So I'm updating out of order. I promise I will sometime soon post about the cooking and the temple visiting, but that's going to be a long post (or two long posts, more likely), while this one is a relatively short piece.
Today, Charnice and I actually went to the snake farm. It is the second oldest snake farm in the world (the first oldest being in Brazil), and was built in 1923. It has both venomous and non-venomous snakes.
The non-venomous snakes were kept in outdoor tanks and pits, while the venomous ones are kept in more secure pens inside. The one at left is an albino burmese python (non venomous).
After we walked around outside a bit, we went inside for the milking show. Snake venom is extracted from the snakes by persuading them to bite into a covered jar, like so.
Because the venom is an automatic process for snakes when they bite, the venom pours out of them and into the cup. This venom is then injected into horses and somehow that makes antivenins (they didn't mention exactly how this happens in the presentation, and I was too focused on the pretty snakes to think to ask. The one in the picture is called a banded krait, by the way).
In the afternoon, there was a live snake show outside. Which was quite intense. Although us spectators were sitting in bleachers right there, with no walls between us and the performers, they brought venomous snakes out to pose for us. Here is a cobra:
It is very cool, and very venomous. It's venom is five times more potent than a king cobra's venom, but it delivers less per bite. Both are deadly though. Interesting fact about venomous snakes: they can have fangs in either the front or rear of their mouths. If the snake has fangs in the front of its mouth, the venom is usually deadly. If the fangs are at the rear of its mouth, then the venom is excruciatingly painful but usually not fatal to adult humans.
The show concluded, as all good snake shows must, with a chance to hold a Burmese python around one's neck.
And how could I pass that up?
After we walked around outside a bit, we went inside for the milking show. Snake venom is extracted from the snakes by persuading them to bite into a covered jar, like so.
Because the venom is an automatic process for snakes when they bite, the venom pours out of them and into the cup. This venom is then injected into horses and somehow that makes antivenins (they didn't mention exactly how this happens in the presentation, and I was too focused on the pretty snakes to think to ask. The one in the picture is called a banded krait, by the way).In the afternoon, there was a live snake show outside. Which was quite intense. Although us spectators were sitting in bleachers right there, with no walls between us and the performers, they brought venomous snakes out to pose for us. Here is a cobra:
It is very cool, and very venomous. It's venom is five times more potent than a king cobra's venom, but it delivers less per bite. Both are deadly though. Interesting fact about venomous snakes: they can have fangs in either the front or rear of their mouths. If the snake has fangs in the front of its mouth, the venom is usually deadly. If the fangs are at the rear of its mouth, then the venom is excruciatingly painful but usually not fatal to adult humans.
The show concluded, as all good snake shows must, with a chance to hold a Burmese python around one's neck.
And how could I pass that up?
Nice accessory. I think everyone should have a Python molurus bivittatus this year, very fashionable.
ReplyDeleteI looked up antivenoms and, as I thought, they work by injecting small amounts (I'm guessing not a lethal dose) into certain mammals (horses, yes, but also sheep and rabbits) which naturally generate antivenom as an immune response. Scientists process the blood of these animals to get the antivenom.
Advantage of horse is probably that they can produce more antivenom, and also probably have a higher lethal threshold of venom.