Some Deadly Defenses 

So far I have been majorly hitting on the herpetology. I have been talking about some of my experiences with the reptiles I own, and then I hit on some things about amphibians and their amazing function of metamorphosis. So as many as you can guess from my title, we are going to look at some of the defenses of the herpetology world, and from there I am going to transition into some animals outside the herpetology world in my other articles.

First things every animal has a form of defense in some way. Second thing is most animals DO NOT ATTACK. Many animals that show signs of aggression simply are doing it in a defensive way. Whether they are protecting themselves or their territory or their family. 

Statistics very on deaths from reptiles and amphibians each year. Many places in the world, such as Africa have anywhere from 3,000 - 30,000 fatalities per year and that is just from venomous snakes. In America we have something like maybe 5 deaths per year from venomous snakes, so with those two in comparison we can obviously tell that most third world countries are in more danger of venom (this is due to the fact that it takes much longer to receive and get to antivenom in time). Venom is one of the most thought of defenses when people think of snakes, but actually the majority of snakes are harmless and contain no venom. Most snakes (especially in North America and Europe) are nonvenomous. However, like every animal these nonvenomous snakes still do have a defense. 

Many nonvenomous snakes still use venom to their advantage. For example we have the milk snake. The milk snake colors are very similar to the colors of a coral snake. If you want to separate these two snakes apart keep in mind: "Red on yellow kills a fellow, red on black venom lack" Milk snake however are not the only "copy cats" of the snake world. The scarlet kingsnake also has a similar color pattern to the coral snake.

Left - Scarlet Kingsnake (http://www.jeffpippen.com/herps/scarletkingsnake.htm); Middle - Coral snake (http://www.nature.com/news/snakes-mimic-extinct-species-to-avoid-predators-1.15397); Right - Milk snake (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_snake)

Oddly enough many people will get a harmless corn snake confused with a copperhead. I own a corn snake and do not seem to notice the similarity, but nevertheless the easiest way to tell a corn snake(colubridae) from a copperhead (viperidae). Is the viper like triangle head. 

Copperhead (notice the larger body, the "V" shape head, and fat body) (http://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/reptiles/snakes/northern-copperhead/northern_copperhead.php); Corn snake (http://www.thecornsnake.co.uk/corn_snake_photos.htm)

I believe you have about three or four main classes of snakes you should know: colubridae, viperidae, elapidae, and (then your constrictors) pythonidae and boidae. Colubridae or better known as your "colubrids" mostly consist of harmless snakes, such as my corn snake, western hognose, and kingsnakes. They have one or two venomous snakes. One being the Asian Tiger snake, which is both venomous and poisonous (there is a difference). The colubrids also consist of your rat snakes your garter snakes and pine snakes. The list goes on and on. Pretty much if it is not venomous it is probably a colubrid or in the constrictor families. Colubrids perform almost any action in self defense before biting. Some well shake their tails rapidly to try to sound like a rattlesnake. Others will hiss and pretend to strike by just hitting their snouts against whatever is bothering them. Western hognose snakes have an interesting tactic in where they can flatten their whole body in the same way a cobra will cape up. Many snakes spray musk and defecate to try to discourage predators and agitators.

 The two constrictor classes I mentioned previously (pythonidae and eunectes). Pythonidae is of course your family of pythons (ball pythons, reticulated pythons, burmese pythons, etc.) and the boidae family has your anacondas and boa constrictors. 

So onto the mechanics of venom, you have two main venom families viperidae and elapidae. Viperidae are your vipers. Snakes that fall within this family are moccasins, rattlesnakes, bushmasters, jumping pit-vipers, the cottonmouth, and etc. These vipers usually contain pits that act as heat receptors and make these snakes lethal when they are hunting their prey. These snakes can only inject so much venom at a given time. So when they bite out of self- defense many records show that they are dry bites, which mean they don't inject venom. Many of these snakes contain warnings and if you are careful you can avoid being bit by one of these snakes. Some people have in their minds that these snakes want to kill them. The foolishness in such an idea is wrong. Yes they have the potential to kill you but that does not mean they want to. They are more afraid of you then you are of them. To them your a big clumsy giant thats going to step on them. These snakes would much rather use their venom on prey such as mice, birds, amphibians, and other small reptiles and mammals. Most vipers,excluding the Mojav rattlesnake, have hemotoxins,which break done red blood cells, many have anticoagulants, which keeps your blood coagulating (clotting). Necrotising toxins are in most kinds of venom. They break down tissues and organisms.

Notice that the vipers are not the only venomous snakes with fangs. However, their fangs are alot more pronounced (http://www.prn.usm.my/old_website/mainsite/bulletin/2007/prn44.html)

Elapidae is a family of venomous snakes that inject their venom in a different way unlike two big long fangs like vipers have these snake contain venom sacks that often lie in their gums at the base of their teeth. Snakes in the elapidae family would be cobras, coral snake, mambas, the sea snakes, kraits, brown snake, and many other venomous snakes. Many of these snake contain neurotoxins, which are nasty. These affect the nervous system and can shut down any muscle in the human body, either by speading up nerve receptors or by creating a barrier in between nerve receptors. Spasms and respitory failures occur along with brain malfunctions and heart failure. Spitting cobras are popular in the family and are know of course for spitting their venom into the eyes of their prey or a predator. The world record king snake, which belongs to the family elapidae, is about 18 feet long. Snakes that cape up, such as the king cobra, can cape up to 1/3 their body length. So this world record cobra can cape up to 6 feet, which is about the height of an average person.

Thanks for reading I plan on hitting more details in the future I hope this increased your knowledge of venom and some of the snakes I mentioned. Next article will be on Poison. Poison and Venom are different! Thanks again. Feel free to subscribe and follow!