Humans & Snakes
Snakes are misunderstood and often maligned, primarily out of ignorance about their true nature and position in the natural world. All snakes are predators, but venomous snakes (that is, biting snakes that use their fangs to inject toxins into their victims) have given an inaccurate reputation to the entire group, as most people cannot tell the dangerous from the harmless.
Only a small percentage (fewer than 300 species) are venomous, and of those only about half are capable of inflicting a lethal bite. Although snakebite mortality worldwide is estimated at 80,000–140,000 people per year, the majority of deaths occur in Southeast Asia, principally because of poor medical treatment, malnutrition of victims, and a large number of venomous species.
Snakes are misunderstood and often maligned, primarily out of ignorance about their true nature and position in the natural world. All snakes are predators, but venomous snakes (that is, biting snakes that use their fangs to inject toxins into their victims) have given an inaccurate reputation to the entire group, as most people cannot tell the dangerous from the harmless. Only a small percentage (fewer than 300 species) are venomous, and of those only about half are capable of inflicting a lethal bite.
Although snakebite mortality worldwide is estimated at 80,000–140,000 people per year, the majority of deaths occur in Southeast Asia, principally because of poor medical treatment, malnutrition of victims, and a large number of venomous species.
Dina Reyes, Step 11
Bibliography : httpss://www.britannica.com/animal/rattlesnake
