About the poison of the cobra

 

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King cobra

About the poison of the cobra

Spitting King cobra(1)or any other cobra(2) normally doesn't want to kill its victim if that is much larger than it is, and the snake cannot swallow it. The purpose of this spitting reflex is to cause pain. And tell the bigger predators that cobra is not a good meal for them. If cobra always uses deadly force against bigger predators, that means that the smell of snake and the poison would remain in the area and warn its spoils. The purpose of the spit is to drive away from the bigger predators. But if that predator continues its attack cobra must use harder touch.

Cobras like every other snake use deadly force only against animals what is their food. Or what threat them. The poison of snakes is for hunting and defense. So snakes are not killing for fun. The snake selects the poison mixture that is the most useful in that certain situation. Some snakes have super-strong nerve poison the pure botulinum, and those snakes are normally live in the desert. Those snakes like Inland taipans need that poison(3). The horrible poison can kill millions of people in one bite for defending themselves.

The force of the poison is boosted with the chemicals. Normally those chemicals are acid from the snake's stomach and some proteins. Those chemicals cut the skin and let the botulinum go into the body.

But the fact is that also spit of cobra can kill people. The reason is that the poison is not one certain poison. Cobra can select which poisons it uses, and normally pain is enough for scaring the hunters. But if cobra will spit the chemical that destroys tissue along with its neurotoxin that causes the neurotoxin will get to the blood causing death.

Cobra is a part of snakes called Elapidae(4). And the poison of those snakes is a mixture of many different chemicals.

And with cobras, the mambas(5) and sea-snakes(6) are the most well-known members of this large family snake family. The poison of cobras and other very poisonous snakes like sea-snakes and mambas is a mixture of different poisons. The deadliest component of this mixture of chemicals is a neurotoxin, which is basing the different types of amino-acids(7).

And the other chemicals, whose purpose is to destroy tissue and cause internal damages in blood vessels purpose are to make sure that the victim is dying very fast and the snake can swallow it very fast that no other animal will steal it. So the fact is that the cobra can spit the chemicals, which are open the skin for the neurotoxin, and that thing can cause death.

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-venom-of-the-spitting-cobra-evolved-specifically-to-put-you-in-a-world-of-pain

Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_cobra

Sources:

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_cobra
(2)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra
(3)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_taipan
(4)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elapidae
(5)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamba
(6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_snake
(7) https://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=tb.2015.86.92

https://curiosityanddarkmatter.home.blog/2021/01/23/about-the-poison-of-the-cobra/