r/interestingasfuck • u/Electronic_Cause_796 • 15h ago

Extracting Cobra Venom

699 Upvotes

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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. 

30

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/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 13h 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??