Animalistiary #2; The Notorious 3

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Hi guys,

This is the second compilation of my own Steemit version of Animal's magazine featuring my previous articles entitled "Animal Series". So far, I have produced 13 series featuring various animals in the animal kingdom which I find interesting. I've been interested in reading facts about animals since I was a little boy. The first animals that I was fascinated by were giraffes, which I saw the first time when my father brought me to a Zoo located in Kuala Lumpur. Sure, some of the animals which can be found in that place were passive but it is one the most exciting events I've ever experienced ever since.

Now, there are a few animals that I've written about in the past which might be fascinating, so if you are new or just happened to discover me a few days/weeks back, let me take you on an informative journey to animal kingdoms featuring selected animals which will leave you in awe. In this particular episode of Animalistiary, we would cover 3 of the most poisonous creature ever lived on this planet and all of them have been covered in my previous article. Let's go!

_{Picture Source - Pixabay}

If you are currently living in Indonesia, you must have heard about this animal being considered as one of the most notorious predators that ever lived on the planet. This creature is the largest lizard ever lived on the planet which have been residing in the islands of Flores, Gili Motang, Padar and few others in Indonesia. They were capable of growing up to 3 metres in length with a maximum weight of 70 kilograms, so if you put it into a comparison with an average human, they have twice the length with a roughly equal weight.

There are a few reasons which could explain why this lizard grows as big as they are:

• Firstly, their size can be considered as an actual representation of a relictual population which occupy a much wider range of area in the past. Due to human's activity and a few environmental changes, their appearances have been limited to a few islands in Indonesia. There are a few fossils of this creature which have been found in Australia and Indonesia and date to up to 4 million years ago. This could potentially indicate an extirpation process of this creature in Australia in the past which proves that the existence of this creature goes beyond the islands of Indonesia. Since then, they were retaining their sizes which made them unusually big (well, for a lizard).

• If you are familiar with Foster's rule, you will know that this creature is currently the living evidence of that rule, theoretically. This speculation was deduced by Bristol Foster back in 1964 which states that depending on the available resources in an ecological system, members of a species which occupied a specific ecology might get smaller or larger than the original species. There were also no other predators which would dare to compete with them on the island that they were living in, so basically, nutrition to grow is not much of an issue.

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How far can you see on your very best day? A pair of good eyes is one of the most important tools in becoming a successful predator. This particular creature can only see up to 400 metres clearly during the day, but during the night, they rarely hunt for prey as they can't really see. Their eyes are composed exclusively of cone cells which are responsible for colour vision. This type of visual system needs a lot of light for them to identify their prey clearly before even making a move. Well, that sucks, but they must have something to compensate for that weakness right? How about their sense of hearing? Well, that also sucks.

Their window of sound frequencies is too small, which makes a slightly loud or slightly low-pitched voice inaudible. They are not daredevils, thank god, so when hunting for a prey, they trust both of these senses less compared to another sense which has been a key for them to hunt and survive. Their sense of smell is marvellous! Like any other animals, they were using their nose to detect an average scent. Yup, you heard me right, just average. What made them deadly was that they were able to identify airborne molecules which could indicate the direction of incoming prey. After that, they will stay immobile, waiting for their prey to come to them, before targeting their neck, hastily, killing them in one blow. They were that patient!

So what's the most dangerous part of this animal which has made them deadly? Their claws? Their sharp and serrated teeth? Their strong tails? If you were thinking one of the reasons above, you are wrong. It's their saliva that will kill you if their teeth don't. You might survive if you have been bitten by them but your chances significantly plummeted due to the fact that their saliva house some of the most septic and purely toxic bacteria ever found which could kill you in a matter of minutes (57 bacteria in total). So if you successfully escape, their saliva might be killing you instead.

If you think that's the only weapon that they wield when hunting for prey, then you were wrong again. Underneath their jaw was a set of glands which contain an anti-clotting venom which would cause their prey bleed to death. I would say, the prey would be pretty much dead once they were bitten by this creature.

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_{Animal Series #6; The Vicious Dragon}

This is Hamadryad. Well, according to the Roman mythology, Hamadryad is a spirit of nature which lives in a tree. It will die if the tree that it was living in dies. Well, I'm not going to talk about that. Hamadryad is another name for this ferocious creature which is has been living exclusively for awhile now in the forest of Southeast Asia (we're not going to count if they were living in a zoo). There are a lot of rumours about this fascinating reptile around its venom which is said to be able to bring down an elephant in a matter of seconds after being bitten.

Well, that is wrong. It will not bring down an elephant in a matter of seconds. An hour, they will need an hour. It's true that their venom was considered one of the most poisonous venoms in the whole world, but if they encountered a mongoose, they will flee indefinitely. So much for a king!

This reptile has a hood. Yeah, it's pretty cool and this feature differentiates it from the other species of cobras. Recently, there is a video which has been viral on the internet which shows an epic battle between a cobra and a python, which end up of both being dead. Cobra does not really fond of targetting other animals. They were known to flee if they saw humans to avoid confrontation and usually, they will bite if they were threatened. They hunt primarily other species of snakes and sometimes, other reptiles. If there are killer whales which have been targeting whale as their primary source of food, now we have a killer snake, which hunts and kills snakes.

_{Picture By TontanTravel - Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)}

This reptile can grow up to 13 feet long but the longest was found in Malaysia which measured almost 19 feet and is currently being displayed at the London Zoo. Its visual system was quite good. They can see or detect a hint of movement if their prey is located within 100 metres during the day; at night they are rarely hunting. There are a few other senses which help them in detecting movement of the other snakes. Apart from visual system, their sense of smell is on par with the previous creature that we've been discussing above. They both used their tongue to detect chemicals in the air, to identify the direction of movement of their prey. Unlike the previous creature though, this reptile is sensitive to vibration. Combine all of these three abilities owned by this reptile, it can be considered one of the deadliest predators in the world.

Envenomation is a step taken by this reptile before consuming their prey. Any creatures which have been injected with the venom of this magnificent king would paralyse (well except for a mongoose). Its jaw was made up of multiple pliable connections between bones which would allow them to become flexible as they eat something which is bigger than their mouth could swallow. Being rendered paralysed by this reptile will make the swallowing process much easier and the prey which they consumed can keep them satiated for months.

Have you ever heard a rumour? If you want to kill a cobra, cut off its head but never stand in front of where they were facing. Well, that warning was in fact reasonable. When killing something, there is an area which we should consider staying in it if we wanted to be safe. This area is called a safe zone. Safe zone will differ with each animal but nothing compared to the safe zone when you wanted to kill a cobra. People tend to underestimate the extent of this zone. They can still strike a considerable distance forward after being put down by a killing blow before they die. This is like a suicide killing. Well, not actually suicide. Whatever it is, if you are bitten, you will only have as much as 30 minutes before the poison would cause multiorgan failure and ultimately death.

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_{Animal Series #7; The King Is Here!}

It might look cute and docile but this creature is one of the most poisonous amphibians in the world. They have been popular for the past couple of decades as a tool for hunting by a few natives population of Colombian rainforest. What's particularly unique about this amphibia compared to the first two we have discussed above, they didn't use their poison as a weapon.

This creature might seem attractive; I mean who doesn't admire things with a bright colour, looks docile and cute. Even though it might appear that way to a human, the bright colour serves a different purpose to other animals. It's a warning sign which indicates they were lethal by mean of ingestion and any attempts to commit such actions would lead to the predator's demise. Their poisons were contained inside glands which could be found underneath their skin. Up to this day, there is no known antidote and only one reptile which is immune to the poison; a snake (I'm not entirely sure which species). 1 milligram of this amphibian toxin can last up to 1 year and kills 10 humans or 2 elephants in 10 minutes. Guess how much toxin this creature holds? Exactly 1 milligram.

_{Picture By Tambako The Jaguar - Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)}

The toxin will attack the sodium ion channel which disrupts the propagation of action potential causing paralysis and eventually death (when the heart muscle electrical signal was affected). For those who learn about muscle contraction, you must've known that an action potential is vital in muscle contraction process; without it, an individual would be rendered catatonic before his heart would start to give up, slowly and painfully. Any creatures which are resistant to the toxin carried by this particular amphibia are equipped with a different type of sodium ion channel. This would make the toxin useless and the frog would have to die in vain.

The toxin, which is used to fortify this particular amphibian, is an alkaloid toxin. As they cannot synthesize alkaloid to make the toxin by themselves, they have to consume foods which contain a high alkaloid concentration; the higher it is, the potent the toxin will become. Any changes in the diet will cause them to be incapable of producing such toxins. In certain countries, keeping this amphibian as a part of an individual's collection is a popular hobby. Those who are raised in captivity will lose the capability to produce toxin as the foods which are usually being provided were low in alkaloid.

They are extremely intelligent compared to the other amphibians. If they were kept in captivity, they could recognise the face of their owner in 1-2 weeks time. This creature is capable of growing up to 6 centimetres in length with the female measured much bigger than a male. They might look similar to the other species of poisonous amphibia but the number of dark spots is relatively low compared to others.

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_{Animal Series #8: Golden and Deadly}

References and further reading materials

• Alina Bradford. Live Science. Komodo Dragon Facts. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from https://www.livescience.com/27402-komodo-dragons.html
• Linda Crampton. Owlcation. Komodo, Bearded, and Frilled Dragons: Impressive Lizards. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from https://owlcation.com/stem/Komodo-Bearded-and-Frilled-Dragons-Surprising-Facts
• Krishna. Oh, Fact!.15 Interesting Facts About King Cobra. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from https://ohfact.com/interesting-facts-about-king-cobra/
• Mindy Weisberger. Live Science. The King (Cobra) Is Dead (and So Is the Python). Retrieved April 16, 2018, from https://www.livescience.com/61634-cobra-vs-python-photo.html
• Karl Gruber. BBC Earth. Poison Dart Frogs Are The Most Poisonous Animals Alive. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20150422-the-worlds-most-poisonous-animal
• Abhishek. Boldsky. 8 Most Poisonous Creatures In The World. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from https://www.boldsky.com/insync/pulse/2014/most-poisonous-creatures-in-the-world-041856.html
• Wikipedia. Komodo Dragon. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komodo_dragon
• Wikipedia. King cobra. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_cobra