Eve (October 2004 â March 18, 2026) was a female platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) housed at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in California. She was among the only platypuses exhibited outside Australia in the 21st century.
As of December 2019, 15-year-old Eve weighed approximately 2.5 pounds and was roughly the length of a human arm from wrist to shoulder.
Eve was hatched in October 2004 at Taronga Zoo Sydney in Australia. In October 2019, she was transferred to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park alongside a male platypus named Brrarung was named after a river in Australia and Eve witch was named after Evelyn, one of her care specialists in Australia. They were transported in custom-built crates and accompanied by a keeper to assist with their acclimation.
The animals were housed in the park's Walkabout Australia's Nelson A. Millsberg Platypus Habitat area in a purpose-built habitat designed to replicate freshwater environments and accommodate their nocturnal behavior. Eve would spent much of the day resting in a nest box.
She was fed a diet of live prey, including crayfish, crickets, ghost shrimp, and worms, and showed a preference for smaller crayfish.
Eve died on March 18, 2026, following treatment for pneumonia. She was approximately 21 years old, slightly exceeding the typical lifespan of a platypus in human care.
Their arrival marked the first time in more than 50 years that platypuses had been exhibited outside of Australia and 60 years since platypuses were on display in the United States.
Eve was part of a program to study platypus biology and husbandry outside Australia.