Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Fer-de-lance - Highly Venomous Viper

Fer-de-lance means "Sperhead" in French. It is found in Central and South America. It can grow up to 7ft 6 in (2.4m). It's life span is up to 20 years. It hunts small mammals, birds, lizards and frogs. It has "pits" behind and above nostrils which can sense tempreature to the accuracy of 1/1000 degrees Celcius. It can attack with great accuracy even in the total darkness.




On Average, fer-de-lance injects about 105mg of venom in single bite. It requires 50mg to kill an human. The potent venom containing both anticoagulant and fresh-destroying-chemicals. It causes more deaths than anyother reprtile in South America.

A fer-de-lance gives birth to live young rather than laying eggs. It can give birth upto 70 babies at a time.

The deadliest fer-de-lance of all, the golden lancehead lives in only on the island of Quemade. Golden laceheads are said to have killed the last lighthouse keeper on Quemade Grande after gliding into his cottage one night. When the keeper and his family fled, they were killed by more snakes hanging on the trees. Their bodies found scattered across the island.





Reference: Snakes and Reptiles. The Scariest cold-blooded creatures on Earth. Published by Backack books.

Largest King Cobra on Record

King Cobra is one of the highly venomous snake. It typically grows 12 - 13 ft (3.6-4m). It typically weights about 6kg (13.2 lbs). It is fast and agile despite its size.



The largest King Cobra on record when captured was measured 17 ft 6 in (5.5 m). In 1937, it was captured in Malaysia and sent to London Zoo. It grew to 18ft (5.7m) in the captivity. In 1939, when Word War II began, keepers destroyed the King Cobra. The Zoo keepers were feared it could escape in case The Zoo is bombed.

The King Cobra need not hunt for weeks after one large meal. It is immune to its own kind of venom. It own hurt if one bites another.

Once a zoo keeper foolishly put King Cobra with six other cobras. The next day King Cobra ate all the six other Cobras. King Cobra rarely attacks human, one bite can bring down an elephant.

Take  a look at these videos.