This "alien-looking" creature discovered washed up on a famous Australian beach displays a highly dangerous threat to animals, specifically, dogs. An article posted on the Mirror indicated that visitors at Leighton Beach located in Fremantle, Australia, were bewildered by the odd beast.
A man who discovered the unusual creature shared a picture of it on Facebook. On his social media account, the man posted that, identification on the said: "alien-looking thing that washed on Leighton Beach." Other users of Facebook, on the other hand, struggled in identifying the animal.
However, a few days after the shocking discovery, another Facebook user posted, warning the public not to touch the creature as it is a dog killer. More so, it has since, become known as the animal that's most likely "a sea hare, which," certainly has purple ink that's poisonous to dogs.
For those not too familiar with sea hares, they produce the liquid every time they get alarmed. Therefore, this liquid is used as the animals' defense mechanism.
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Mildly Toxic
Culum Brown, a professor at the Department of Biological Science in Sydney told Yahoo! News that the alien-looking creatures are considered mildly toxic due to the algae they eat.
An associate vet at the Swans Veterinary Services, Dr. Joshua Ovens said, anyone who thinks their dog may have eaten a sea hare should call or visit the vet right away.
When it comes to clinical signs, the vet said that if the dog even just licked one, they will tend to drool or salivate excessively. More so, they can experience muscle spasms and start shaking, vomiting, and eventually develop seizures and possiblly die if they get a very large dosage.
Not the First Time
This is not the first alien-looking creature discovery on an Australian beach. In October last year, it was reported on Yahoo! News Australia that a woman from Queensland found a "mysterious 'bleeding' creature on a beach.
She posted her discovery at Scarborough on her Facebook account. In her post, she wrote, "Does anyone know what this is?"
Similar to the people's reaction to the most recent discovery, people were clueless in naming what exactly the creature was. Some would describe it as an Ambergis or whale vomit, a sought-after compound used to make perfume.
But in this circumstance, this wasn't it.
For some, it was an alien, and to others, it was among the humans. However, just a few people could correctly identify it-this creature too, turned out to be a sea hare.
Sea hares are a marine gastropod mollusk type. When they become fully grown adults, these creatures can weigh up to 14 kilograms.
Ian Tibbetts, an associate professor at the School of Biological Sciences of the University of Queensland explained to Yahoo! News Australia that there was no bleeding of the creature, either.
He said, "It's not blood, but the ink that's coming out."
The ink, as mentioned, is used by sea hares to deter predators and can produce venom as well.
