Talk:Penelope (platypus)

A fact from Penelope (platypus) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 11 June 2023 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that in 1953, zookeepers accused Penelope the platypus at the Bronx Zoo of "posing as an expectant mother just to lead a life of luxury on double rations"?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2023/June. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Penelope (platypus).

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Hey all! Just created this article

Hope all of this looks okay. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns :-) Thanks! Crunchydillpickle🥒 (talk) 04:30, 13 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Well done Crunchydillpickle. The details in this article are hilarious. I think this is Wikipedia's first article about an individual platypus. gobonobo ⁺ ^c 21:17, 30 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hey thanks for the encouragement @Gobonobo! I found this story in an archived newspaper and I could not stop laughing. I knew it needed a larger audience and I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I have since found myself reading rather obsessively about monotreme history. Perhaps I will find myself creating more platypus articles soon — and then a list of individual platypuses :-) Crunchydillpickle🥒 (talk) 14:44, 11 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Bruxton (talk) 02:01, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

(

Comment or view
Article history

)

... that in 1953, zoologists accused Penelope the platypus at the Bronx Zoo of "posing as an expectant mother just to lead a life of luxury on double rations"? Source: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/51069126
- ALT1: ... that a platypus named Penelope at the Bronx Zoo was one of the two platypuses living outside of Australia until she disappeared in 1957? Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1957/08/06/archives/platypus-flees-ardent-zoo-mate-penelope-is-missing-in-bronx-after.html
- Reviewed:

Created by Crunchydillpickle (talk). Self-nominated at 06:53, 13 May 2023 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/Penelope (platypus); consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.[reply]

I will review this. TompaDompa (talk) 15:49, 13 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy compliance:

Adequate sourcing: - See below.
Neutral:
Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing: - See below.

Hook eligibility:

Cited: - See below.
Interesting:

QPQ: None required.

Overall: Article moved to mainspace on 13 May, and is well beyond the required minimum length. All sources are, as far as I can tell, reliable for the material they are cited for—though I have not been able to access all of them. Earwig reveals no overt copyvio, but there is some WP:Close paraphrasing. There are no obvious neutrality issues. Both hooks are interesting; I prefer ALT0. ALT0 has a problem with "zoologists" (see below); ALT1 I would have to WP:AGF on as I can't access the cited source. This is the nominator's first nomination, so they are QPQ exempt. Some comments about the content:

Verifying this gets a bit annoying, as some information can be verified by sources that are cited in the article but not in the proper place.
"Platypusery" should either be "platypusary" or "platypussary". This occurs twice.
Cecil and Penelope slept during the days except for their hour-long break to see visitors. At night, they came out to eat dinner of 25 to 35 live crayfish, 200 to 300 worms, one frog, several scrambled eggs, and mud. – WP:Close paraphrasing; the source says Cecil and Penelope never varied in their basic routine: they slept by day (with an hour's break for visitors), came out at night for dinner (25 to 35 live crayfish, 200 to 300 worms, one frog, several scrambled eggs, add mud and stir).
Cecil would bit onto her flat tail and hold on as Penelope waddled around her the pool – this needs copyediting: "bit" should be "bite" and "around her the pool" is an anacoluthon.
Zookeepers were eager to see captive platypuses mate because – this is not in the cited source, nor can it be since the cited source here is from 1944.
scratching with her twenty claws is a rather conspicuous paraphrase of the source's scratching furiously with all of her 20 sharp claws.
The next year, during the North American mating season in the spring, Penelope was more receptive to Cecil's presence. – that's not what the source says. The source says that Penelope acted the same way in the spring of 1952 as in the spring of 1951, and did not change her demeanour until June. The reference to a North American mating season is not in the source and extremely dubious considering that platypuses are not native to North America (or the Northern hemisphere at all, for that matter).
Zoologists reported that they "had been duped" by Penelope, calling her a "faker" and accusing her of "posing as an expectant mother just to lead a life of luxury on double rations". – the source does not attribute this to zoologists but to "Officials at New York's Bronx Zoo". You could write "zookeepers" instead.
Am I to infer that the entirety of the first paragraph in the "Escape from the zoo" section comes from the NYT article cited in the middle?
In 1958, the Bronx Zoo received three more platypuses named Paul, Patty, and Pamela. All three died within their first year in North America. Cecil died two years after Penelope's disappearance. – not in the cited source.

Ping Crunchydillpickle. TompaDompa (talk) 23:16, 13 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

ALT2 ... that in 1953, zookeepers accused Penelope the platypus at the Bronx Zoo of "posing as an expectant mother just to lead a life of luxury on double rations"? Source: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/51069126
- @TompaDompa: Concerns should be addressed now. I've added ALT2, replacing ALT0's 'zoologists' with 'zookeepers'. gobonobo ⁺ ^c 20:58, 30 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  - ALT2 ready. TompaDompa (talk) 18:45, 31 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

"He lost weight and died one day after the search for Penelope was called off."

How did a platypus know that the search had been called off? Did he read it in the newspaper? Correlation does not imply causation. --Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) 08:37, 15 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Guy Macon Alternate Account What are you even trying to say? All that says is one day passed between the search ending and his death, no correlation nor causation implied. 93.139.66.200 (talk) 17:29, 21 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

One day also passed between the X-15's first powered flight and his death. One day also passed between KETV's first broadcast and his death. Why does this article not mention these two facts? Because putting two events in one sentence implies that they are somehow connected. --Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 19:46, 22 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]