Just when you thought the jungle was, er, safe . . .
Scientists have found a species of snake with remarkable color-changing ability.
(Okay, so it’s not really very chameleon-y, since it doesn’t change colors to match its surroundings, but the color-change ability it has is considerably greater than has been seen in serpents to date.)
(And anyway, I used to keep chameleons, and they didn’t change color to match their surroundings so much as to match their mood, or to display. Bring two males near each other, and it was a fireworks show, with each fellow trying to out-vibrant the other. So, hmmph.)
I’ve been hearing about these new species being discovered in Borneo. It must be tremendously exciting for the scientists working there. That being said, the jungles of Borneo would not be the place for me. I don’t want harm to come to the snake, but I’ll take their word for it about how amazing it is!
I really don’t like meeting up with snakes, although I can usually maintain a certain degree of control over myself if I do. A friend of mine, though, was thoroughly traumatized when she was hiking and crossing a stream and a snake lept up out of the water. I guess she disturbed it or something. I believe they decided it was some sort of poisonous snake. I was sort of sorry to hear that story because I didn’t realize snakes lived in the water too. Oh well.
An efficient defense against poisonous snakes is to resist the spurious use of “up.” Snakes, like all feeling creatures, are deeply troubled by people “heading up” committees, “joining up,” “sharing up,” “meeting up,” and so forth. A snake won’t bite a careful writer (except by mistake), I am sure.
Oh no, this is my second grammar ticket of the day! It seems like “meeting with” and “meeting up with” mean different things. “Meeting up with” means it is an accident—maybe “running into” would be better. “Meeting with” seems more like a planned event agreeable to both parties. If I said “I met with the Devil.” wouldn’t that seem to have a different meaning than “I met up with the Devil.”? I couldn’t possibly say “I don’t like meeting with snakes.”! People would think I had lost my mind. Maybe I could say “coming across”. But then that is probably a spurious use of the word “across”.
Oh, another bit of advice about snakes, probably for the ladies—don’t lend your pillow to one.
I don’t think “meet” is any more or less deliberate or accidental than “meet up” (shudder). At least I haven’t come across such a distinction. But don’t mind me, I’m just procrastinating.
Speaking of grammar tickets, I hope spiders don’t drop or crawl into people in Australia, but then you never know about those Aussies. Try: There are deadly spiders that kill people in swimming pools.
You see the problem is that when you post as often as I do you can’t really take the time to make your posts clear.
Edited to say I hadn’t realized before this morning that you were refering to my “corrected” version! That makes 3 tickets in one day. I’m on a roll! But not a roll up.
Very cool news. Cynth, haven’t you ever heard of Sea Snakes? Or Sea Kraits? The Sea Krait (aka: Banded Sea Snake) is known to have one of the most toxic venoms on the planet and one teaspoon of that venom can kill up to 500 people. And yet, it rarely if ever bites. They simply aren’t an agressive animal… except to their prey.
I have read that sea snakes like to “rest” on floating items, including swimmers, which tends to freak folks out … a bit. This may have lead to their reputation for being fearsome attackers with deadly venom.
That makes sense. Most people get bitten when diving the habitat Sea Snakes live in, and then trying to handle them. Others, when fishing the shallows while emptying their nets.
True Sea Snakes live and breed in the ocean, never coming ashore. Sea Kraits come ashore to breed. While it certainly is never recommended , one can handle Kraits without being bitten… they just do not seem to care.
On that Nature show about Australia, they did a part on a fellow who does research on sea snakes. The word “krait” doesn’t seem like a word they used. The idea of snakes in water is honestly just horrifying. I guess because it means they could go anywhere around you and not just be on the ground. I could hardly watch the TV when they showed them. I know intellectually that they are beautiful and I wouldn’t harm one, but I just get the willies when I see a picture of one.
I guess all these venoms are quite interesting because of the chemicals they contain. That show mentioned that the compounds might have medical uses especially for neurological problems.
All this talk about snakes reminds me of a story my wife told me about her brother when they were growing up on a station up in the north west of Australia (for those in other countries a station is like a ranch or a farm only much, much bigger). Lets call him John (not his real name).
Anyway, they had a lot of little frogs that liked water, including the water found in a toilet. Apparently it wasn’t unusual to feel them bumping against that part of the anatomy that comes in contact with the seat when making use of the facilities. Well, they had a hole in the septic tank attached to the toilet and the frogs were getting in there, so they eventually got around to fixing it one day.
A little while later John is sitting there having a quiet read when he feels bumping on his rump. No worries, he thinks, it just a frog trying to get out and he keeps on reading. That is, until a snake pokes up between his legs! It had been in the tank after the frogs and got caught in there when they repaired it so it had taken the only way out available. Apparently John ran so fast he didn’t get his pants pulled up before he got to the rest of the family to tell them about it.
Well, you may be aware that, of the top ten most deadly snakes in the world, Australia has all ten. Well this one was a King Brown, well and truly up there towards the top of the top ten and it was mad! It was striking at the walls it was so mad. But John was madder, so mad he blew a hole in the wall trying to shoot this thing with a shotgun! Sadly the end was swift and decisive for the snake when it came.
In the states we get a public broadcasting show called Nature. It’s really a good show. But quite honestly, I don’t think these two episodes could have done the Australian tourist industry much good. Unfortunately, I can’t remember what sort of deadly spider it was that swims in back yard swimming pools and bites people. I have actually never been quite the same since seeing these episodes.
A Lethal Land
They bite, they sting, they spit, they spring. On the island continent of Australia, deadly creatures come in all shapes and sizes – by land and by sea – as you will discover on the NATURE episode, AUSTRALIA’S LITTLE ASSASSINS.
Australia’s majestic saltwater > crocodiles> , for instance, are an obvious threat. Growing 20 feet long and armed with a ferocious mouth of teeth, these reptiles are typically content to feed on fish or birds and mammals that venture too near the water. Every now and then, however, a “croc” makes a run at a boater or swimmer. As one croc-attack survivor on LITTLE ASSASINS notes, the ambush comes as a shock > [NO KIDDING!]> . Before the victim can react, the croc clamps its jaws shut and dives underwater, corkscrewing violently in a bid to drown its victim and rip it in half. Luckily, more than half of Australia’s 100 or so croc-attack victims over the last century have survived.
On land, the sea snake’s scaly relatives also boast fangs that can inject a deadly dose. Indeed, Australia boasts more than 100 kinds of > poisonous snakes > – about a dozen of which rank among the most poisonous on earth. Doctors estimate about 3,000 Australians are bitten each year, with several hundred requiring shots of life-saving antivenom, which counteracts the poison. But a few people each year don’t make it to the hospital in time and die. (In the United States, about 8,000 people a year receive venomous snake bites, and about six die.)
Victims may also need antivenom to save them from spider bites. Australia is home to more than 40 species of funnel web > spiders> , for instance, a group of arachnids known for their toxic venom. Some can paralyze a person with a tiny bite. Others may carry bacteria on their fangs that enter the bite wound, causing the skin to die and flesh to literally melt away. Sometimes, the victims don’t even know they’ve been bitten. And for some, there is no known antidote.
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Taipan Oxyuranus scuttelatus
The taipan may be found mostly along the non-desert areas of north and north-east Australia (from Brisbane to Darwin). It is an aggressive, large, slender snake, and may be coloured any shade of brown but always has a rectangular head (large in proportion to the body) and red eye. Venom output is high and causes neurotoxicity, coagulopathy, and rhabdomyolysis, and the amount retrieved from just one milking from one taipan is enough to kill many million mice > > . Paralysis is difficult to reverse unless treated early. Untreated, > a good bite will almost certainly be fatal> .
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Sydney Funnel Web (Atrax robustus)
This is one mother of a spider!
It is a large (6-7 cm), black, aggressive, ugly looking spider with massive fangs. These are large and powerful enough to easily penetrate a fingernail. When disturbed it tends to rear up on its hind legs, a defensive posture that exposes the fangs. They don’t jump. During a bite the spider firmly grips its victim and bites repeatedly; in most cases the experience is horrific > [NO KIDDING!]> . The venom is highly toxic. Before an effective antivenom was developed, significant bites usually resulted in severe symptoms and death was not uncommon.
The Sydney funnel web spider is mostly found near Sydney (from Newastle to Nowra and as far west as Lithgow but sightings have been reported as far north as Brisbane. Related species are found along the eastern coast of New South Wales.
The venom of the slightly smaller male spider is five times as toxic as the female. This is unfortunate > [ONCE AGAIN, NO KIDDING!]> , as male funnel webs tend to roam about, particularly after heavy rain in summer, and often wind up indoors… For some strange reason, human beings (and other primates and monkeys) are particularly sensitive to the venom, whereas toads, cats and rabbits are almost unaffected!
Atraxotoxin causes acute massive release of neurotransmitters at autonomic and neuromuscular junctions with associated uncontrolled autonomic hyper-reactivity and muscle twitching, followed about 2 hours later by neurotransmitter depletion and weakness.
Symptoms
The bite is usually immediately painful, and if substantial envenomation occurs, symptoms commence usually within a few minutes. They include, progressively:
Piloerection, sweating, muscle twitching (facial and intercostal, initially), salivation, lacrimation, tachycardia, and then (fairly rapidly) severe hypertension.
Vomiting, airway obstruction, muscle spasms, writhing, grimacing, pulmonary oedema (of neurogenic or hypertensive origin), extreme hypertension.
Unconsciousness, raised intracranial pressure, widely dilated pupils (often fixed), uncontrolled twitching, and death unless artificial ventilation is provided.
After about 2 hours the muscle fasiculations and most symptoms start to subside, and are replaced with insidious but profound hypotension, primarily due to severe cardiac failure> [WHICH WILL CLEARLY COME AS A BLESSING AT THIS POINT! DANG!]> .
Then there was THE VENOM CURE. Not all of this show took place in Australia but a large part of it was about sea snake research at the Australian Venom Research Unit at the University of Melbourne.
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Oh sorry! I didn’t do the King Brown snake.
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potentially dangerous; ready biter; apply first aid and seek urgent medical attention for all suspected bites; responsible for human deaths.
Bill Bryson, in his book In a Sunburned Country, was writing about some kind of dangerous Australian critter (I think it was those blue jellyfishes), and he said it appeared on page 275 of volume 3 of the 6 volume set entitled Things That Can Kill You in Australia.
Sea Wasp
Synonyms - > Box Jellyfish> , Fire Medusa, Indringa.
An American author named Mayer who was speaking about some of the stinging Cubomedusae found in the Caribbean waters of Central America coined the name Sea Wasp.
In Australia it is more commonly known as the Box Jellyfish.
Yet of all the types described none are as venomous as the Indo-Pacific Box Jellyfish. It is claimed to be the > most venomous marine animal known.
Description
The Box Jellyfish has a shape of a bell or cuboid with four distinct sides, as in a box, hence the local name - Box Jellyfish. From each of four corners of the cube, or bell measuring up to 20 cm along each side, the Box Jellyfish projects into pedaliums, each of which may contain up to as many as fifteen tentacles each 3 metres in length.
Box Jellyfish are > pale blue and transparent > and are difficult to see, even > in clear ocean waters they are almost invisible> , and for years it wasn’t known what was actually causing such excruciating pain often followed by death > [MY GOD!]> . It was first thought to have been the Portuguese man-of-war, but as most stings from the Portuguese man-of-war are usually accompanied by a sighting it became obvious that it was probably something else. As death occurred sometimes within 2 to 3 minutes, researchers began to search for another culprit.
Box Jellyfish Season
The Box Jellyfish season across the top of northern Australia starts with the onset of the wet season, usually around October and lasts until April. Further south along the northern Queensland or northern Western Australian coast the season is usually from November to March. The Box Jellyfish sometimes appear further south and sometimes a few weeks beyond the official close of season before disappearing until the next wet season.
Always check with local authorities for advice before swimming in the ocean; otherwise wear fully protective clothing. Never swim on your own in isolated areas> [HOW ABOUT NEVER SWIM PERIOD?]> . If you are stung, your chance of survival or even getting yourself to the shore is virtually zero. > The pain has been described as so excruciating that you will probably go into shock and drown, even before the full affect of the venom takes place.
How can anyone even put so much as a big toe in the water there?
> . Paralysis is difficult to reverse unless treated early. Untreated, > a good bite will almost certainly be fatal> .
