Dear reader, before we get started, I have two things to share. First, some good news, which is that I found out yesterday that the Society of Authors have awarded me an Authors’ Foundation grant for my work-in-progress! And it honestly couldn’t have come at a better time, given that it’s a tough time to be a freelancer right now. I’ve found myself caught in a cycle of trying to find work while also trying to write, when I really need a focused block to get on with the book guilt-free. This will buy me some time to do that. It also provides a huge confidence boost that other people think my proposal is worth supporting. As a largely unknown author without famous connections to champion my books, confidence can sometimes take a bit of a hit. So I’m doing a happy dance right now (or at least, I was yesterday - it would be weird if I was still going, like those poor people in the Middle Ages who got ergot poisoning and danced themselves to death).
The second thing is that this week’s feature is a bit different to normal (can I say what’s normal having only published three newsletters? I don’t know but I am), in that I’ve written about a recent research trip I took, rather than tell a story about a particular species or behaviour. It’s also happened that my next newsletter will also be about snakes, which wasn’t planned like that but there we go. If you don’t like snakes, I promise I’ll be back to other animals after that!
Last week, I got to hold a snake. It’s the first time I’ve ever had the opportunity and boy was I excited. In fact, for pretty much the whole of last week I couldn’t help but tell people about my forthcoming trip. ‘I’m going to the snake lab and I’ll get to learn about venom and see snakes close up and maybe see their venom being extracted and maybe get to hold one and did I tell you how excited I am???’
I appreciate that the prospect of holding a snake is not one that many people would enjoy. Indiana Jones, for example, would not relish the prospect. According to this website (which I’m afraid I’ve not fact-checked), neither would fellow ophidiophobes Matt Damon, Ainsley Harriott or Johnny Cash. Britney Spears possesses a fear of reptiles (herpetophobia) but apparently only the Komodo Dragon and other large lizards; she was reportedly ‘scared’ about performing with a seven-foot albino python draped around her shoulders at the 2001 MTV Music Video Awards, but also recalled it as one of her favourite performances.
Anyway, the point of my trip was to chat with people at the Centre for Snakebite Research and Intervention (CSRI), which is part of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. The first part of my visit was to learn about venom science, and for this I’m extremely grateful to Dr Cassie Modahl, who took time out of her day to answer my questions and didn’t bat an eyelid when I asked if she could explain the different molecular technologies ‘as if she was talking to an eight-year-old’.
You probably know this already but venom isn’t the same as poison, though both can be considered as toxins. The difference is in the way that the toxin enters the body - the easy way to remember it is that if you bite something and you get sick it was poisonous, whereas if it bites you and you get sick it was venomous.
Cassie and the other scientists at the CSRI are trying to work out what makes up different snake venoms, which parts are responsible for the toxicity, why there’s such variation between snakes and all sorts of other clever things using the aforementioned molecular tools. Answering those questions can pave the way towards the development of innovative new anti-venoms, or drugs based on snake venoms. It’s exciting and extremely cool science and I’m enjoying learning about it.
The second part of my visit was to the centre’s herpetarium, a UK Home Office accredited and inspected experimental animal facility and the only one of its kind in the UK. Professional herpetologists Paul Rowley and Edd Crittenden care for the 200 or so snakes housed here, and also extract venom for the researchers to study. What they don’t do is hand out snakes willy-nilly for enthusiastic idiots like me to hold. That’s because this isn’t a snake petting zoo but an academic research facility focusing on deadly venoms. Since there would be no point trying to develop anti-venom against snakes that aren’t medically important, the CSRI’s snakes need to be taken seriously.
Donning a pair of safety glasses as a precautionary measure against those snakes that are partial to spitting, Edd took me around their collection and I was introduced to several different species, including the saw-scaled viper, Egyptian cobra, black mamba and Gaboon viper. These are some of the most dangerous snakes in the world: the saw-scaled viper is, for example, one of the ‘Big Four’ snakes in India that cause the most serious bites.
My favourites were the Gaboon vipers. These chunky snakes have beautifully patterned bodies and large triangular heads, inside which are the longest fangs (~5 cm) of any snake. They also have the highest ‘venom yield’, meaning that they have the most venom inside their venom glands of any snake. Not one that you want to annoy, admittedly, but very placid and stunning to see.
I did not hold a saw-scaled viper, Egyptian cobra, black mamba or Gaboon viper. Nor did I hold one of the gorgeous Gila monsters which also live at the centre; Edd tells me that these venomous lizards deliver an excruciating bite for which there is no anti-venom, so you basically have to just ‘ride out the pain’. On balance, I was ok observing all of these from the other side of the glass.
But I did get to hold one snake, and it was a real, living, breathing animal (before you start thinking about stuffed toys or taxidermy). This was, in Edd’s words, their ‘ambassador snake’: a female African egg-eater who was not venomous or dangerous in any way. The sort of snake you could give to an excited child just as easily as an excited science writer. She was small and lithe, a wriggling little pipe of activity, constantly seeking with her head while holding onto the warm branches of my arms for support. Eventually, I had to take the hint that she kept reaching in the direction of her tank, meaning she’d had enough and wanted her quiet time.
I knew nothing about egg-eating snakes but, while they might not impress in the venom stakes, they’re far from boring. These little reptiles belong to the genus Dasypeltis and have the incredible ability of swallowing whole eggs, which is something that really needs to be seen to be believed. As true specialists, they only eat bird eggs and specifically only eggs that are both fresh and intact. The eggs can be many times larger than the snake’s own head, which is actually quite small - it’s an incredible feat.
Snakes of the Dasypeltis genus have several adaptations that make them fantastically well suited to this way of life. Most obviously, the ability to open their mouths wide enough to swallow huge, solid objects. Research has found that the maximum gape of one Dasypeltis species was three to four times greater than that of the black rat snake, a species that eats all sorts of things and occasionally eggs. They achieve this not by dislocating their jaw (a common myth), but by having specialised head anatomy. The lower jaws of snakes are formed by two separate pieces of bone, joined by connective tissue at the chin. It is the spectacular stretchiness of the connective tissue and its covering skin in Dasypeltis that allows the mouth to open so wide, and the current evidence suggests these snakes may have the biggest relative gape of any snake species. What’s more, they are practically toothless, which further facilitates the ingestion of the egg, and they also have specialized vertebrae which help the animal to crack the egg and extract the contents. Once that’s done, all that remains is for the empty shell to be brought back to the mouth and spat out.
What fascinating animals! I was buzzing when I left: for the experience of being up close to these creatures, and for the insights into how and why they are being studied. It’s remarkable to think that the venom inside some of these little snakes may well end up contributing towards life-saving future medicines.
Facts of the fortnight
If snakes still worry you, consider that of the ~3000 species known to science, only ~200 are considered medically important by the WHO. Even the ones that have venom capable of killing usually only strike in self-defence and as a last resort.
Congratulations will soon be in order for Charlotte, a round stingray at the Aquarium & Shark Lab in North Carolina, who is expected to give birth to baby stingrays in the next few days, despite not living with a male ray. It’s the first known case of parthenogenesis (aka ‘virgin birth’, where an egg develops without being fertilised) in this species, despite early theories of shark-ray shenanigans… More here.
This week, I heard somebody say on a podcast that adult quokkas (cute, fluffy little marsupials that have been labelled the happiest animals on earth) will throw their babies at predators to distract them, which sounded unbelievable so I looked into it. According to this study from 2005, threatened mothers did seem to intentionally eject larger joeys from their pouches, which isn’t the same as throwing them (but in case have you seen their tiny arms?) but still pretty extreme.
#NaturePhotoADay
If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll see that late on New Year’s Day I decided to set myself the challenge of starting a nature related Project365 (this year, #Project366), meaning I have committed to sharing one nature/outdoors photo every day for the whole of 2024. You can follow along on Instagram if you like, but I share my favourite from the previous fortnight here anyway.
It’s that time of year when toads are getting ready to mate, and that means seeing them migrating back to their breeding ponds. You’ll often see them like this, where the large female has a smaller hitchhiker on her back. That’s a male who’s hoping to secure mating rights with her by essentially holding on for dear life and being first on the scene once they get to the water. There were quite a few of them crossing this path, lovely to see.
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Hi Jo, I found you from comment section on Rebecca's essay. This piece is amazing and I'm excited to read more. I also write about nature, from trees to black vultures and more. I'm just six weeks in to this Substack journey... Loving it so far! Sandy