Quote:
Originally Posted by JLibourel 
I realized after I wrote that that my language was infelicitous. Of course, rattlesnakes are dangerously venomous (and their venom has been becoming much more virulent in recent decades). So are cottonmouth moccasins, copperheads and coral snakes among North American snakes.
However, it has recently been discovered that just about all the colubrid snakes--garter snakes, gopher snakes, king snakes, racers, all the snakes we were told were "harmless"--are in fact mildly venomous. They just don't have enough of a payload to harm a human--usually. There was a strange incident locally many years ago in which a boy was bitten by a garter snake and displayed classic symptoms of envenomation. Scientists were baffled. It was thought that it was some kind of allegic reaction to the snake's saliva. Now we know better.
I have heard the claim that the venom of young rattlesnakes is more toxic than that of mature ones, but I don't know if it's true. Much more important is the amount of venom injected. For example, the Southern and Northern Pacific rattlesnakes have much more toxic venom than the Western or Eastern Diamondbacks. However, the latter are much bigger snakes, have longer fangs and more aggressive temperaments, so they typically inject a lot more venom and are definitely more dangerous snakes.
However, it has recently been discovered that just about all the colubrid snakes--garter snakes, gopher snakes, king snakes, racers, all the snakes we were told were "harmless"--are in fact mildly venomous. They just don't have enough of a payload to harm a human--usually. There was a strange incident locally many years ago in which a boy was bitten by a garter snake and displayed classic symptoms of envenomation. Scientists were baffled. It was thought that it was some kind of allegic reaction to the snake's saliva. Now we know better.
I have heard the claim that the venom of young rattlesnakes is more toxic than that of mature ones, but I don't know if it's true. Much more important is the amount of venom injected. For example, the Southern and Northern Pacific rattlesnakes have much more toxic venom than the Western or Eastern Diamondbacks. However, the latter are much bigger snakes, have longer fangs and more aggressive temperaments, so they typically inject a lot more venom and are definitely more dangerous snakes.
Interesting, I hadn't heard that about "harmless" snakes. The argument I've heard about young rattlers is that they do not control the amount of venom injected, so a bite generally contains more venom than one from a mature snake, and therefore more toxin.
