Friday, June 24, 2011
green mamba snake info & pics
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green mamba or common mamba (Dendroaspis angusticeps) is a venomous arboreal snake indigenous to the eastern side of southern Africa. Eastern green mambas are the smallest members of the mamba genus, averaging 1.8 metres (5.9 feet), with known specimens to 3.7 m (12 feet). Green mambas are diurnal. Like most other snakes, the mamba avoids confrontation with humans when possible. However, continued provocation will cause the snake to strike.
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green mamba's diet consists primarily of adult and juvenile birds, birds' eggs, and small mammals. Young mambas occasionally eat other reptiles, such as chameleons.
The green mamba is oviparous, laying 6-17 eggs in summer. The eggs are usually laid in a hollow tree among decaying vegetation. Hatchlings measure between 35 and 45 cm (13 to 18 inches) and are venomous from birth. Males of this species are known to engage in combat for mating rights, similar to the combat practiced by male King Cobras.
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the venom contains calcicludine and dendrotoxin amongst other neurotoxins. Its venom is similar in composition and action to that of the more famous black mamba but the amount injected is relatively lower, due to the snake's smaller size. Despite this, any bite from a green mamba is potentially fatal and should be regarded as a medical emergency requiring immediate hospital treatment.
spitting cobra snake pics
spitting cobra is one of several species of cobras that have the ability to eject venom from their fangs when defending themselves against predators. The venom sprays out in distinctive geometric patterns, using muscular contractions upon the venom glands. These muscles squeeze the glands and force the venom out through forward-facing holes at the tips of the fangs.spitting cobras and vipers have been noted to spit occasionally. Certain predominantly non-spitting Asian cobras have the spitting tendency.
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spitting cobra
spitting cobra
black cobra snake wallpaper
king kobra snake
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A female usually deposits 20 to 40 eggs into the mound, which acts as an incubator. She stays with the eggs and guards the mound tenaciously, rearing up into a threat display if any large animal gets too close.
Inside the mound the eggs are incubated at a steady 28 °C (82 °F). When the eggs start to hatch, instinct causes the female to leave the nest and find prey to eat so she does not eat her young.
Garter Snakes
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virunga gorillas
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Thursday, June 23, 2011
Peringuey's Adder snakes pictures
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Peringuey's adder, Peringuey's desert adder, sidewinding adder, more.
Bitis peringueyi is a venomous viper species found in Namibia and southern Angola. The head is short and flat with eyes located on top of the head—an adaptation for hunting. It is covered with strongly keeled scales, the smallest of which are located anteriorly. The eyes are separated by 6-9 scales, while each is surrounded by 10-13 scales. 2-4 scales separate the suborbitals from the supralabials. The latter number 10-14, the sublabials 10-13. it buries itself just beneath the surface of the sand with only its eyes and the tip of its tail exposed.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Dengue Mosquito
Dengue fever also known as breakbone fever, is an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic morbilliform skin rash. Treatment of acute dengue is supportive, using either oral or intravenous rehydration for mild or moderate disease, and intravenous fluids and blood transfusion for more severe cases. The incidence of dengue fever has increased dramatically since the 1960s, with around 50–100 million people infected yearly. Dengue is currently endemic in more than 110 countries. Others have more severe illness (5%), and in a small proportion it is life-threatening. The incubation period (time between exposure and onset of symptoms) ranges from 3–14 days, but most often it is 4–7 days. Therefore, travelers returning from endemic areas are unlikely to have dengue if fever or other symptoms start more than 14 days after arriving home. They bite primarily during the day. Other mosquito species—Aedes albopictus, A. polynesiensis and several A. scutellaris—may also transmit the disease. Humans are the primary host of the virus, but it may also circulate in nonhuman primates. An infection may be acquired via a single bite. A mosquito that takes a blood meal from a person infected with dengue fever becomes itself infected with the virus in the cells lining its gut. About 8–10 days later, the virus spreads to other tissues including the mosquito's salivary glands and is subsequently released into its saliva. The virus seems to have no detrimental effect on the mosquito, which remains infected for life. The dendritic cell moves to the nearest lymph node. Meanwhile, the virus genome is replicated in membrane-bound vesicles on the cell's endoplasmic reticulum, where the cell's protein synthesis apparatus produces new viral proteins, and the viral RNA is copied. Immature virus particles are transported to the Golgi apparatus, the part of the cell where the some of the proteins receive necessary sugar chains (glycoproteins). The now mature new viruses bud on the surface of the infected cell and are released by exocytosis. They are then able enter other white blood cells (such as monocytes and macrophages).
The initial reaction of infected cells is to produce the interferon, a cytokine that raises a number of defenses against viral infection through the innate immune system by augmenting the production of a large group of proteins (mediated by the JAK-STAT pathway). Some serotypes of dengue virus appear to have mechanisms to slow down this process.
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The initial reaction of infected cells is to produce the interferon, a cytokine that raises a number of defenses against viral infection through the innate immune system by augmenting the production of a large group of proteins (mediated by the JAK-STAT pathway). Some serotypes of dengue virus appear to have mechanisms to slow down this process.
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