Hi, I'm Jess Keating, and you're watching
Animalogic: Second Nature. [male announcer] Out of the
slime and darkness it comes to inflict its life-destroying
poison on the careless, the unwary, the unprotected.
[Jess] For many of us, spiders, snakes, and centipedes
trigger an innate fear. While it may seem to be due
to their often many legs or lack thereof, deeper down,
the phobia comes from their venom.
[male announcer] He then proceeded to extract the venom
from the snakes. Pro-venom.
[♪♪♪] Venom allows many creatures,
otherwise harmless to ourselves, and their prey to dominate both
psychologically and physically. Outside of humans being
squeamish around spiders, many other animal species are
born with a natural instinct to avoid venomous creatures.
For example, many species of bird are born with a fear of coral snakes
and venomous spiders and will do anything
they can to avoid them. Venomous creatures
are found everywhere. venomous species in the world.
That's 15% of the world's species,
and they're found everywhere except Antarctica.
Not to confuse them, of course, with poisonous creatures,
and here's the difference. The history on this goes
to the early days in China. [Jess] Both venom and
poisons are toxins biologically created chemicals
that alter the function of another organism.
There are three major differences between the two.
Poisons are ingested, either by eating,
drinking, or absorption by skin. While venom is injected,
usually by a sting or a bite. Venoms are also usually peptides
and proteins and if eaten would cause little damage as
stomach acids denature and inactivate them.
Poisons on the other hand are usually made of
compounds like alkaloids. These are far more
effective when eaten. And finally, poisonous animals
usually acquire their poison by eating poisonous
things, typically plants, while venomous animals usually create their
own venom, and they make quite a bit.
On average for venomous animals, of their total body weight.
This means if humans were to have venom,
we would have to carry a pop can full at all times.
venomous species, venom has evolved
independently at least 88 times. It turns out that venom is
a highly effective tool. [male announcer] She encases
her victims with silk and then kills with
poison from her fangs. And it's not just
creepy crawlies. There are 446 venomous mammals,
including the highly adorable platypus.
Like many venomous species, the platypus use their venom
for self-defence. Their venom is
found only in males, in sharp spurs on
their hind feet. Their sting is
reportedly incredibly painful, feeling like
hundreds of wasp stings, and it can leave victims
incapacitated for weeks. Stingers like these
are the most common delivery method for venom.
@At its most basic, it's a sharp tube attached to a venom gland.
Most venomous fish, like stargazers,
have stingers that are modified dorsal spines,
others, like the chimaera monstrosa,
have grooved barbs equipped with venom.
Bees, wasps, and ants all have stingers,
as do giant centipedes with their modified legs
turned forcipules, though some species
have much more advanced stingers.
Many cnidarians have highly elaborate and highly painful
stingers called nematocysts. Their actual stingers
are harpoon shaped and are attached to the
nematocyst by a coiled thread. When triggered, the harpoon
shoots out at an incredible Piercing the skin easily, the
harpoon releases the venom in the nematocyst
into the victim, but it's not just
one nematocyst. Some species, like
the box jellyfish, can have around
per square centimetre. The octopus also has a
rather interesting stinger. [male announcer] Can't afford to
miss a chance to photograph one of these elephant
spiders of the ocean floor. [Jess] While many believe that
the octopus envenoms prey with their beak, in reality
they use a salivary papilla inside their mouths.
This papilla is covered in a series of barbs that drill down
into their prey and inject it with a paralyzing venom.
They usually do this with clams, paralyzing the clam's muscles
that keep their shell clamped shut.
Probably the most badass venomous bite
belongs to the marine bloodworm glycera.
These nightmare worms have only four teeth arranged like corners
in a square, and that makes them look so much more frightening
that a solid ring of teeth. These teeth are very strong
and are reinforced with copper minerals.
They're abrasion resistance is on par
with some of the hardest metal alloys.
Each of their four teeth are equipped with venom glands
and they use their unique chemical compound
when predating upon smaller prey.
Many insects too have venomous bites and their special brand
of venom can paralyze their prey and liquefy their insides.
A lot of insects can't eat solid foods and can only drink,
so using venom to turn their prey into juice boxes
is very useful. The ultimate in
venomous bites, however, are the snakes, and
both cobras and vipers excel due to their toxicity.
[male announcer] No sane person would deliberately expose
himself to its venom. No intelligent person would
venture within striking distance of its fangs.
[Jess] Vipers, cobras, and several other venomous snakes
have fantastic retractable syringe-like fangs
hooked up to large venom glands. When not in use, the fangs
retract and sit along the roof of their mouths, allowing
them to close their mouths. But when they bite,
the fangs pop forward, they pierce the
skin of their victim, the muscles around their venom
glands squeeze out the venom into their fangs, and
they inject their prey. These are biological
hypodermic needles. Due to their vast
territory and deadly venom, these snakes are the most
dangerous venomous creatures to humans.
The gaboon vipers have the biggest fangs,
measuring up to five centimetres long,
and they have enough venom without having to create more.
Spitting cobras and other venomous sprayers
fudge the lines of one of the venom-poison distinctions
by shooting their venom at their prey or attacker.
Spitting cobras can accurately target prey
up to three metres away. And they go for the eyes,
blinding their victims. Similarly, red-spotted assassin
bugs can both sting their prey and spit their venom as
the circumstance prescribes. They can spray their venom
that's eight times their body length.
Acrobat ants fudge the line between poison
and venom even further. These ants will surround
their prey until dead. There has yet to be an
observation of ants spraying their victims and the leading
theory is they deliver the venom in a gaseous state.
Meaning that it's not being injected like a venom
or being consumed like a poison. Venom has a lot of
different uses and diamondback rattlesnakes use their
venom to track their prey. Their bites will cause internal
bleeding in their victims, but it doesn't
kill them right away. And so the rattlesnake
follows the dying prey, tracking the scent
of its own venom. Similarly, parasitic pseudacteon
flies track ant venom fumes to find their prey, the
ants emitting the odour. Many species have venom
that paralyzes their prey, and one of the most novel uses
of paralysis is seen in moles and shrews, both of
which are adorably venomous. Shrews don't need
venom to kill their prey, they use it to keep it fresh.
They will inject worms with their paralyzing venom
so that the worm won't be able to escape.
The shrew will pick up the paralyzed worm,
carry it to its den and then stack it with the rest
of its collection of paralyzed worms.
This way the shrew always has a fresh supply of meals.
Shrews use venom to make preserves.
Determining the deadliest venomous animal is difficult,
but one of the top contenders is the inland taipan.
This snake can kill in 45 minutes despite not injecting
very much venom. The banana spider is another
particularly deadly species, and their venom causes
paralysis and death. Fat-tailed scorpions belong
to the androctonus genus, which translates
as "man killer," and that couldn't
be more accurate. They have
extremely deadly venom, of their victims.
Venomous snake bites alone amputations and
That said, scientists are now using venom
to save people's lives. [male announcer] It's the
principle ingredient of a drug called pro-venom. Although Bill provides
this drug to doctors at cost, only a few states,
such as Florida, have allowed him
to treat otherwise incurable patients with it.
[Jess] Many venoms have positive qualities that make them
very useful in the pharmaceutical industry.
For example, the gila monster, a venomous lizard from the Sonoran
Desert has a venom that contains a peptide that lowers glucose
levels in their own blood. This helps them gorge
themselves without getting sick in their feast-or-famine
environment. Now that particular peptide is
being used to treat people with diabetes.
[Old-time music playing] [male announcer] At Sao
Paulo's Butantan Institute, the famous
medically-inspired snake ranch, here poisonous reptiles
live in palatial quarters and are induced to yield their
venom so that serums can be made to combat the activities of
other poisonous reptiles. [Jess] Both pygmy rattlesnakes
and saw-scaled vipers have venom that causes internal bleeding,
and now modified versions of that venom can be used
medicinally as blood thinners, especially in cases where there
is a blockage of blood flow to the heart.
Jararaca pit vipers have a venom that lowers blood pressure,
and now, in small controlled portions,
it's being used to treat high blood pressure in humans.
There is even an experimental drug that is using short-tailed
shrew venom to kill cancer cells.
These are just a few of the amazing uses of venom,
the powerful chemical compound used all around the world
to hunt, to defend, to preserve, and now to heal.
[male announcer] This business is all a great surprise
to the snake, who never had any intention of using its venom
in this way. And after it happens to
him two or three times, he quits, he just dies, and then
they can go and get their venom from some other snake.
So what should we talk about next?
As always, please let us know in the comments and do not forget
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every other week. Thanks so much for watching.