Duck Billed Platypus
The duck-billed platypus is odd and, if the product of a god,
it's difficult to understand, why such an animal was planned,
but maybe when the rest was done, there was stuff left and so begun
one animal made from the dregs, made wearing fur and laying eggs,
enough left for a creature that, was smaller than a household cat,
with waterproof thick body hairs, packed denser than a polar bear's.
Its hearing's good, its eyesight keen, but colour vision doesn't mean
much to it; strangely still we find, when hunting, it hunts deaf and blind
for underwater, its prey yields, its presence in electric fields
which guide the platy to its kill, through sensors in its duck-like bill.
The mating season brings new quirks, two ovaries, but just one works,
the left one has to do for her, while he sports a strange poisoned spur;
for this creature is, not least, the only furry venomed beast. *
*All the facts above were checked, but one turned out not quite correct
Alas, the last line is not true - there also is a venomed shrew!
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