turns out don is full of sh!t after all. the amazing beaver duck really exists, and we have reasonably blurry photos to prove it. actually we have a few rather good ones, too, despite the low light in the late afternoon.
when early european explorers brought (presumably dead) examples of the platypus back from australia scientists in the old world were convinced they were being pranked. they kept looking for the stitches holding the duck bill to the oddly shaped beaver body.
no matter how hard they looked there were no stitches, and over time most scientists accepted the truth of the platypus. there is always the odd idiot who confuses famous with infamous and tries to introduce alternative facts, a bit like the honorable member for the coal mining industry, mr canavan, who would have us believe that we can eat our coal and keep the planet cake, too.
we understand: there are all these donations from lobbyists at stake, and quite possibly a cushy job after the political career. that said the cold hard fact will eventually catch up, much as they did with the platypus deniers. in the end the much maligned beaver duck turned out to be a really amazing animal.
the platypus is a monotreme, i.e. an animal that lays eggs but then feeds its young milk (or something not too dissimilar). it is also the only known venomous mammal: the male platypus has a spiky hind toe that is venomous; nobody knows for sure why the animal needs it though.
the purpose of the bill, however, is pretty clear: it has built-in electrical sensors that allow the platypus to detect it’s favourite meal, little crustaceans, in murky waters using it to detect small currents, the ones muscle movements create.
what is also amazing is that the platypus lives in rivers from the cool south of the east coast all the way up to the tropics. unfortunately the way us humans have broken up the flow of rivers not only destroys their habitat, we are also isolating populations which depletes their gene pool. i am not sure what is being done to protect these little guys but something as strange and unlikely as a small egg-laying venomous mammal with a duck bill deserves protection.
more so than the coal industry.