When you go to the zoo, you see animals such as the rattle snake, Komodo dragon, and the hooded pitohuis. When you see a rattle snake you know its dangerous, the Komodo dragon you see its strength, and the hooded pitohuis appears to be a bird with a black and yellow-orange coat; but did you know all of these animals share a common bond? Each of them is poisonous.
The Komodo dragon is almost no surprise that it is poisonous. You may have seen its powerful bites and tremendous speed. Overall, the animal is dangerous. However, its most dangerous feature is what lies within its already powerful bite. The dragon has six poison glands on each side of its mouth. They don't have any grooved fangs, but instead they have sawlike teeth. When the prey pull away, the dragon pulls back. This allows venom to ooze into the wound.
The Komodo dragon may not come as a surprise, but the hooded pitohuis should. In 2009, John Dumbacher an ornithologist at California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, picked up the bird. When he did it made him sneeze and itch and his eyes began to water. A predator who eats the bird suffers a worse consequence. High levels of batrachotoxin are found in pitohui muscle, heart and liver. This is the same found in poison dart frogs. The toxin interrupts the normal function of a predators nerve cells, eventually causing the heart to stop beating.
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2012/03/cant-touch-this-unusual-venomous-creatures/
Thursday, December 20, 2012
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