Poisonous snakes are among the most feared creatures in the animal world. The toxic secretion of poisonous snakes has such a lethal impact that it can kill one in less than thirty minutes, not to mention the chances of losing eye sight if venom gets into your eyes. Even with the risk of getting bitten in close encounters, poisonous snakes are creatures like all others but rely on their venom to survive: snakes only bite to hunt or defend themselves . The rest of the negative aura surrounding snakes comes from a faulty perception powered by ancient myths.
The venom structure complexity is amazing: there is mainly a combination of proteins and toxins that when spread in the prey's body paralyze and eventually kill it. The toxin attacks the heart, the lungs and the muscles first, and starting from this way of action scientists have classified poisonous snakes into variety that destroy the walls of the blood vessels and start an unstoppable hemorrhage, venomous species that have a paralyzing effect on the heart and, last but not least, others that inflict terrible muscle pain. The poisonous snakes with the most terrifying of reputations are corals closely followed by cobras.
The aggregation structure of the snake venom still fascinates scientists, and lots of tests are still conducted on it. The only treatment for poisonous snakes bites is the emergency antivenin administration. Certain elements do influence the victim's chances of survival: thus, an identification of the snake is necessary as well as the proper location of the bite. If there is too much time between the moment of the bite and the antidote injection, the victim will suffer extensive health damage or even die. Furthermore, Sometimes patients showed allergic reactions to both the venom and the antidote, increasing the lethal exposure even more.
Rattlesnakes are the most common poisonous snakes in America, and they are the ones to cause most of the bites, yet lethal outcomes of such incidents have become a rarity these days since medical help is usually very readily available. The water moccasin, the copperhead and the cottonmouth belong to the same poisonous family as the rattlesnake; they are highly poisonous snakes which you should avoid by all means possible. Stressful incidents involving snake attacks are often behind snake phobia or this excessive fear can be the result of sociological ancestral traditions that are manifest even with people who have never felt threatened by a snake.
The snake is also a mythical representation not just an animal people feel abhorred by. The representations of snakes in our arts and cultures go back to the ancient mythical beliefs. On the one hand, serpents are part of ecosystems, with a well-established function in the development of certain species, and secondly they remain symbols of deep meanings. Their hunting mice and rats keeps pest under control and prevents the over-breeding of these rodents. Yet, in the ancient traditions, types of snake worshiping were part of religious rites, with the serpent representing deities, or the immutable circle of life and death or wisdom.
Many types of snake-related traditions have been identified around the globe: for the old Greeks the snake was the a sign of sexual potency; Mesopotamians and Semites considered this animal immortal because it moulted and it rejuvenated its look on a regular basis; Indians, Siamese and Burmese believe the snake to be a demon figure that also had its good parts.