350 views

6:11

Watch
- Search Videos
  
  Advanced search »
- Submit a New Video
Discuss
About
- Try clicking on the various channels to see videos posted to that channel - if you're into music you can click the Music channel to get more music sifts - go on and explore! Use the "hotness" when you have opened the channel link to get videos that have gotten a lot of votes, or use "newness" to have a look at the new sifts.
  When browsing sifts you like, have a look at the Related Posts list to see other related videos, click the tags under the video title to see more sifts tagged with the same tags or have a look at other sifts from the same user in the More Posts By list. If the sifted video is in a play list, have a look at the play list to see other interesting videos the Sift users have linked together.
  Enter the Sift Lounge to chat with online sifters about anything and everything, or read interesting posts in the Sift Talk forum.
  The Top New Videos list is always full of interesting, current videos. It is always recommended that you have a look through the Top New Videos, but also have a look at these:
  - Upcoming Unsifted Videos - active video submissions that neither are published to the front page nor archived to the submitter's personal queue
- Have you seen a really funny, surprising, scary, interesting, cute or in any other way extra good quality video?
  Post and share it here - VideoSift is the best video aggregator on the Web, where we share, discuss, promote, and interact with the best videos out there on the web. Post it here, and share it with the large community of video-interested users. And - you are guaranteed to find more very good videos here already!
  Mind you, we only share videos you discover that someone else has made; if you "self link," by posting a video you have made, have posted or have interests in, you risk the ban hammer - read the posting guidelines before posting. The sift is NOT for promoting your own videos - it is for sharing videos others have made.
  Submit a Video Now »
Login

Why Australian snakes are so venomous

submitted by Aard Vark

(oritteropo)
8 years 6 months ago

YouTube description:

Australia is known as the place with all the deadly animals. Whether they have fur, fins, shells or scales, Australia has them. Snakes are no exception. In fact Australia is known to have loads of venomous snakes. Some of the most venomous on the planet. Think the
Inland Taipan, Brown, Mulga, Death Adder and Tiger Snakes.

So the TNOS team set out to explore just why our snakes are so darn venomous. What we discovered is that it depends on a number of factors including:
* How much food is available;
* The volume of venom the snakes produce;
* Minimising injury to the snake; and
* The potency of the venom.

The Nature of Science website
http://www.thenatureofscience.com.au/

The Nature of Science Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/thenatureofscience

The Nature of Science Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/thenatureofscience

Thanks to James Cook University for their support with this video.
Check out their courses and all around awesomeness at https://www.jcu.edu.au/

5 Comments

MilkmanDan says...

That artificial hand target for strikes looks pretty terrifyingly real in the video.

Made me think they had some psycho volunteering to take a hit and then "test" the antivenom, at least at first.

skinnydaddy1 says...

After years and years of study. They have found that about the only thing in Australia NOT trying to kill you are a couple of the sheep, and the researchers refused to turn their backs to them.

ant

jokingly says...

RIP, mousey.

The "Why" doesn't get addressed until 5:20, and even then it's preceded by "I think it's because..."

The first five minutes are some pretty good filler though.

I read an interesting article on the BBC's web site on exactly this question - http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160404-why-some-animals-have-venoms-so-lethal-they-cannot-use-them

It makes some of the same points as this video, but also has an additional one in regards to why some animals are so toxic to humans: Bad luck! We aren't their targetted prey, so it's pretty much irrelevent to them whether their sting can kill one or 1,000 humans.

Bad luck comes into it as well. A bite from a Sydney funnel-web spider is extremely dangerous for humans, whereas rodents are relatively unaffected by their venom. Since these spiders evolved to eat neither rodents nor humans, this can be seen as nothing more than an unfortunate alignment of the spider's neurotoxin with a receptor on some of our cells.

The "Why" doesn't get addressed until 5:20, and even then it's preceded by "I think it's because..."

The first five minutes are some pretty good filler though.

Discuss...

🗨️ Emojis & HTML

Enable JavaScript to submit a comment.

This website uses cookies.

This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using this website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.