When Penelope, the duck-billed platypus,mysteriously escaped from her platypusary in New York’s Bronx Zoo lastsummer, she became the first platypus in the U.S. outside captivity.The only other platypus in the U.S. remained in captivity, in the veryplatypusary where Penelope was wont to waddle. He was Cecil, 12,Penelope’s intended. With Penelope gone (TIME, Aug. 19), not even thedesperate search by a platyposse could trace her; regretfully she wasgiven up for dead.
Cecil kept a stiff upper bill. Then he began to lose weight. Normally hetipped the scale at 3.4 or 3.8 Ibs., but he dropped to 2.3 Ibs., andhis appetite for crayfish, worms, coddled eggs and frogs declined.Whether Cecil was lonely for Penelope nobody could tell, for mostplatypuses are somewhat phlegmatic anyway (exception: saucy Penelope,who perhaps left Cecil for that very reason). Last week Cecil died. Zooofficials performed an autopsy, concluded that old age had killed him.Sentimental newspapers (including the august New York Times) said thatCecil’s heart was broken. If it were true he never let on, being thephlegmatic sort.