I got this electric platypus in memory of my Dad who was killed by a platypus while noodling in Australia. He stuck his arm into what he thought was a catfish den but instead got stabbed by the barbs of two male platypi. I got him to the emergency room but there was nothing they could do. I miss you Dad.
Work by Stephen Knight of Perfection Dermagraphics.
platypi can kill you? …they have barbs? what
Hmm. The male platypus does have venomous ankle spurs that can cause severe pain in humans. It also increases your sensitivity to pain for a few months so i could see how a human could potentially die. Maybe not from the stings themselves but from drowning or complications afterwards if you happened to be stung by two males. There has never been a recorded human death from a Platypus and i’m positive that if one were to occur, it would be all over the Australian news. The platypus is also a solitary animal. Males either live alone or with a single female so its unlikely that two males were in the same burrow. In saying all that, it is possible.
(via sadegrass)
