Science Questions

Are snakes susceptible to their own venoms?

Helen - That’s a great question.  There’s two things to consider.  That is they aren’t susceptible to their own venom in their own fangs because they don’t kill themselves every time they make some venom.  That’s pretty cool but also quite easy to understand.  We also have poisonous chemicals inside our bodies that don’t kill us.  They’re kept in certain areas, for example, our pancreas contains a deadly cocktail of enzymes.  If your pancreas bursts and they all come out then that can really spell a big problem for you and you start digesting yourself from the inside.  Because it’s kept in certain organs that are lined with cells that aren’t susceptible to those enzymes then you’re okay.  Once it gets into your digestive tract then you’re okay.

This is also why if a snake happens to swallow some of its own venom it will be ok ay because the venom is made of protein.  The enzyme, which is a type of protein, will denature when it gets into the strong acids in your stomach and break down the structure of those enzymes and stop them from working, stop them from being so deadly.

The other question is what if a snake accidentally bit itself or if another snake bit it?  The answer seems to be yes, they are susceptible to their own venom.  If it’s injected into their system they can be susceptible to it but some scientists have also found anti-venom inside snakes.  They can develop their own anti-venoms to their own venom but we don’t quite yet know how that happens.  It could be that they have a low level of exposure.  Accidentally biting themselves occasionally, as you do?

You can imagine there’s some selective pressure for a snake to evolve, maybe not from itself, but perhaps from its mate or something.

Chris - A good corollary is spiders, isn’t it?  We know that spiders are vulnerable to their own toxins.  A female can bite the male and kill the male with their venom.  I suppose the same could be true for snakes because these venoms are proteins that have been injected into the body.

April 2009