Our environment is home to the stealthiest of predators but there are slithery killers that strike in the twinkling of an eye at other creatures that even move at such a blinding speed.
Snakes, according to Wikipedia are, “elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with many more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads with their highly mobile jaws. To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca.”
If you care to know more about the world’s deadliest and most venomous snakes, here is a list for your guide with number 1 as the least and number 10 as the most venomous:
1. Rattlesnake – This snake is easily identified by its rattle at the end of its tale. This snake is found on the most part of America with the Eastern Diamondback as the one that is the most poisonous in North America. The bite of a rattlesnake is harmful and fatal although the juvenile rattlesnakes have more potent venom than the adults because of their ability to inject more amount of venom in victims and prey. The hemotoxic venom is the kind of venom found in most rattles that has proven to do tissue damage, degenerate organs and clot blood in the body for the most part. Its antivenin can help decrease mortality rate at less than 4% when given just at the nick of time.
2. Death adder – This viper is usually found thriving in Australia and New Guinea. These snakes love to kill it kind through ambush. They have shorter and more squatted bodies compared to other snakes and have triangular shaped heads, more similar to the vipers’ appearance. A Death Adder’s venom can cause paralysis and respiratory failure with neurotoxin as the venomous culprit.
3. Vipers – These snakes are found everywhere but the most cunning and venomous are found in the Middle East and Central Asia particularly India, China and South East Asia. Known as nocturnal vipers, they usually attack at night with poison causing necrosis and bleeding.
4. Philippine Cobra – Cobras are venomous but most specie would not make it to this list. However, the Philippine Cobra’s venom is the deadliest among all Cobra specie which they can quickly spit at a maximum of 3 meters. Its venom is also neurotoxin, attacking the heart, affecting cardiac and respiratory functions of the body.
5. Tiger Snake – This one viper is found in Australia and has a strong and powerful neurotoxin that can kill within a matter of minutes. It can cause paralysis and death.
6. Black Mamba – Found in the most part of Africa, the Black Mamba is agile, aggressive and deadly. Known to be the fastest land snake in the globe, its speed is quite blinding which reaches up to 20 km/h. A single bite from this notoriously swift and slim viper is capable of knocking-off 10 -25 adults.
7.Taipan – This one is ruthless coming from Australia. Its potent venom can kill 12,000 guinea pigs at one time. Its venom is strongly neurotoxic.
8.Blue Krait – A fatal bite from this deadly snake is sure death even with the presence of an antivenin killing the victim within 6-12 hours because of its deathly neurotoxin effect which is 16 times more potent than that of a Cobra. These snakes also kill their kind. They are more active at night, making them nocturnal vipers.
9.Eastern Brown Snake – This brown snake is an aggressive killer with 1/14000 of an ounce of venom just adequate to kill a human being.
10.Fierce Snake or Inland Taipan – This one is not that aggressive and usually operates subtly but its single bite alone containing 110mg of venom is enough to kill 100 humans or 250,000 mice!
The above list is the top ten but there is another snake that can be included in this list. It is the Belcher’s Sea Snake but can be set-apart because it belongs to the sea and not on land. Just a few milligrams could suffice in killing 1,000 people.
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