poisonous venom
snake
In common parlance, venomous snakes are often referred to as “poisonous snakes.” This phrase is not technically correct, because the term “poisonous” only applies to organisms that unload their toxins when another organism consumes them.
Very few snakes are truly poisonous. One of the most common, yet harmless, poisonous snakes in North America is the garter snake (Thamnophis), whose body has the ability to absorb and store the toxins of the newts, salamanders, and other poisonous prey it eats.
Nearly every culture since prehistoric times (including various present-day cultures) has worshipped, revered, or feared snakes. Serpent worship is one of the earliest forms of veneration, with some carvings dating to 10,000 bce.
poisonous venom
Although Satan is depicted as a serpent in the biblical account of the Creation, snakes are revered by most societies.
A vast global compendium of superstitions and mythologies about snakes has sprung up. Many stem from the snakes’ biological peculiarities: their ability to shed their skin is associated with immortality; their ever-open eyes represent omniscience; their propensity for sudden appearance and disappearance allies snakes with magic and ghosts; a phallic resemblance embodies procreative powers; and the ability to kill with a single bite engenders fear of any snakelike creature.
The hides of six snake species (especially pythons and wart snakes) are commonly bought and sold in the skin trade. The number of rattlesnakes used for their skins is minor in comparison. Hundreds of thousands of live snakes are collected for sale in the international pet trade.
Nearly 100,000 ball pythons and 30,000 boa constrictors are imported annually into the United States. The removal of such enormous numbers from the wild threatens the survival of these species, and many snake populations are in decline as a result of capture and habitat destruction.
Natural history
Most snakes do not spend much of their time doing anything but resting. A snake’s primary activity is concerned with either thermoregulation or finding live food, which often involves passive waiting rather than active searching.
The thermoregulation problem varies with latitude and altitude. The actions and reactions of a snake in temperate North America are distinct from those of one living in the American tropical lowlands but are similar to those of another living at higher altitudes in the Andes of Ecuador. No matter where they live, snakes are subjected to pressures from the living (biotic) parts of the environment as well as from the physical, nonliving (abiotic) parts.
But the amount or degree of challenge to the snake from different segments of the environment changes drastically depending upon the region it inhabits.
An individual living in the hot, humid tropics of Africa, with comparatively constant temperatures close to optimum throughout the year and ample moisture from both rainfall and the surroundings, faces environmental problems that are overwhelmingly biotic, involving competition with other members of its own species for food, the challenge from other species of snakes and perhaps other vertebrates for possession of the ecological niche, and constant pressure of the predators that find it a tasty morsel.
On the other hand, the common adder, or European viper (Vipera berus), living north of the Arctic Circle in Europe, is the only snake present in the area and lives practically unchallenged in its niche. However, its survival is challenged continually by its physical environment, and death from overheating, freezing, or dehydration is a repetitive threat.
These differences between animals from different parts of the world are reflected in their life histories, and it is neither possible nor legitimate to speak of the “life history of the snake” unless one speaks of only a single region or species.
poisonous venom
