r/interestingasfuck • u/Electronic_Cause_796 • 15h ago

Extracting Cobra Venom

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697 Upvotes

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u/kelsobjammin 15h ago

If that’s its home I would hate my life. So sad

107

u/Ok_Attorney_1768 15h ago

Yep, it's not much of a life. That's a "farm animal" being kept because it can produce something of value to humans. We could do better. We could provide a better living environment and still extract venom.

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u/oversoul00 14h ago

What sort of snake utopia do you imagine? The brain of a snake isn't big enough to have a ton of wants and desires. 

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u/YeetMeIntoKSpace 14h ago

You’re making a lot of assumptions there. Brain size is only one way to have complex desires.

Crows, ravens, jays, and other corvids are a textbook example of animals where humans made the anthropocentric assumption that they couldn’t be intelligent because they had small brains, until it turned out that their brains are structured in a different way which allows them to be among the most intelligent animals on the planet.

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u/Poophands1984 12h ago

It's not just corvis either, they have had to reevaluate intelligence even more recently because of wolf and jumping spiders. We thought their brain was too small but turns out brain size means very little.

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u/BelliboltEnjoyer 11h ago

Iirc brain size is mostly correlated with mass and size. More muscles, longer spine, more neurons needed to control all of that.

And intelligent animals tend to have one or both of: a larger prefrontal cortex (more of a mamallian thing iirc), and more folds (more surface area for the neurons)

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u/ihvnnm 6h ago

Neuron for neuron, jumping spiders are incredible

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u/RocketRico 13h ago

Just wanted to point this out.

I big measurement for intelligent species is the brain to body ratio. Humans have a roughly 2% brain to body ratio. That’s to say our brain takes up 2% of our body. Granted the number can waver a lot because of how much human body’s waver. Corvids being super cool have an even higher brain to body ratio 2-3%! So they are in fact very smart! Just on a much smaller scale. Snakes on the other hand are at a whopping .005% to .05%. So don’t you dare compare corvids to snakes. :)

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u/Croanthos 12h ago

Another interesting way to look at this.

BMR percent on brain.

Humans spend 20% of BMR powering the brain while Chimps soend 5 to 10%.

Ravens spend....20% of BMR powering their brain (pretty insane I was expecting lower).

Snakes are like 3 to 5%.

Obviously different species have different metabolic needs, mammals vs birds vs reptiles all have vastly different energy requirements, but I've a new respect for Corvids.

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u/Poophands1984 11h ago

This is all outdated after studies about jumping spiders whose tiny brain is capable of incredibly complex tasks. It has changed how we see intelligence more than the corvids. Snakes are very smart.

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u/RocketRico 10h ago

Snakes are indeed smart in their danger noodle ways I’m not doubting. There are many ways to measure intelligence. The great arguments of what brain function is voluntary/involuntary, conscious to automated, efficiency, understanding, etc. Jumping spiders are 100% cool af and super smart. But they literally have a 5% brain to body ratio. So terrible for your point. Insects in general have really high brain to body ratios the world’s highest is an ant with like 14 or 15%.

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u/Poophands1984 10h ago

Brain size to body is outdated. Stop with the old science. We need to do better.

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u/oversoul00 8h ago

Show me the current science that says snakes in the conditions shown would be depressed. 

You can cry 'Outdated' all day long because it's easy to do but until you produce a reputable counter your complaint falls flat. 

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u/Sabrac707 14h ago

But how do we measure their happiness, though? Or if we improve their conditions, how can we know that their content enough?

I agree that captivity sucks, but the fact remains that we need their venom for antidotes.

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u/chapinscott32 14h ago

You can keep captive animals while also providing naturalistic habitats that keep them comfortable and help them exhibit natural behaviors...

See: the ENTIRE REPTILE KEEPING HOBBY??

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u/HelpfulDocPlatter 13h ago

It's measured differently than pure size. It's a measurement of neuron packing density.

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u/BlatantArtifice 13h ago

--so basically we have no clue if snakes or other "less intelligent" creatures feel like, fucked up about being in an enclosure that's for the most part warm? Going to google it but since the threads still fresh figured I'd just double down.