The Flip Medley

The male platypus has venomous ankle spurs, used in vicious territorial battles and fights over mates. The poison is not normally lethal to humans but produces excruciating pain and swelling that lasts for several months. The pain is so excruciating that the victim is rendered almost helpless. The venom can be lethal to dingos, dogs and smaller domestic animals. Venom is produced in the crural glands of the male during the breeding season and is aggressively inflicted through a calcaneous spur on each hind limb. Females, like echidnas, have rudimentary spur buds which do not develop and do not have functional crural glands.

Because the venom appears to have a different function from venoms produced by non-mammalian species, it may contain peptides or molecules whose principal effects are non-life threatening but nevertheless may seriously impair the victim. That this could be the case is evident from the symptoms of platypus envenomation.

In humans the most remarkable symptom is immediate and excruciating pain. Edema rapidly develops around the wound and gradually spreads throughout the affected limb. Information obtained from case histories and anecdotal evidence indicates that the pain develops into a long-lasting hyperalgesia that persists for days or even months.