Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Extra Bytes of Poison in a single Bite

You can be sure and relieved of the fact that we are not talking about the memory bytes in your disk  space emitting poison or any virus.We are talking about the  Ashe's Spitting Cobra  which is almost 9 feet in length delivering more venom in a single bite.It is true that the cobra is too generous enough in spitting venom in just a bite unlike its other contemporaries.The snake is predominantly  found in the dry low lands of North and East Kenya,Uganda  and Ethiopia.This aggressive reptile  was previously identified  as a brown coloured variant  of the black necked  spitting cobra.The cobra was distinctly  identified after a blood and  tissue analysis that confirmed the news of its own biological identity.
The  reptile is named after famous herpetologist James Ashe  who founded the Bio Ken  snake farm  and research center.The center milks snakes  for their venom and sends the samples to the lab to develop anti  venom.A single specimen milked at the Bio Ken farm  in 2004  produced a  wet venom yield  of 6.2 ml, weighed 7.1 gm and contained around 3 gms of toxins.The huge venom spitting made headlines when an article about it was published in the animal taxanomy  magazine Zootaxa  by the University of Wales and Biodiversity  Foundation of Africa in Bulawyo ,Zimbabwe.The new specie gained wider prominence in December 7,2007  when the researchers announced the new specie through  WildLife Direct a non profit conservation group.
Due to the fast civilization and industrialization taking place all around many habitats are getting disappeared  and also there may be existence of unreported new species too.This is because of mismanagement of the planet taking place in  the wake of  destruction of habitats due to urbanization.The need is to conserve the flora and fauna for the future generations.

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