From Wiki,
![[Image: Platypus-cute.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/WPYGFsY/Platypus-cute.jpg)
The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative of its family (Ornithorhynchidae) and genus (Ornithorhynchus), though a number of related species appear in the fossil record.
Together with the four species of echidna, it is one of the five extant species of monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. Like other monotremes it senses prey through electrolocation. It is one of the few species of venomous mammals, as the male platypus has a spur on the hind foot that delivers a venom capable of causing severe pain to humans. The unusual appearance of this egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal baffled European naturalists when they first encountered it, and the first scientists to examine a preserved platypus body (in 1799), judged it a fake, made of several animals sewn together.
Platypus venom differs to that of non-mammalian species; A platypus may deliver about 2 and 4 ml of its poison in one hit.That dose may kill or diable small critters such as dogs. Not recorded as lethal to humans its quite painful and has a dehabilitating effect.
![[Image: Platypus-spur.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/HVrHGPV/Platypus-spur.jpg)
The venom is delivered via a stinger on the rear leg of the beasty called locally as a Platypus Spur. Possessed by the male.
“long lasting excruciating pain that cannot be relieved with conventional painkillers,”
Better news: There are no recorded human fatalities. It is known from a few case reports that the excited male can drive his spurs into you so viciously that it “require manual disengagement”—so you’ll have to yank his spurs out of your wound. Coul be hard, due to the pain “immediate, sustained, and devastating.” Morphine would work against it. A dose of .local anesthesia may alleviate the pain. As the pain beings nausea may set in, sweating and the loss of muscular use near the pucture. This may continue for some months.
![[Image: Platypus-wound.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/HhTb0WJ/Platypus-wound.jpg)
Study from the University of Adelaide in Australia located a metabolic hormone found in the venom and digestive tract of platypuses, called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), has the potential to treat type II diabetes, also called non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus or NIDDM. A hormone which may help lower blood sugar, that is also secreted in humans, but the form in the platypus venom is better resistant to being degraded by enzymes in the human body and thus shows therapeutic promise.
So there you go. Don’t pick up a platypus or attempt to pat it.They breed on a river just down the road from me. Tourists pay to see them. You can’t tell male from female. I’m glad they burrow like a beaver.
Can be more dangerous than a cuddly ‘drop bear’.
Kind regards,
Bally
The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative of its family (Ornithorhynchidae) and genus (Ornithorhynchus), though a number of related species appear in the fossil record.
Together with the four species of echidna, it is one of the five extant species of monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. Like other monotremes it senses prey through electrolocation. It is one of the few species of venomous mammals, as the male platypus has a spur on the hind foot that delivers a venom capable of causing severe pain to humans. The unusual appearance of this egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal baffled European naturalists when they first encountered it, and the first scientists to examine a preserved platypus body (in 1799), judged it a fake, made of several animals sewn together.
Platypus venom differs to that of non-mammalian species; A platypus may deliver about 2 and 4 ml of its poison in one hit.That dose may kill or diable small critters such as dogs. Not recorded as lethal to humans its quite painful and has a dehabilitating effect.
The venom is delivered via a stinger on the rear leg of the beasty called locally as a Platypus Spur. Possessed by the male.
“long lasting excruciating pain that cannot be relieved with conventional painkillers,”
Better news: There are no recorded human fatalities. It is known from a few case reports that the excited male can drive his spurs into you so viciously that it “require manual disengagement”—so you’ll have to yank his spurs out of your wound. Coul be hard, due to the pain “immediate, sustained, and devastating.” Morphine would work against it. A dose of .local anesthesia may alleviate the pain. As the pain beings nausea may set in, sweating and the loss of muscular use near the pucture. This may continue for some months.
Study from the University of Adelaide in Australia located a metabolic hormone found in the venom and digestive tract of platypuses, called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), has the potential to treat type II diabetes, also called non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus or NIDDM. A hormone which may help lower blood sugar, that is also secreted in humans, but the form in the platypus venom is better resistant to being degraded by enzymes in the human body and thus shows therapeutic promise.
So there you go. Don’t pick up a platypus or attempt to pat it.They breed on a river just down the road from me. Tourists pay to see them. You can’t tell male from female. I’m glad they burrow like a beaver.
Can be more dangerous than a cuddly ‘drop bear’.
Kind regards,
Bally