Poisonous animals produce toxins for two purposes: for defense and for attack. For some, poisonous secretions are a means of scaring away predators and protecting their lives, for others it is a hunting tool for obtaining food.
Poisonous animals are distributed among the whole variety of fauna unevenly. If poisonous arthropods (scorpions, spiders, some insects) are widely known, then there are only four species of such mammals. These are the Australian platypus and echidna, as well as the American aardvark and some shrews. Interestingly, the aardvark, possessing poisonous saliva, is susceptible to its own poison! In fights that arise between representatives of the species, aardvarks die even from small bites of their opponents. How, in this case, they manage to maintain the population size at a sufficient level, and in general, why does the animal produce poison, from which it dies itself - one of the mysteries of biology.
Many poisonous animals in the minds of ignorant people are demonized. They are credited with mortal danger to humans, which in reality is rarely true.
The venom of most scorpions causes only a local lesion in a person, which passes safely after several hours. Only one case of death of a person (a seven-year-old boy) from a bite of a giant scolopendra was reliably recorded. The bite was in the head, most likely, while vital centers were affected, besides the medical assistance was late. Otherwise, this episode could be excluded from the list of lethal statistics.
The common viper common in Russia is dangerous only in the spring, when it actively produces enzymes. Moreover, this reptile needs much more time to restore the poison than its southern counterparts. Therefore, our viper consumes toxins very sparingly, preferring flight to attack, and bites a person only in self-defense. In summer and autumn, viper venom does not present mortal danger and can cause only a number of unpleasant sensations. Poisonous animals are not abundantly represented in our country. Only the southern regions can boast a variety of toxic fauna.
Many poisonous animals of the world have the so-called "passive toxicity". This means that they do not have special organs that produce poison. Such, for example, is puffer fish, which contains tetrodoxin in the tissues, even in small quantities, is deadly for humans. The toxicity of puffer is so high that specially certified cooks are engaged in its preparation for food. In Japan, despite such precautions, several deaths occur each year due to eating this fish.
Poisonous plants and animals are mostly representatives of warm and hot regions. This selectivity of nature is due to the fact that at high temperatures the metabolic rate of living organisms is much higher than at low, and the inhabitants of the tropics are more likely to afford the luxury of producing poison than people in temperate and cold latitudes.
