Venemos Chronicles: Volume 1

Product Information

Drugs that work against a wider range of snakes are also more desirable as often snake bite victims do not know exactly which species they have been bitten by. If the snake is misidentified, it can lead to inappropriate treatment. Most snakes are nocturnal, which means they are most active at night. Since they rely on smell instead of sight to hunt or locate potential threats, night is a good time for them to be most active. 30. Don’t be afraid This pattern looks like that of a rattlesnake to the untrained eye. But hognoses are much smaller than rattlesnakes, and are non-venomous. Like pythons, these snakes use constriction to kill prey instead. Of course, transferring such a treatment into humans and into the imperfect world of real-life situations, where giving such drugs in a timely fashion might be difficult. And saw-scaled viper venoms contain other unpleasant toxins that DMPS does not act against.

Rattlesnakes are found in both North and South America, with the United States home to the most species, and likely the largest number, of rattlesnakes in the world. Sea snakes have paddle-like tails that evolved to help them move in the ocean and allows them to dive over 300 feet. 49. Intelligent and vigilant

1. What do snakes eat?

Venemos undergo metamorphosis, transforming into moths or butterflies after completing their larval stage. Corn snakes are another common type of pet. Unlike ball pythons, these snakes are found in the Americas. There are many different subspecies of corn snake, each of which is different. If you like the outdoors, you may have encountered one in the wild before. They typically live in tropical climates found in Central America, South-North America, and southwestern South America.

These species are sometimes also referred to as banana spiders because they are frequently found on banana leaves. They have an aggressive defense posture, in which they raise their front legs straight up into the air. Phoneutria are poisonous to humans, and they are considered to be the deadliest of all the world’s spiders. Their venom is toxic to the nervous system, causing symptoms such as salivation, irregular heartbeat, and prolonged, painful erections (priapism) in men. Scientists are investigating the venom of P. nigriventer as a possible treatment for erectile dysfunction. On home shores, the walnut orb-weaver spider is typically considered one of the most dangerous, after the false widow. Every year, more people are reading our articles to learn about the challenges facing the natural world. Our future depends on nature, but we are not doing enough to protect our life support system. Fonseka, Chathuranga Lakmal, et al. " Life Threatening Intracerebral Haemorrhage Following Saw-Scaled Viper ( Echis carinatus) Envenoming-Authenticated Case Report from Sri Lanka." BMC Emergency Medicine, vol. 13, 2013, pp. 5., doi:10.1186/1471-227X-13-5But the true impact of snake bites is greater still. A bite from a venomous snake can leave survivors with life-changing injuries. It is something Rao has seen first-hand. But Bindumadhav says there are other challenges. "There is still a tendency for some bite victims to be taken to a faith healer rather than to hospital," says Bindumadhav. "The Russell's viper doesn't always inject venom when it bites – these are dry bites but the panic they cause can lead to psychological symptoms instead. Then they appear to get better after a trip to the healer. Unfortunately, in those cases where venom is injected, it means their treatment is delayed."

Albulescu and her team have made some progress, finding a mixture of two other toxin inhibitors that appear to work against a wider range of viper venoms including the Terciopelo, or fer-de-lance, in Central America, the puff adder in Africa and the Indian saw-scaled viper. Another group at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark recently announced that they had developed a drug that works against the neurotoxins found in many snake venoms, including those of cobra. Albulescu found that DMPS can capture the zinc in the metalloproteases and stop them from functioning. "It's formulated as an oral capsule and can be administered easily in the field immediately after a bite," she says. "We propose its use as a first line intervention which can neutralise some of the venom toxicity and prevent the onset of systemic haemorrhage, buying the victim time." When DMPS was combined with a later antivenom treatment, Albulescu and her colleagues found survival in animal models increased to 100%. Doctors in Nepal and Switzerland, for example, have been developing genetic testing techniques to help identify the snake species responsible by analysing swabs taken from bite marks. While they found they could identify some of the species responsible, it only worked in around a quarter of cases and the technique still takes too long to be used effectively in an emergency setting to identify snakes.They are hardy snakes that will thrive in captivity with minimal care. Healthy hognoses have long lives, up to 20 years in some cases! Even better, if you live in a temperate zone and want to keep a snake as a pet, the Dekay’s brown snake might be worth considering. Sometimes they go away, sometimes we end up getting bit," says 48-year-old Rao about the snakes they encounter when working in the fields. Most villagers are scared of the snakes, he says and usually run away when they come across one in the field. Owning a pet snake can be difficult. Because they are long-lived, so make sure you have the time and patience for them.