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Topics >
Natural World
How do snakes inject
their poison?
A venomous snake is one who has
saliva glands which produce a substance that is poisonous to
its prey. This substance is called the snake's venom. Some
snakes' venom is so powerful it could kill an elephant.
About two hundred venomous snakes (out of 412 species) can
be considered dangerous to people.
Two of these are African snakes
called the boomslang and the bird snake. Their fangs are in
the rear of their mouths and are greatly enlarged and have
grooves running down one side. Just above these fangs is an
opening that leads to the venom-producing gland. When a
rear-fanged snake bites, venom drips down the grooves into
the wound made by the fangs. In cobras, however, the fangs
are at the front of the mouth, one on each side of the upper
jaw. A muscle surrounds the venom gland so that when the
snake bites the muscles press on the gland and force the
venom down into the fang and out through the tip. The
spitting cobra can spray venom from its fangs the way water
is squirted from a toy gun.
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Giant snakes
have been reported in many parts of the
world. The largest recorded snake is the
anaconda which can reach a length of 9
meters.
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