Poisonous animals

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

Poisonous animals produce toxins for two purposes: for defense and for attack. For some, poisonous secretions are a means of scaring off predators and protecting their lives, for others, they are a hunting tool for obtaining food.

Poisonous animals are unevenly distributed among the diversity of fauna. If poisonous arthropods (scorpions, spiders, some insects) are widely known, then there are only four species of such mammals. These are the Australian platypus and echidna, as well as the aardvark living in America and some shrews. Interestingly, the aardvark, while possessing poisonous saliva, is susceptible to its own venom! In fights that arise between members of the species, aardvarks die even from small bites of their opponents. How in this case they manage to maintain the population at a sufficient level, and in general, why an animal produces a poison from which it dies itself is one of the mysteries of biology.

Many poisonous animals are demonized in the minds of ignorant people. They are attributed a mortal danger to humans, which in fact is rarely true.

The venom of most scorpions causes only a local lesion in humans, which disappears safely after a few hours. Only one death of a person (a seven-year-old boy) from the bite of a giant scolopendra has been reliably recorded. The bite was in the head, most likely, while vital centers were affected, besides, medical care was late. Otherwise, this episode could have been excluded from the list of lethal statistics.

The common viper, which is widespread in Russia, is dangerous only in spring, when enzymes are actively produced in it. Moreover, this reptile needs much more time to restore the poison than its southern counterparts. Therefore, our viper consumes toxins very economically, preferring flight to an attack, and bites a person only in self-defense. In summer and autumn, viper venom does not pose a mortal danger and can only cause a number of unpleasant sensations. Poisonous animals are represented on the territory of our country is not too abundant. Only the southern regions can boast of a variety of toxic fauna.

Many poisonous animals in the world have what is called "passive toxicity". This means that they do not have special organs that produce poison. Such, for example, is puffer fish, which contains tetrodoxin in its tissues, which is deadly to humans even in small quantities. The toxicity of fugu is so high that specially certified cooks are involved in cooking it for food. In Japan, despite such measuresprecautions, there are several deaths every year due to eating this fish.

Poisonous plants and animals mostly come from warm and hot regions. This selectivity of nature is due to the fact that at high temperatures the metabolic rate of living organisms is much higher than at low temperatures, and the inhabitants of the tropics are more likely to afford such a luxury as the production of poison than the inhabitants of temperate and cold latitudes.