Despite a sketchy reputation , venomous snakes in the United States are n’t prostrate to going on sting sprees . Only about 8,000 people areattackedevery twelvemonth , with an norm of five victim fatally succumbing to the toxin deploy via puncture wound .
But what fall out when two snakes present off against one another ? Can their venom have thesamehemorrhaging and gangrene it does in their prey , or do they have a built - in unsusceptibility to their own physical body - tenderizing enzyme and paralyzing neurotoxins ?
“ The formal wiseness is that they have broadcast antibody in their stock , ” says Stephen Mackessy , Ph.D. , a Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Northern Colorado and an expert in virulent ophidian . “ This would protect them from their own spitefulness , as well of venom from another snake in their own species . ”
Hypothetically , if a speckled rattler morsel another flecked rattlesnake , the resistance they ’ve built from being exposed to low levels of their own venom — kept in glandsbehind their eyesand secreted when they bite — would protect them from a fateful wound . ( Even though the secreter are closed , they still hold blood watercraft that appropriate the venom to distribute in their scheme , causing mild exposure , Mackessy says . ) But a flecked rattlesnake that meets up with a cobra might have a dissimilar Clarence Day altogether .
“ The more distantly come to the species , the more chance it would be toxic , ” Mackessy enounce . “ If a rattlesnake and cobra bit one another , without anterior photograph to their spitefulness to ramp up immunity , they would believably kill each other . ”
Because organized snake fights to the death are frown upon in scientific circles , there is n’t potential to be a definitive answer on just how much granting immunity they have — just that there ’s likely enough to ward off attacks from close congener or self - contamination . “ It makes sense , ” Mackessy says . “ If you have something dangerous you ’re injecting , you need to be protect from interpose yourself . ”
