Chapter 561 Poisoning
A rather novel combination came out of Bifang's mouth.
Poisoning a black bear?
[What the hell is this? Poisoning? Ah]
[The fact that Boss Fang is an alien can no longer be concealed? ]
[To be honest, compared to aliens, I believe that Lao Fang had some kind of surgery and installed a poison gland (funny)]
[I know, if you get bit by a spider, you will become a 400-year-old lady! ]
[I won’t ask anything else. I just want to know one thing: where does this venom come from? I’m quite curious and want to know (dog head)]
"How could it be possible that I produced the venom? Of course I used it." Bifang was choked by the barrage, and Yu Yu's mood became much better.
Stupid netizens always bring joy.
Wilderness survival with an audience and wilderness survival without an audience are two completely different things.
At least being alone in the forest doesn't make you feel lonely, it can even bring you a little happiness .
When wilderness survival skills reach a certain level, people are actually fighting against themselves rather than survival issues.
Walking deeper into the forest, Bifang continued, "In nature, in order to survive, various animals have evolved different survival strategies, either for hunting or for self-protection, especially poisonous snakes, which can almost always win big with their venom."
In nature, body size almost determines the relationship between superiors and subordinates, but venom can allow animals to surpass others and reverse this rule.
"However, the species that humans fear the most are probably the poisonous ones, because most of their venoms are not only extremely painful, but we also know very little about them, so we have an inexplicable fear of them."
All behaviors of animals and plants on Earth can be explained by: survival and reproduction.
The reason why animals and plants evolve toxicity is actually to survive and reproduce better.
"According to the second law of thermodynamics, in an isolated system, the system will gradually move from order to disorder. This is the process of entropy increase. For example, an apple falls to the ground and gradually rots."
"If organisms want to survive, they first need to fight against the increase in entropy, and consuming energy can maintain the original low entropy state, such as eating."
"All living things on Earth must rely on energy to survive, but different organisms use energy in different ways. Plants use solar energy, herbivores use plants, and carnivores use the meat of herbivores."
Energy flows along the chain of solar energy-plants-herbivores-carnivores, and it is because of this that such a complex food chain has formed on the earth.
But theory is theory, and no living thing is willing to give away the energy it has worked so hard to obtain.
"For plants, they cannot move freely due to the restrictions of their cell walls. In addition, they cannot fight back, so they can only avoid attacks from herbivores by evolving thorns and toxicity."
"Herbivores have more ways to avoid attacks by carnivores. They can evolve faster running speeds, sharper monocular vision, thicker skin, etc. to avoid attacks by carnivores, but some herbivores also evolve toxicity to fight against natural enemies."
"Some animals have evolved toxicity to hunt, such as venomous snakes. When hunting, they will first spray venom on the victim, wait for the victim to die from the poison, and then rush to eat the victim."
It is precisely because animals and plants need to better avoid natural enemies and hunt better that there are so many poisonous animals and plants in nature.
If predators and prey are regarded as hunters and prey, then there will always be an arms race between hunters and prey.
Both sides are constantly adapting to each other.
At this point, Bifang’s meaning is already very clear.
[Looking for plants or animals? ]
[It's hard to find poisonous plants, right? Is there a strychnos nux vomica tree here? ]
"There are many poisonous plants in Japan, but when it comes to hunting, plant toxins are often not as useful as biological toxins, like cycads," Bifang explained.
Cycads are a common poisonous plant in southern Japan. In fact, they are not rare. They are the "iron tree" that many people have seen.
What many people don't know is that this plant is highly poisonous. It is the oldest seed plant on earth and a famous "living fossil" plant.
Its origins can be traced back to about 300 million years ago. It reached its peak in the Jurassic period and once dominated the entire earth together with the dinosaurs.
"If cattle eat the seeds of the iron tree fruit, it can cause paralysis. It is a neurotoxin and can kill people if they eat too much. But it is not enough to deal with black bears."
When using toxins, most of the time they are applied on the target and then attack, entering the opponent's bloodstream.
The most important characteristics are that it must be highly toxic, take effect quickly, and be able to cause the greatest damage with the smallest amount.
It is irresponsible to only talk about the toxin without talking about the dosage. The cycad toxin infection caused by a few wounds is completely useless and takes a long time to take effect. By the time it takes effect, the bear will burp.
"There are only a few species like the strychnos nux vomica, but most poisonous animals can kill prey of the same size with one strike. The only useful plants that can be found in Japan are probably castor beans and water hemlock. Both of these are quite effective. Water hemlock is even listed as the most poisonous plant in North America. It would be best if we can find it."
Water hemlock is very toxic. The entire plant contains hemlock toxin, which can damage the central nervous system, causing epileptic seizures and ultimately death in those who accidentally eat it.
Moreover, the effect of coniine is similar to that of curare. It can paralyze motor nerves, inhibit the medullary center, and has a quick effect. Therefore, it is listed as a candidate in Bifang's list.
However, what he wanted to find more was the snake.
Plant toxins are used for defense, making herbivores afraid of them. Only snake venom is used for offense, and its evolutionary direction is also based on the needs of Bifang.
After all, it’s all hunting, and the requirements are exactly the same.
"Japan's humid climate provides habitat for as many as 47 snake species, but only eight of them live on the four islands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, and only two of them are venomous."
"One is the Japanese pit viper, and the other is the tiger-necked grove snake. Due to the size of the black bear, we don't need toxins to kill it directly. As long as it has a significant paralyzing effect, it will be effective. What I want to find most is the tiger-necked grove snake."
The venom of the tiger-striped neck groove snake is very low, with an average venom of 11.8 mg, and the main components of the venom are metalloproteinases, thrombin, etc. However, the intravenous toxicity is very strong, with an intravenous LD50 of 0.265 mg/kg, which exceeds that of most viper venoms.
When most people hear the name of viper, they can think of its extremely toxic venom, which is more poisonous than most vipers.
However, since the tiger-necked snake has posterior groove fangs, whether it is a venomous snake has sparked a lot of discussion.
Because there is no duct connecting its fangs and venom glands, injecting venom is difficult, and its venom delivery system is wasteful when venom is actually injected. Coupled with its docile nature, most people who are bitten by tiger stripes experience mild symptoms, which is a relatively rare thing.
Before 2008, it was not even considered a venomous snake in China.
Even so, there have been several fatal cases of tiger-necked snake bites in Japan.
"But it doesn't matter. I'm extracting it manually, so I won't let it go to waste. And when the earthquake happened yesterday, there were actually a lot of poisonous snakes coming down from the mountain. At that time, I saw one that looked a lot like a tiger-necked snake, but when I found the jade, I didn't have time to catch it."
Reptiles are very sensitive to earthquakes. At that time, at least a dozen snakes passed through Bifang's sight, but they were all eager to escape and did not pose any threat.
"We are going to go over there now to see if we can find it. It mainly preys on small vertebrates, such as frogs and toads, and likes to live in places with lush aquatic plants. It is in the same place as the water hemlock. We are actually looking for two different things."
Bifang walked in the direction he remembered and soon found a stream in the valley. The next step was to search along the stream.
During the period, the tiger-striped neck groove was not found, but two belly chain snakes entangled together were found. They are non-venomous snakes.
Without wasting anything, Bifang picked up the loving couple and prepared to make today's lunch, and then continued his search.
Finally, Bifang found the target in the middle of a small clump of water plants.
