Guys, I just learned something new and.

I'm super excited about it- [takes a breath]. I mean, welcome back to Animal Wonders,.

I'm Jesse and I love learning new things. So I've been teaching the difference between poison and venom for a little over a decade now and it usually comes up when someone asks if snake is poisonous. I tell them that he's not poisonous though there are some venomous snakes and then.

I proceed to tell them the difference. Now I've always thought that there are only venomous snakes, no poisonous ones but I've just learned that I'm wrong. [upbeat theme music]. Now I don't mind being wrong the fun and challenging thing about animal science is that it's always open to new discoveries.

I can fully learn something one day and then the next year new information comes out, redefining our knowledge on that subject and if I'm not constantly relearning everything, I could be missing out. Alright, this is what I already knew: poison and venom are both toxins. The difference between them is how they're delivered.

Poison is absorbed, usually when an animal eats another animal that's toxic. Venom is injected, like when a scorpion stings you or a snake bites you. Toads are considered poisonous because they secrete toxins, and if you eat them, you'll get sick.

Snakes are considered venomous if they produce toxins and then inject those toxins into you when they bite. But here's the thing that I just learned there's a snake that's both venomous and poisonous;. The Asian tiger snake is a rear-fang snake that produces their venom in the Duvernoy's gland.

In order to get their venom from the venom gland into the wound, they tend to chew on their victims, making multiple punctures and lacerations. Their venom is used to subdue small prey but it's also powerful enough to be fatal to larger animals, even humans. But what makes the tiger snake incredible is that they can also be poisonous.

If they eat a poisonous toad they can retain the poison from the toad and store in specialized organs in their neck called Nuchal glands if threatened they arch their neck and put their Nuchal glands front and center. If a predator bites them there, they get a mouthful of toad toxin. Interestingly, if a tiger snake lives in an area where there are no toads, they don't have access to the poison and therefore they aren't poisonous.

A non-poisonous tiger snake's behavior is even different than its toad eating counterpart. Instead of doing the defensive neck arching posture they'll simply flee if attacked. The way Asian tiger snakes use another animal's toxin as their own reminds me of another animal; poison dart frogs.

The golden poison dart frog is considered one of the most toxic animals on earth. Their toxin, which is on their skin, is used as a defense from predators if absorbed its fatal. Researchers believe that they get their toxins from invertebrates in their diet, who probably get the toxins from plants that they consume.

But once they're removed from their natural habitat and no longer eat the same diet they don't develop their own toxins meaning they aren't poisonous themselves. While we're on the topic of toxic amphibians, a new study has documented two species of venomous frogs not poisonous; venomous. The Greening's frog and the Bruno's casque-headed frogs have toxic spines on their head.

They inject the toxin into any potential predator by head-butting them. Since the delivery method is injection, they're considered venomous. I think it's so interesting when animals don't fit into our human contrived organizational methods.

I mean, it does make it difficult to learn it all, but it also makes it fun and challenging to learn new and exciting things. Thanks for joining me today! I would love to hear any new things that you've learned today that made you go, "Whoa, cool!" Thank you to our Patreon patrons for helping us make these videos, if you'd like to help support animal education you can go to patreon.com/animalwonders and check us out, and if you'd like to go on an adventure with us every week subscribe to our YouTube channel AnimalWonders Montana.

Thanks, we'll see you next week! [end theme song]. Cheeks is seven and a half years old and rabbits usually live between seven and ten years so he's starting to show the signs of his age. He looks healthy and he acts healthy and spry most of the time.