Snakes are so fascinating

 Since my childhood snake as a species has always fascinated me. The other day I was watching Gabon Viper, a highly venomous reptile found in the forests of West-Central Africa. Unlike other vipers its fangs are 1-2 inches long. The snake with a snouty, triangular head was was lying still, camouflaged under a bed of fallen leaves in an African tropical forest.

Snakes have poor eye sight but possess a strong sense of movement. A big rat who passed by the Gabon Viper had no clue what's going to hit. In fraction on a second the viper nailed it's fangs on the hapless rat. Then it waited patiently for a few minutes for its vicious hemotoxin to take its effect on the hapless pray which shook violently gasping for breath until it lay still.

The fangs of venomous snakes are like hypodermic needle. They inject venom straight into the bloodstream. They say the snake venom if swallowed could be flushed out by our digestive system without causing much harm. But they can turn fatal if injected. Certain kind of venoms from snake bites are mild enough to get over after a good night's sleep. Yet some can kill you within few minutes. The venom of King Cobra, world's largest venomous snakes is powerful enough to kill 20 adult humans or a full grown elephant.

The likes of Cobra, the feared Black Mamba of Africa (usually gray or green in color, but called black Mamba due to its black mouth), Inland Taipan of Australia etc possess diffent variants of neurotoxins. But Vipers like Russell's Viper (Boda in Odia), Rattlesnake, Cotton mouth found in Georgia inject hemotoxin. Both neurotoxin and hemotoxin are equally malignant. The neuroxin usually kills sooner, hemotoxin can result in a long, painful death taking days in some cases. Basically it is making a choice between death from hanging or firing squad. Both neurotoxin and hemotoxin are equally deadly with one final outcome of death.

Unlike many myth associated with snakes they are shy in nature and prefer to stay away from humans. They only attack their pray for food or strike when they get defensive feeling cornered. They are very much part of the nature and need to be left harmless to preserve nature's balance by keeping various pests and rhodents away.