Venomous Snake Count Rises Dramatically

Venomous Snake Count Rises Dramatically By Corey Binns Special to LiveScience posted: 27 March 2007 11:07 am ET

A newly identified deadly snake in India is one of several now challenging the long-held concept that there are only four dangerous snakes in the country, sometimes known as the land of snakes. The hump-nosed pit viper is one among at least 13 snakes now counted as having medical significance in India in a recent report released by members of the World Health Organization’s Snakebite Task Force. Venomous U.S. Snakes Sources offer various figures for the number of U.S. venomous snake species. Here is one authoritative list: Rattlesnakes Banded rock Black-tailed Canebrake Diamondback (eastern, western) Massasauga (eastern, western) Mojave Mottled rock Pacific (northern, southern) Pigmy (southeastern, western) Prairie Red diamond Ridge-nosed Sidewinder Speckled Tiger Timber Twin-spotted Copperheads Broad-banded Northern Osage Southern Trans-Pecos Cottonmouths Eastern Florida Western   Coral snakes Arizona Eastern Texas Western SOURCES: Gregory Juckett and John G. Hancox, West Virginia University School of Medicine, who got their information from Conant R, Collina JT, “A Field Guide to Reptiles & Amphibians: Eastern and Central North America. 3d ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998) and Stebbins RC, “A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians: Field Marks of All Species in Western North America, including Baja California. 2d ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998) All About Snakes   Twelve hours after being bitten by the hump-nosed pit viper, a patient’s blood becomes incapable of coagulating. The patient bleeds and develops renal failure. There is no antivenom for the viper. The hump-nosed pit viper is often mistaken for a saw-scaled viper, one of many new details in the March issue of the journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine. There are more than 250 snake species in India and more than 50 of those are venomous. Estimates for the number of venomous snake species in the United States range from 20 to 29, with all falling into four groups—rattlesnakes, copperheads, cottonmouths and coral snakes. (Technically, snakes are venomous, not poisonous, as they inject their toxin. Poison must be inhaled or injected.) Snakebites cause an estimated 50,000 fatalities annually in India, said Ian Simpson, a member of the WHO Snakebite Treatment Group, but just a dozen or fewer per year in the United States. The Big Four The hump-nosed pit viper isn’t one of the “Big Four,” a list of the region’s most deadly snakes that consists of the Indian cobra, common krait, Russell’s viper and saw-scaled viper, which now is known to closely resemble the hump-nosed pit viper. The difficulty in distinguishing the two snakes has likely led to many deaths due to confusion over how to treat the bites. “In the last century the ‘Big Four’ provided an easy means to alerting people to some of the most significant snakes,” said Simpson, also with the Tamil Nadu Government Snakebite Task Force in India. “Now it is outdated and proving confusing to doctors.” “It also curtails research into how many medically significant species there are,” he said. “Some people just refuse to accept that there are more than four and cling to outdated ideas that are decades out of date.” By constantly referring to the Big Four, Simpson said, doctors are misled about what antivenom treatment is best for their patients. Meanwhile, antivenom manufacturers have yet to produce new concoctions to protect against snakebites other than the Big Four. Better training Improving doctor training is a key factor for better treatment of snakebites, Simpson said. Much of Indian medical education is taught with Western textbooks that have snakebite chapters only relevant to American species. This leads to unnecessary antivenom use and much confusion. In addition, doctors in rural clinics uneducated in treating snakebites refer patients to better-equipped hospitals that often require the patients to travel for hours, often in a state of agony and/or shock, without antivenom. “We have developed protocols and support material to enable primary care doctors to treat snakebite with confidence,” Simpson told LiveScience. “These are being implemented in a number of states in India.” Top 10 Deadliest Animals Fear Of Snakes Drove Pre-Human Evolution Gallery: Snakes Of The World

The hump-nosed pit viper, Hypnale hypnale, a newly identified poisonous snake in India. Credit: Ian D. Simpson, WHO Snakebite Treatment Group and Tamil Nadu Government Snakebite Taskforce > Click to View

 Found at: LiveScience

Monster cane toad caught in Darwin

A cane toad the size of a small dog has been nabbed in the middle of a “breeding frenzy” at a Darwin suburb.Dubbed the ‘monster toad’ by its catchers, the 861-gram male is the largest to be caught anywhere in the Northern Territory, according to environmental group Frogwatch.

The warty pest was picked up by local volunteers during a community toad bust at Lee Point on Monday night.

Measuring 20.5cm in length, the colossal male was one of 39 toads caught in the middle of “a breeding frenzy”, said FrogWatch coordinator Graeme Sawyer.

“The biggest toads are usually females but this one was a rampant male,” he said.

“He is huge. I would hate to meet his big sister.”

The second largest toad to be caught in Darwin was a female measuring about 15cm.

“This monster is another five centimetres long and one third heavier,” Mr Sawyer said, adding that the toad was about the size of a small dog.

He said NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) ToadBusts were finding low numbers of toads in the city, except for Lee Point and the Coastal Reserve.

First released in Queensland, cane toads have since multiplied and marched across Australia, poisoning millions of native animals, including crocodiles in World Heritage-listed Kakadu.

Earlier this year, the NT government announced the arrival of the cane toad had forced two species of geckos higher up the Top End’s threatened species list.

FrogWatch is organising a series of weekly ToadBusts in key areas of Darwin’s rural, Palmerston and Darwin suburbs to try to minimise the wet season toad invasion.

AAP

 From The West Australian

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From the ABC :

Toad busters say the animal is more than 20 centimetres long and weighs more than 860 grams. FrogWatch

FrogWatch says last night’s toad bust in Darwin’s northern suburbs uncovered what it says is the biggest cane toad ever to be caught in the Northern Territory.

The pest was found at Lee Point along with 38 smaller toads.

FrogWatch organiser Graeme Sawyer says the monster toad is the size of a small dog, measuring more than 20 centimetres in length and weighing more than 860 grams.

“The only bigger cane toad I’ve seen [is] in a specimen bottle in a museum in Brisbane,” he said.

“I reckon I’ve probably seen 50,000-60,000 cane toads in the last 12 months and there is nothing even remotely close to this thing.”

Mr Sawyer says the toad is a huge shock.

“The biggest toads are usually females, but this one was a rampant male,” he said.

“He is huge, I would hate to meet his big sister.

“The highly publicised big female caught in the city recently was a little over 15 centimetres, this monster is another five centimetres long and one third heavier.”

FrogWatch has organised a series of toad busts in key areas of the Northern Territory to minimise the wet season toad invasion.

This week, called Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) week, there have been low numbers of toads everywhere in city locales, except at Lee Point and Casuarina Coastal Reserve.