Friday, July 31, 2009

Can a non poisonous snake be venomous if it eats a poisonous snake with venom?

Example...A black snake kills and eats a rattlesnake. That Black snake bites someone. Could the person that was bit be in danger of having venom it their body?
Answers:
No and thats almost impossible for that to happen. Most likely the poisonous snake would bite the harmless one and it would be dead before the dangerous one gets killed
I would say no. While it is possible that some venom was on the teeth of the black snake, there's probably only a little amount if any. Snakes usually eat their prey head first, that would mean that the entire time the one snake is downing the other, it's teeth are being scraped by the scales and most probably any residual venom..if any, would be removed. For clarification, the use of venomous when referring to snakes is correct. They are not poisonous. Things like frogs, etc. are poisonous. Those types of animals excrete poison onto the skin, they don't inject it.
No, a rattelsnake's venom is injected into the victim thru fangs which act like hypodermic needles. Non-venomus snakes do not kill hier prey in such a way but just grab it and swallow or constrict or sqeeze their prey. The rattelsnake venom swallowed by he black sbake would be destroyed in the digestive tract of the black snake.
No. Non -poisonous snakes are called that for a reason, no venom sacks or the type of fangs/teeth needed to inject its prey with venom. In this example, the rattle snake and its venom would be contained in the black snakes digestive tract and would be delt with by the snakes natural bodily functions/defense mechanisms. By the way, some non-poisonous snakes do eat poisonous snakes such as bull snakes eating rattlesnakes.
No they can't. The poison in the other snake won't turn your snake venomous.

1 comment:

  1. can a venomous snake bite and kill another venomous snske of the same species?

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