Many creatures, while hunting, simply ambush or attack their victims head-on, and then bite or suffocate or constrict them to death, in one-to-one (or in some cases many-to-one) combat. But there are an appalling number out there who take to sneaky, dastardly tactics: they’ll dart out, bite or sting and run away and then gleefully watch, as their victims struggle, stagger, twitch, scream in agony, gasp and are finally still. Then the “hunter” moves in to dine — and in some cases, the process of marination and tenderisation would have already begun. To be fair, while a large number of creatures use venom as an offensive weapon, a much larger number use poison to protect themselves from being eaten.
The venom, comprising very complex and unpleasant chemicals, acts in various delightful ways: it may destroy your blood (hemotoxins) and muscle tissue, it may make blood vessels spring leaks like burst water mains, it may royally short-circuit your nervous system’s myriad electrical connections (neurotoxins) so that you twitch, jerk, tremble and shake, and leave you with a heartbeat as erratic as a butterfly’s flight (cardiotoxins), and may shut down your major organs, and it will probably do all of this accompanied by excruciating pain so you have no illusions about what’s happening to you. Often, the pain and shock from the fact that you’ve been “envenomed” is enough to kill you.
Snakes, of course, top the list of creatures that hunt by using venom. Snakebite kills over 100,000 people every year (40,000 in India), though I hasten to add that they do so not because they find us delicious, but more because we step too close to or right on them. But they do hunt their prey — be it rats, lizards, frogs, small birds and other animals by pouncing, biting, retreating (so that the flailing animal doesn’t hurt them) and waiting, forked tongues flickering. Their glass-like curved fangs are deadly hypodermics, and muscle contraction shoots the stored venom dose into the victim in milliseconds. Our king cobra delivers the largest dose of venom than any snake, and the infamous Taipan is regarded as the world’s most venomous serpent. We have developed anti-venoms against most snake venoms — by harvesting the antibodies developed in the blood of horses and sheep who have been injected with small doses of venom (which raises the disturbing question today: can this treatment be regarded as vegetarian?) Cobras, kraits, vipers, rattlesnakes, sea-snakes and mambas top the list carrying deadly venom in their heads.
One venomous creature that may attack with a view to consume is the Komodo dragon — a large, violent and unpleasant lizard native to a few Indonesian islands. Its spittle was thought to be so full of noxious bacteria that it just had to bite you and infection and septicaemia would follow. Then poison glands were discovered in its lower jaw and thought to be responsible for the killing, though this has been disputed. The septicaemia occurred because the bitten deer or buffalo took refuge in dirty water, the venom’s potency exaggerated and death occurred due to blood loss and shock.
Snakes and dragons apart, the carnival-coloured poison dart frogs of central and south America are notorious for their deadly touch. A single lacquered, bejeweled frog has enough venom on its skin to account for 10 men. The venom is not manufactured “in situ” as it were, but imbibed from plants and you can breed harmless specimens by keeping them away from the nasty green stuff from which they pick up these antisocial ingredients.
There’s danger under the sea too, though again we’re more collateral damage than potential meal tickets. Heading the list is the beautiful if deadly box jellyfish, a cuboid, transparent blue creature with 15 gossamer silk-thread tentacles — up to 3 meters long — dangling gracefully from each corner, each armed with thousands of poison-tipped harpoons. You can barely see it coming, but when it brushes against you, the pain itself can give you a cardiac arrest. Other delights of the sea, not to be treaded on, include the puffer fish (riskily eaten in Japan), stonefish and gorgeous lionfish, not to mention the beautiful sting ray and octopus.
The creepy crawly kingdom forms the other great realm of poison-users. Hornets, bees, wasps, ants, caterpillars, centipedes, beetles, spiders, scorpions, even glamorous butterflies all use poison to kill or defend. If insect stings or bites kill, it’s usually because of an allergic reaction — if you are allergic, a single sting will be enough to send you on your way. Hornets can sting repeatedly (the venom of the Giant Asian hornet can dissolve human tissue and contains acetylocholine, a chemical that causes the maximum pain possible), bees mount mass attacks (and kill thousands), and ants will bite, sting and swarm. Many concerned insect moms simply anaesthetize their victims, leaving them in a stupor. Then they lay eggs on them, so that their young have fresh, live (and harmless) meat when they hatch!
Your beautiful, dazzling garden is also a storehouse of the most potent poisons in the world. Lilies and larkspur, daffodils and narcissus, oleander and iris, foxglove and bleeding heart, rhododendron and nightshade, azaleas and lantana — and a host of others — can all be deadly. Up in the hills we’ve all brushed against the nasty bichchu booti, that stinging nettle whose beautiful serrated leaves are tipped with glassy poison-filled barbs. It’s amazing parents don’t get hysterical every time a toddler (especially in the “grazing stage”) goes into the garden! Many leaves (like tea) have tannin which upset stomachs and depress appetites. Just a single beautiful rosary bean or Indian licorice, which gleams enticingly from the greenery, and which is used for jewelry making and as a measure of weight, can kill. Crime-writers have used poisonous plants in their plots for years. And then, of course, there are those wild mushrooms, glowing enticingly from the dark earth, inviting, appetising and very often diabolically deadly.
Fear not, we’re still tops! For which other species can spread enough venom to destroy a lifelong relationship or trigger a World War or mass hatred by the utterance or writing of just a few words?
Ranjit Lal is an author, environmentalist and birdwatcher
The story appeared in print with the headline What’s Your Poison?
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Ranjit LalLal is an author, environmentalist and bird watcher…. read more
