Danger! Poisonous Animals

What's the difference between poisonous animals and venomous animals?

Poisonous animals contain a toxin (poison) in a part of their body, like the skin, organs, or feathers. Touching or eating these animals causes sickness, pain, or death. But, these animals don't do anything to spread their poison.

Venomous animals do deliver their poison. They use body parts such as fangs, stingers, or tentacles to poison others.

Some Kinds Of Poisonous Or Venomous Animals

Assassin bugs, a type of predatory insect, wait for just the right moment to attack other bugs. First they stab their prey with a pointy tube-like beak (called a proboscis). The poison that comes through the proboscis dissolves the bug's body into juices for the assassin to suck up.

Black widow spiders are armed with venom that is 15 times more poisonous than the venom of a prairie rattlesnake. They are found in warm and temperate climates around the world and like to live in dark places such as drain pipes and under rocks and logs. Their bite rarely kills humans. Why do we call them the black widow? Because the female sometimes eats the smaller male after mating!

The blue ring octopus, the deadliest kind of octopus, uses its arms to capture its prey. Then it bites the victim, sending in a poison through its saliva strong enough to kill a human.

Although its name means "100 legs," the common centipede is about 2 inches long with only 15 pairs of legs. Centipedes eat insects, earthworms, spiders, slugs, and some small animals. They move fast and use venom, which comes from glands near the first pair of legs, to kill their prey. Although their bite can be painful to humans, it is not deadly.

The male duckbill platypus, the only venomous mammal, has a venomous spur on each hind leg. He uses these spurs mainly to defend himself when fighting rivals for a mate.

The largest venomous snake, the king cobra, uses its half-inch-long hollow fangs to inject its prey with toxin (poison) strong enough to kill an elephant. King cobras mainly eat lizards and other snakes.

Komodo dragons' mouths are full of disease-causing bacteria. When they bite their prey, the victim gets sick and slowly dies of blood poisoning. Then the lizard returns after this has happened, to eat the body.

Pitohui birds of Papua New Guinea are one of only two species of poisonous birds. Their feathers and skin contain a powerful toxin that makes them taste peppery and smell repulsive to predators (and humans). When a mother pitohui bird sits on her eggs, her toxin rubs onto them, helping to protect them, too

The skin glands of poison dart frogs produce a foul-smelling, bitter-tasting substance that warns away predators. A single drop can kill an animal that ignores the warning. People can get sick from touching the frog's skin. In Columbia, people have used the toxin in hunting darts (blowguns).

The skin, liver, and eggs of the puffer fish contain deadly toxins. Some chefs in Japan are trained and licensed to prepare a special treat made out of puffers. The chefs are usually able to make this dish safely. But not always. At least a few people die each year from eating it.

Scorpions have eight legs and a hard outer skeleton like spiders and ticks. They live in nearly every type of habitat, including deserts, rain forests, prairies, grasslands, forests, mountains, caves, ponds, and seashore. The stinger at the tip of their tails injects a paralyzing poison into their prey. The sting of most scorpions is only irritating to people but there about 25 species of scorpions that can kill a person.

Although sea anemones look like beautiful flowers attached to coral or rocks on the ocean floor, they are actually predatory animals. The sea anemone's tentacles are studded with microscopic stinging capsules to protect it and catch its food. Sea anemones have few enemies and live for a very long time.

Animales: ¡Peligro! Animales venenosos (Spanish Version)

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