Snake venom is probably the reason why so many people are scared of the slithering creatures. Our ancestors saw how vicious, painful, and deadly bites from certain ones could be, and that grew into an instinctive fear of all snakes, as well as a healthy desire to stay far away from them. Of all the thousands of different types of snakes in the world, only a select few are truly deadly.
These days venom is seen as medically important, with studies showing that the venom from certain species contains compounds which display anti-tumor and anti-cancer activity. It’s also used to make anti-venom which is used to treat deadly snake bites in humans. As such, it is worth a lot of money, the man in the video says that by the ounce dried venom is worth 10x the amount of pure, solid gold.
The first part of this amazing video shows how venom is extracted from some of the most deadly snakes in the world. The serpents are kept individually in what looks like dark, lidded, clay pots. A handler reaches in using a snake hook, which snags the snake out of their chambers, when it’s time to extract it’s venom type.
He then pins the top part of the snake’s body down so that he can safely grab it by the back of the head and brings it over to a jar. The container has a piece of fabric stretched tight and securely over the top, which the snake bites into, and the handler milks as much out as he can. The venom expelled while it is biting down drips through the cloth and into the jar, then the snake is returned to it’s clap pot.
The second half of the video shows what a Russell’s Pit Viper’s venom does to blood. These vipers are found in Southeast Asia and India and are one of the most lethal snakes known to man. A few drops of the deadly toxin are sucked into a syringe and then dropped into a small cup of blood.
In only a matter of seconds the blood is turned into a thick, coagulated, lump. That is what the Russell’s viper venom does to small animals that it commonly hunts, like mice and rats. When they bite a human, our blood instead becomes very thin and watery, causing it to leak out of every passage and orifice on our bodies.
A person bleeds out through their gums, nose, eyes, ears, mouth, and within 12 hours death sets in. The demonstration is fascinating and now I know why I am scared of snakes.
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