Extract from ABC News
Few creatures are as puzzling as the platypus.
Multiple ancient and enduring First Nations stories touch on its appearance as an amalgam of creatures like a duck and a rakali.
Its chimera-like characteristics prompted early European colonists to colloquially refer to the platypus as the "duck-mole".
The platypus even had a couple of different scientific names after being first described by Western scientists in 1799, first as Platypus anatinus (duck-like flat-foot) and then Ornithorhynchus paradoxus (paradoxical bird-snout), as academics fought over whether it was really a mammal that laid eggs instead of giving birth to live young.
These days, the platypus has the scientific name Ornithorhynchus anatinus, a combination of its first two taxonomic titles. But there is still a linguistic arm wrestle over what to call their babies.
The term "puggle" has gained popularity in the past two decades at some zoos and in media reports when referring to young platypus.
But for several platypus experts, the word is problematic.
The trouble with the puggle
Leafing through the written record yields a distinct lack of platypus puggles.
Neither the Macquarie Dictionary, the nation's standard reference tome on Australian English, nor the Australian National Dictionary, a historical book of Australianisms, include a puggle definition in relation to the platypus.
Nor are there any scientific references in research journals or biology books of a defined life stage of the platypus where it is considered a puggle.
Indeed, a platypus's first few months are shrouded in mystery.
The female platypus is believed to lay an egg on its abdomen and curls around it to incubate for around 10 days.
And while no-one has been recorded seeing a platypus hatch, it's thought they look like a gooey, furless echidna hatchling.
The baby platypus is born around 1.5 centimetres long but rapidly grows, reaching about 20 times its birth size after 14 weeks.
It only emerges from the burrow once it's three or four months old.
Australian Platypus Conservancy biologist Melody Serena said, in an ideal world, the universally accepted term for a young platypus that was still confined to the burrow would be a "nestling".
"That is clearly tied to a stage in its development and has a long history of use," she said.
"Older animals would be referred to as juveniles, up to the age of 12 months, subadults, 12 to 23 months, or adults, two years old or more.
"These terms again reference biologically meaningful development stages and have a well-established history of use."
Dr Serena said a juvenile female that was reported as a "puggle" earlier this year weighed more than the average adult female at 850 grams.
Another platypus researcher, Thomas Grant, is not a fan of "the P word" either.
"Personally I hate the 'puggle' word but may have lost the battle for its use," the University of New South Wales adjunct senior lecturer said.
"As biologists we generally discourage the use of popular terms, especially when they can refer to different entities."
Where does 'puggle' come from?
The English word "puggle" has been around for hundreds of years and, over time, its meaning has shifted.
In the 1600s, it could refer to an imp or sprite, but by 1863 it also meant to poke with a stick or wire to clear out material from a hole.
This evolved by 1905 where "to puggle" could mean to get a rabbit or rat out of a hole with a stick.
And it seems "puggle" started being used to refer to baby monotremes, specifically echidnas, sometime in the 1900s.
Independent echidna researcher Mike McKelvey has research notes from a 1969 conversation with a South Australian rabbit trapper who referred to baby echidnas as puggles, and that the term had been part of bush lingo for decades.
Mr McKelvey and his partner and fellow echidna researcher Peggy Rismiller started using "puggle" in scientific magazine articles and research journals from the 1990s onwards.
Dr Rismiller said for echidnas, the term puggle referred to the period from hatching to when it is weaned, which takes about seven months.
"As echidnas do not use a nest or have a permanent pouch, 'nestling' or 'pouch young' is inappropriate [as a life stage name]," she said.
"After weaning, echidnas are 'subadults' until they become sexually mature, at which time they are adults."
The echidna definition for puggle was added to the Macquarie Dictionary in 2003, but it linked the origin of the term to beanie toys created by former Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs guitarist Tony Barber in the 1980s.
A second definition of "puggle" in the Macquarie dictionary covers a dog breed which is a pug and beagle cross.
Macquarie Dictionary managing editor Victoria Morgan said when puggle was added to its dictionary, the word was not in common usage for the platypus.
"It's time we look at it properly now and revisit it, and if it is in general usage, we would extend the definition to cover it," she said.
But Ms Morgan said a decision on whether puggle was in general usage would have to be based on more than just a few news articles.
One failed attempt at giving baby platypus a name comes from the first successful captive breeding of the species at Victoria's Healesville Sanctuary in 1944.
The birth of a platypus which growled like a pup saw the newborn labelled a "platypup" in newspapers like The Sun and Courier Mail.
Platypup didn't gain much momentum.
But puggle could be picking up in common language.
The term was used by staff at Taronga Zoo in New South Wales to describe the birth of twin platypus in 2003.
When talking to staff at the institution it becomes clear the word has gained broad usage within its vernacular.
The zoo's platypus programs wildlife conservation officer Phoebe Meagher said in the five years she has worked at Taronga, the babies have always been referred to as puggles.
"The media love it," she said.
Dr Meagher said staff colloquially used the term puggle until the animals were around a year old.
Robert Dockerill started as a keeper with Taronga Zoo in the 1990s and was part of a team that raised a rescue platypus called Annie.
He said back then other staff called Annie a puggle.
"So that is what I have always known them as," Mr Dockerill said.
"Where that staff member who mentioned it got it from, I don't know."
What about Indigenous languages?
There were an estimated 250 Aboriginal languages in Australia, and with platypus spanning the eastern coast from Queensland to Tasmania, there are many words and stories for the aquatic monotreme.
There's not a specific name for a young platypus in Wiradjuri, the language from central NSW, but "mangaa" means pup and "gabuga" can mean an egg of a mammal.
Wiradjuri oral geographer Nola Turner-Jensen said Aboriginal language groups do not have specific spoken names for individual types of animals and plants.
"Aboriginal people observe all things very closely and patiently to understand that thing's purpose to all other living things, so we can honour its place within our universal kinship," she said.
The Wiradjuri language has four different ancient oral language names for platypus and six for echidna.
Ms Turner-Jensen said two of the platypus names described where the animal lived and hunted, while the other two were related to life lessons:
- Biladurang: "Bila" means movement of large water (river), and "durang" is a suffix associated with mud or wetness.
- Waamulaa: "Waa" means mud, and "mulaa" means dark or night.
- Dyilimulaang: "Dyil" means something done in secret, and "mulaang" means make sick or poison. This teaching story is about following ancient First People lore of only marrying people of the "opposite skin" to you chosen by the elders and ancestors. In the story, the platypus endured a difficult life because the water rat (bigun) and duck (gaygaa) broke the lore by having a baby.
- Dangandany: "Dan" means confusion or misunderstanding, "gan" means who does?, and "dany" means too many questions or orders. This lesson is about the animals that tried to convince the platypus to join their animal family. The core message is to resist going with others because they ask you to, but stay strong in your identity within your family.
With greater education around First Nations stories and words for platypus, it is possible some terms may see more regular use.
And when it comes to the word puggle, popular usage of the term could continue to grow beyond the walls of Taronga Zoo.
Dr Meagher, from the zoo, likens the conundrum of who gets to decide what baby platypuses are called to a simple question: "Who decided a calf is a baby cow?"
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