Animals you did not know were poisonous

We all know and fear venomous snakes and spiders. But the animal kingdom slings poison through many other species, too.

Take the platypus. It's all kinds of cute, until you consider...

...that males have ankle spurs that deliver a pretty nasty venom. The poison can kill a dog, or just deliver a whole lot of hurt to a human.

The moral: Don't piss off the platypus. Even the cartoon Disney kind.

So sweet. So vulnerable-looking. So, so not worth a trip to the hospital.

The loris' bite has been known to cause something close to a cat-dander-like allergic reaction in victims. However, with some of these mammals, the bites may do more damage than that.

In recently captured wild lorises, saliva and other secretions were found to contain batrachotoxins -- the same poisons found in dart frogs. The diet of a wild loris may include venomous creatures or poisonous plants whose toxins may be passed on in the mammal's bite.

Meet the bushy-tailed maned rat, native to East Africa. It sure is adorable, until you try to eat it.

The rat is known to deliberately smear its fur with poison from the bark of a tree called the Acokanthera schimperi. It also likes to chew on the tree, which is highly poisonous. As a result, anything that even tries to bite this critter can get sick or even die.

You've probably eaten one of these: It's a quail. You know. The kind they serve in fancy restaurants.

Beware wild-caught quail hunted during their migration season, though. If they've been munching on hemlock and you eat them, it's bye-bye liver, hello hospital.

Meet the solenodon, a Pinocchio-nosed, shrew-like animal also known by the cutesy name of agouta. Don't let it bite you, because...

There's venom in that cute little mouth. The poison is delivered through a grooved lower incisor, syringe-style. It won't kill a human, but if you run across one, handle it with gloves. That's what the pros do.

You'd think sharklike fish would be satisfied enough with sharp teeth and cold, terrifying eyes, but apparently not. Unlike almost all other sharks, the dogfish category, including this one, has a dorsal spine coated in venom.

It's considered to be mildly toxic to humans.

Despite the grin on this guy's face, holding this bird with your bare hands is a bad idea...

The skin and feathers of some of these birds, called pitohui, are highly poisonous. That's because the birds dine on toxic beetles. In Papua New Guinea, where the birds live, the people won't eat the bird unless they're desperate, and then only after the bird has been properly plucked and skinned.

How would an octopus even poison you? Glad you asked! It bites. And when it does, you'd better get help. Immediately.

This beautiful beast has enough toxic goo to kill 26 adult humans within minutes. The good news: The octopus can't nail you from a distance. Don't touch this animal and you'll be fine.

The saliva of this rodent is toxic and kills prey via bite. The poison is strong enough to kill...

...mice. Ditto with the water shrew, shown here. Humans generally don't die from these bites...but if a bite penetrates the skin, it will hurt. A lot.

Yep: It's that poison-beetle diet in action again. Just don't eat one of these blue-capped ifrit birds and you'll be A-OK.

Chimaeras look like the star of any home fish tank. They might also be the only fish in your home fish tank if you get one.

Three words: Poisonous. Dorsal. Fin.

A goose? That's poisonous? If you're in sub-Saharan Africa, then yes. Don't bother cooking this native bird. Like the other birds on this list, it eats poisonous beetles. And in a high enough quantity, that poison is powerful enough to kill a person.

It's quite admirable, the way that this sea ginger wrapped itself around a glass bottle and everything. But don't try to congratulate it. This animal, which looks like a coral but is actually closer to a jellyfish, has a venom that can cause a painful sting for a human.