Pufferfish

The Pufferfish! This happens every time I do a beast month - it feels like there’s absolutely not enough animals left in the world to fill a whole month, then all of a sudden I only have three days left and there’s too many of the hairy little rascals to choose from. Still, the pufferfish has made the cut, purely because of their silly little faces and the fact that somewhere in the world, a group of people refer to them as blowies. They suck up water to inflate when threatened and grow a type of poison in their balls called tetrodotoxin for which there is no antidote. Despite this, Pufferfish is considered a delicacy in various countries like Japan, Korea and China, the numbing effects of the poison being part of the allure. If that wasn’t tempting enough, around six people a year die from their somewhat poor dinner choices. I have just read that ‘they should not be regarded as food’. No kidding. I shall have the non-lethal nuggets please.