A photo of an echidna’s penis landed in Facebook feeds without warning — and you can’t unsee it

Australian Geographic dropped an X-rated animal snap in everyone’s Facebook feed without warning — and you can’t unsee it.

Only look down if you’re brave. Picture: Mark Brake

Let’s start by giving you the stern warning Australian Geographic didn’t think was necessary — there’s a photograph of an echidna’s penis in this article that can’t be unseen.

You know those sports injuries where an athlete’s leg snaps completely through and hangs at an awful angle? Or when Madonna does a weird photo-shoot in her bedroom? It’s up there with those.

But as Australians digested their dinners on the couch on Wednesday night, the nation’s foremost geographical destination magazine decided to drop a four-pronged dong in thousands of Facebook feeds.

Yes, echidnas have a bright red member with four heads, something Australian Geographic thought was a “dinner conversation starter” rather than a dinner regurgitation starter.

We understand the hypocrisy in sharing it with you now, but some of the replies to the post were too good not to pass on.

“I cannot unsee this,” wrote Michelle O’Sullivan. “Scarred for life.”

“Australian GeoGRAPHIC,” wrote Eliza Chandler.

“This post should really come with a ‘warning’. I was just scrolling through then BAM,” wrote Clare McDonald.

“Of all the things I could of seen on Facebook today … this wasn’t on my bingo card,” added Steve Cross.

The longer the post trended, the better the comments got.

“Wears condoms. They fit like a glove,” wrote Phillip Madsen.

“You mean, that’s not how everyone else’s looks?” added Nigel Cook.

“Imagine being this echidna having your parts bared for all to see,” another wrote. “I hope consent was involved.”

Australian Geographic linked to an article titled “Echidna penises: Why they’re so weird” which attempted to unlock the mystery of the native Australian animals bizarre reproductive organ.

Again, it gets a little too graphic in the detail but apparently they only use two of the heads at a time.

“We’re not really sure why it looks so weird but we do know that they only use their penis for mating, not urine,” reproductive biologist Jane Fenelon told the magazine. “Because they don’t need it for urine, they had the freedom to make it much more elaborate and this is something you see in other species that only use it for mating.”