Would you rather be bitten by a venomous rattlesnake or touch a poisonous dart frog? While both of these animals are capable of doing some serious damage to the human body, they deliver their dangerous toxins in different ways. Rose Eveleth sheds light on the distinction between poison and venom (and why you shouldn’t treat either one like you’ve seen in the movies).
There was this troupe of dancers that traveled around the country dancing in clubs and theaters. They were called the Steppers.
At one club, the Steppers did such a good job of pulling in patrons that the management gave them all the drinks they could drink after the show.
Well, they all got plastered and were having a big party. When it came time to get on their bus to travel to the next town, they did not want to stop partying, so they just moved the party to the bus. As they rode down the highway, you could hear their yelling, singing, and laughing for miles.
At a house along that very highway, there lived a family that had a pet snake. It was a viper, and it’s name was Peter. That night, Peter Viper was asleep in his snake house in the back yard. Suddenly, he was awakened by a loud racket. It was the bus carrying the Steppers still having their party. But Peter didn’t know that. In his confusion, he thought he was back in deep dark Africa being pursued by Pygmies. He slithered out of his snake house, headed across the yard as fast as he could, and crossed the highway just in front of the bus. The bus driver, who was a little sleepy, saw Peter Viper in the road, and mistook him for a giant log. He swerved, and the bus landed in the ditch, drunk Steppers lying everywhere.
The next day, the headline in the paper read “Peter Viper wrecks a truck of pickled Steppers”.
After a 5-hour-long battle, a 10-foot snake swallowed a crocodile whole in front of a shocked crowd of onlookers at Lake Moondarra in Queensland, Australia.
Australia… where every single thing can kill you. Even the flowers.
A snake has eaten a crocodile in an epic duel captured by onlookers at a Queensland lake.
The whopper python took on the croc at Lake Moondarra, near Mount Isa, on Sunday. A Mount Isa woman, Tiffany Corlis, was having breakfast nearby when canoeists racing on the lake alerted her about the endurance battle playing out nearby.
She grabbed her camera and took a series of shots that documented the enormous snake’s assault on the much smaller croc, which was about a metre long.
By the time Corlis started watching, the python had already coiled its body around the crocodile and was beginning to strangle it.
“[The crocodile] was fighting at the start, so it was trying to keep its head out of water and survive,” she told ABC North West Queensland Radio on Monday. But as the morning sort of progressed, you could tell that both of them were getting a little weaker.
“Finally, the croc sort of gave in and the snake had uncoiled for a little while and had a brief break and then actually started to consume the crocodile.”
Corlis said it was amazing to witness. “It was just unbelievable,” she said. “We were sort of thinking that the snake had bitten off a little more than it could chew.
This guy obviously drew the short straw. After giving his leg a quick scrub, one audacious snake hunter wrapped his limb with some cloth and proceeded to stick it down a giant snake hole that was home to a giant python snake.
The massive serpent quickly detected the intruder and latched on, preparing to feast on “man leg.” As the python began choking down its meal, the man’s comrades were quick to provide aid, cushioning the man with some chopped leaves. Because that’s exactly the kind of support he needed at that moment.
Once the signal was given, the group grabbed hold of the man and dragged him out of the hole, an enormous python in tow. With some yanking and cutting, the snake was removed from the man’s leg and the python was beheaded.
