WONKA -- WONKA School -- Let's Learn About Venomous Animals

There are many kinds of venomous animals in the world, but most of them fall into the following five categories: SNAKES, SPIDERS, INSECTS, FISH, and FROGS.

Do you know which frog is so poisonous that its venom is strong enough to kill eight people? Or which fish is deadly to any animal that eats it, yet humans will sometimes order them in fine restaurants? Willy Wonka has the answers to these and all your other questions about venomous creatures. Let's start with the one most people think of first: Snakes.

Most venomous snakes are divided into three categories:

Rear-fanged snakes (or Opisthoglyphs): With two exceptions (the boomslang and the twig snake) these are predominantly low to non-venomous snakes. Their grooved fangs are in the rear of the mouth and inject venom into their meal as they swallow. Other examples include mangrove and hognose snakes.
Fixed-front-fanged snakes (or Proteroglyphs): These deadly snakes use their small unmovable front fangs to hang onto and repeatedly bite prey as they inject their venom. Common examples include cobras, coral snakes and mambas.
Movable-front-fanged snakes (or Solenoglyphs): This group of snakes includes the pit viper family (rattlesnakes, cottonmouths and copperheads). Their long fangs fold back onto the roof of the mouth until they are needed. At that point, the snake can open its mouth 180 degrees with the fangs extended straight out to stab you rather than bite. They also shed their teeth, just like sharks. Every couple of months a new set of fangs erupt through the gum and grow to replace the previous pair. Once they are mature and firmly locked to the jawbone, the old ones fall out.

Venom is basically specialized snake spit with chemical properties that can paralyze or kill its victim. Unlike most other animals, snakes don't have paws or a full set of teeth to hold their food still. By injecting venom, snakes immobilize their prey. This makes it easier to eat. (FYI - snakes that don't use venom usually coil themselves around their prey - or "constrict" - to hold it still. That's how the boa constrictor gets its name.)

Different kinds of snakes have different strengths of venom. Most adult snakes can control the amount of venom they inject into a victim. As they grow older, they learn how much is needed for the size of their prey. Younger snakes haven't learned this trick yet. They tend to over-inject, which makes their attacks very dangerous. On rare occasions, some snakes don't inject venom at all. If they are feeling threatened, but not hungry, they may attack their predator with a "dry" bite simply to warn it off. This happens in 30-50% of snakebites. By the way, very few snakebite victims die immediately. The only circumstances under which a human would die within minutes or even seconds, is if they had a hypersensitivity to the venom or if it was injected directly into a vein or artery.

Happily, for most Americans, the ten most deadly snakes all live in Australia. However, there are still plenty of venomous snakes that live in this country. There are about 8,000 snakebite incidents every year in the United States. Most of these involve professional and amateur snake handlers. A lot of bites are the result of foolish people who see a snake and try to tease or catch it. The good news is that only about 10-15 people die a year from snakebites, a very low number when you think about it. If you see a snake, LEAVE IT ALONE! Ask an adult to call animal control officials so they can take it to a more appropriate habitat.