Platypuses and other Australian mammals aren’t weird, ‘they’re victims of colonial bias’ We’re sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later. Dismiss By Craig Simpson Normal text size Advertisement London: Platypuses appear “weird” to the Western world because museums represent Australian animals with an “ongoing subconscious colonial bias”, a museum chief has said. Kangaroos, koalas, and Tasmanian devils are also “regularly denigrated through hierarchical language”, according to Jack Ashby, the assistant director of Cambridge’s Museum of Zoology. Not weird: an Echidna at Taronga Zoo in Sydney. Credit:Nine He argues museums are “complicit” in people labelling these animals “weird”, “bizarre” or “primitive”.