Hi Everybody!

I am a 25 year young girl trying desperately to make some sense out of the utter confusion my life lately seems to have become.  I helplessly watch as my precious life trickles away slowly in the hapless pursuit of a braindead job, as i let myself be drowned in the deadly venom of the daily rituals. And i cannot help but wonder how far i have wandered off  in the wrong path .
There once was a time when i would spend hours on our rooftop staring at the sky, watching the stars and feel amazed or  when i would smell the flowers in my garden basking in the crimson rays of the setting sun or drench in the  rain unabashed and unrestrained...But those are days gone by.
This blog is my way of trying to restore the balance in my life by delving into the mysterious world of the beautiful nature . Herein , i try to explore with my readers the weird and wonderful living creatures in the wild. While some of them are deadly to man , some others  are completely harmless But each of them are unique in their own way.
I have decided to start off with snakes as i find them quite alluring. Its basically the same reason that people are so drawn to horror movies! Snakes scare the hell out of me. i see  snakes in my nightmares! Their deadly venom instills in me both awestruck admiration and a bone chilling fear.Quite frankly, I find it hard to resist their lethal charm .
However, i will not restrict myself to just snakes but will dwell upon other such exciting wildlife as well. Writing this blog is like embarking on a adrenaline pumping adventure in the heart of some amazonian forest! And i just  can't wait to get started!!!
Happy reading folks!!

I
 

BOOMSLANG

A Male Boomslang

So you think beauty is an exclusive  privilege for the female alone ?!! One look at the male Boomslang and you would be thinking again! These gorgeous creatures are light green in colour with a small , slender body , an egg shaped head and 2 unusually large eyes . The female of the species is usually brown in colour. The length ranges between 3-5 feet. 

A Female Boomslang

But beauty can be real dangerous too! For one bite from these snakes can land a normal , healthy adult bleeding to death from every orifice in his body within a span of 24 hours. The venom of a Boomslang contains hemotoxin which prevents blood from clotting resulting in uncontrollable bleeding and eventual death. Once bitten, the venom takes a considerably long  time to start acting which causes many to often misjudge the seriousness of the bite. However, if antivenom is given in time, a person can be saved. 

A boomslang with its inflated neck

A boomslang is normally a timid creature biting only when it is being attacked .When threatened, they inflate their neck to double the size , take up an S shape and starts striking. 

They are exclusively found in trees and feed on other small arboreal creatures like chameleons and birds .  When faced with a prey bigger than their own size, they would escape rather than hunt. Making up for its lack of aggression, however, is its excellent eyesight . Unlike most other snakes, they have colour vision which causes them to spot out even a chameleon.

These snakes majorly populate the Sub Saharan part of Africa. 

KING COBRA

                  

This is considered to be the longest venomous snake in the world . The longest known specimen has been measured at 18 ft with the average length being 9-13 ft. The heaviest known specimen have been found to weigh around 12 kg although the median weight is usually around 6 kg.

Its skin is usually olive green ,dark or tan in appearance with pale yellow cross bands down its belly. The male cobras are usually larger and thicker than their female counterparts . Their average lifespan is 20 years.

This snake is largely spread across parts of South India, South Asia and parts of China. The forked tongue of this snake has certain special receptors which helps it in smelling and finding out the location of its prey . Also it has a keen eyesight .

The King Cobra , like several other snakes, do not attack humans unless they are cornered . Its first reaction is to flee the scene when confronted . However, when attacked repeatedly, it can become extremely aggressive . Raising one third of its body off the ground, almost on an eye to eye level with its human opponent, it spreads out its famous hood, opens its mouth displaying its fangs and starts hissing. The hiss is so intense it sounds almost like a growl of a dog. This is its warning phase. Any movement from its opponent at this point, causes it to strike with full force. Usually, an adult snake doesn't let go easily once it grabs hold of the skin .
These snakes feed on small rodents and other smaller snakes . Rattle snake is one of their favourite foods. While hunting, they deliver a single strike at their prey thereby paralaysing it and then starts swallowing while the injected venom starts digesting the animal.

THE BLACK MAMBA

                      

The very name spells death and terror among a vast population of Africa .Found mostly in the rocky hills of Eastern and Southern Africa, this beast has been blamed for countless human deaths . This fact coupled with its aggression, speed and enormous size have served to spawn several legends annd myths about the black mamba that have been passed down through generations in this part of Africa. Lets then take a closer look at this enigmatic beauty.

Description: At a staggering length of 14 ft or 4.5 m they can easily be termed as Africa's longest snakes. On an average however, most of them grow only upto 8ft or 2.5 m in length. They are also among the world's fastest snakes with a speed of upto 12.5 miles per hour. However, it is important to remember that a black mamba uses its incredible speed not to hunt for food or attack but to escape from an attacker. The skin colour varies from olive green to grey . The inside of its mouth happens to be blue black in colour which is also the reason for its name. An adult mamba can weigh anywhere from 1.6 to 3 kg,. There is not much difference in the physical appearance of the 2 sexes.

Life span:  This snake can live upto 14 years or more

Mode of Self Defence: A black mamba is usually very shy and escaping is their first mode of defence when attacked. However,when it gets cornered and feels threatened, the snake becomes highly aggressive. In such cases it lifts almost a third of its body off the ground, facing its opponent , spreads its cobra like hood ,opens its black mouth and starts hissing. It usually strikes several times at the victim injecting increasing amounts of lethal neuro and cardio toxins with each strike.




How deadly is a black mamba?
A single bite usually delivers about 100-120 mg of venom on an average with the maximum going up to 400 mg as well. Give that just around 15-20 mg of this venom can be deadly to a healthy adult, its not hard to imagine the potency of a single strike by this incredible snake! In one documented case in a national reserve in Kenya, a 7500 pound female elephant of about 45-48 years of age , was killed from a bite by the Black Mamba
Symptoms of poisoning: The initial symptom of the bite is local pain in the bite area, although not as severe as snakes with hemotoxins. The victim then experiences a tingling sensation in the extremities, drooping eyelids (eyelid ptosis), tunnel vision, sweating, excessive salivation, and lack of muscle control (specifically the mouth and tongue). If the victim does not receive medical attention, symptoms rapidly progress to nausea, shortness of breath, confusion and paralysis. Without immediate medical attention, mortality rate is 100% and a person will usually die within 20-30 minutes , In cases where the victim has received larger amounts of venom than average (over 200 mg +) or the venom was delivered right into a vein, death can result within as little as 10 minutes.
 This is why its bite is also known as the "kiss of death".
Antivenom:
Presently an antivenom produced by the South African Institute for Medical Research (SAIMR) is used to treat all black mamba bites from different localities.Due to antivenom, a bite from a black mamba is no longer a certain death sentence. But in order for the antivenom therapy to be successful, vigorous antivenom therapy must be administered very rapidly post-envenomation. The doses of antivenom required are often massive (10–12 vials).