being cared for at Sydney\u2019s Taronga Zoo has been named \u2018Matilda\u2019 after Australia\u2019s much-loved women\u2019s soccer team record breaking run at the FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matilda, nicknamed \u2018Tilly\u2019 for short, was around four months old when she was admitted to Taronga\u2019s Wildlife Hospital in April 2023. She was in poor condition and weighed only 280 grams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She had been found under a bush on the NSW Central Coast and was weak, severely malnourished and covered in ticks, all of which compromised her waterproofing making it difficult for her to swim and survive on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanks to attentive, around-the-clock care from Taronga\u2019s expert Platypus team who hand-fed her 6 times a day for 2 months, she started to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matilda, who is now approximately 8 months old, is eating and foraging on her own and recently weighed in at 694 grams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The name Matilda means \u2018bold, battlefield warrior\u2019 and represents both our mighty women\u2019s soccer team and Taronga\u2019s puggle who is going from strength to strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Premier Chris Minns said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are incredibly proud of the Matildas and the spirit they have shown throughout the Women\u2019s World Cup and Tilly is emblematic of that perseverance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe know their legacy will be remembered for generations and, now one of our most iconic native animals shares the same name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe work being done by Taronga Zoo to care for platypuses is absolutely vital and the recovery of Tilly is a testament to that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Minister for the Environment Penny Sharpe said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe performance of the Matildas during the Woman\u2019s World Cup has inspired a conversation that will change women\u2019s sport in Australia forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt can be touch-and-go when rehabilitating a Platypus, and Tilly\u2019s recovery is a testament to the calibre of the team we have working at Taronga\u2019s Wildlife Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEnsuring the survival of this iconic species is essential work for this government and that means protecting their habitat, addressing climate change and tackling plastic pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taronga Wildlife Hospital veterinary resident Dr Jess Whinfield said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEach platypus we treat, and especially those that need intensive care like Matilda, offers an insight into their species and what we need to do to help them thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTilly would have weighed a tiny 1.5 grams when she hatched from an egg the size of a marble. She then spent four months drinking her mother\u2019s milk in the safety of the nesting burrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAfter emerging, she has very quickly learned to swim and find her food \u2013 not by using sight, sound, or smell, but by using her bill to detect the tiny amounts of electricity her invertebrate prey produces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEveryone can help protect platypuses in the wild by responsibly disposing of fishing equipment and picking up rubbish \u2013 especially items such as hair ties and rubber bands which platypuses can become entangled in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A rescued female platypus puggle being cared for at Sydney\u2019s Taronga Zoo has been named \u2018Matilda\u2019 after Australia\u2019s much-loved women\u2019s soccer team record breaking run at the FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup 2023. Matilda, nicknamed \u2018Tilly\u2019 for short, was around four months old when she was admitted to Taronga\u2019s Wildlife Hospital in April 2023. She was … Continue reading “Aussie icon named after Aussie icons”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22429,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22428\/revisions\/22429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}