Weird Method?

[PhilK]

Hey all. I have a mate who lives on a sheep property in Longreach, Queensland. It's about 80, 000 acres and he regularly gets big venomous visitors (namely tigers and King Browns).

His dad killed an eight foot long King Brown :shock:. Amazing!

First of all, I know how APS works so I want to be sure I specificy I don't want this thread to turn into a big crying festival. I know killing snakes is wrong, and illegal, and I should educate people etc etc but the fact is they kill snakes on farms. And they won't stop because I suggested it (yes, I did try, no I'm not a defeatist).

He reckons they kill snakes in this weird way, and I'd like to know if there's any way it could work, not having seen it.

They have a long thick wire, with a handle on it. They swing the wire down onto the snakes back as close as possible to the head, and it breaks the back... Apparently then, while thrashing around, because they can't feel below the break, they bite and envenomate themselves. This kills them.

Thoughts (on this method not on the morality of killing snakes)?

 

[abbott75]

*obligatory popcorn post*

 

[Australis]

Tiger snakes in Longreach??

 

[scorps]

i dont think snakes can die from their own venome

 

[Jonno from ERD]

G'day mate,

Snakes aren't real bright, and they will regularly bite themselves if they feel pain. The snakes do not die from their own venom (the are immune to it), they die from the barbaric people hitting them with wire.

 

[Jonno from ERD]

And yeah, Tigers are a temperate species of elapid, they don't exist anywhere that get's too warm.

 

[PhilK]

Yeah I thought it didn't really sound like it would work.

Can they really be immune to a chemical..?

Can one ven kill another of the same species..?

 

[Dan19]

yeah i thought snakes cant get intoxicated by there own venom/speicies venom?
correct me if im wrong

 

[Joshua VW]

I've always heard that snakes can't kill themselves from biting themselves.

 

[Gecko_ProCs]

yea would be kinda stupid if they were able to die from their own venom....
it would most probably die from having a broken spine and not being able to move properly

 

[RevDaniel]

I have heard of people and dogs grabbing a deadly snakes by the tail and doing a whip like crack with the snake which breaks the snakes neck killing it. Do not know how true it is, just stories people have told me. Most likely should have been put in the basket with the storied of venomous snakes interbreeding. People that know so little about snakes think they know so much about them.

 

[Kathryn_]

Assuming snakes breathing works the same way ours does, if yous friend is breaking the spine high enough to interfere with the brain stem, the snakes might very well be asphyxiating.

 

[PhilK]

Snakes' heads can live for a long time after they've been removed from the body, so I don't think a broken spine would kill it all that fast..

Could a King Brown kill another of the same species?

As for cracking them like whips.. the closest thing I've heard to that is station hands just grabbing them by the tail and swiming them onto concrete or something hard..

 

[Jonno from ERD]

I have seen King Browns severely envenomate Eastern Browns with only localised symptoms in the Easterns. I have seen most species of Australian elapid envenomate themselves with feeding response bites (which would nearly always involve envenomation) and none have shown any ill effects.

 

[MrBredli]

I have read that occasionally an elapid can die from self envenomation, but only if it bites itself somewhere such as the spine, brain or heart, where the effects of the venom would kill the snake before its system could counter the venom. I'm not sure where i read that, could possibly have been one of Hoser's papers, so take it with a grain of salt.

As for one species being affected by another's venom, that would probably depend on the species involved. However, i do know that Taronga Zoo lost 2 snakes (diff species) due to envenomation by a third species in one of their pits.

 

[PhilK]

Hmm.. but I still wonder if one species can kill another of the same species?

 

[MrBredli]

Unlikely.

 

[Radar]

The whip crack works, sometimes to the point of the head coming off (I've seen some old 'adventure' footage of it being done)

 

[Naxx]

how cruel a way to kill a snake either way...why not just chop its head off with a shovel like most people, least that kills them right away. makes me sick how some people are with animals. but anyways, no snakes are immune to their own venom and some snakes are even immune to other snakes venom, some animals are too, like the meercat or the african badger, it knocks them out but doesnt kill em, pretty cool

 

[Charlie V]

Hmm.. but I still wonder if one species can kill another of the same species?

I'm fairly sure I've seen venomous snakes biting one another during courtship/mating rituals on TV documentaries, and am quite confident that a snake is immune to all venom produced by it's species.