Five-step snake belongs to one of the top ten poisonous snakes in China, they are also a more widely distributed poisonous snake in the mainland, mainly distributed in most of southern China, for the Chinese people, the five-step snake can be said to be one of the deadliest poisonous snakes in China, most people think that the venom of the five-step snake is not the strongest in the Chinese poisonous snake, but in fact, the fatality rate of the five-step snake ranks 3rd in the national poisonous snake mortality rate, only in the king cobra and the silver ring snake, the reason why the five-step snake can create such a high fatality rate, Not only is their venom's ability to necroticize muscles, but it's also the more terrifying blood circulation toxin. This blood circulation toxin will make the wounded person bleed non-stop, and what is more terrifying is that it will also cause the injured person's internal organs to bleed heavily, and even the symptoms of bleeding from the seven tricks.
The five-step snake venom contains a metalloproteinase, and the content of this protease is very high, and the metalloproteinase of the five-step snake can hydrolyze the basement membrane components, thus causing the main mechanism of wound bleeding. The five-step snake venom also contains a large number of anticoagulant and platelet aggregation toxins, which can inhibit blood clotting, which is why the wound will bleed non-stop, but there will be no blood clotting. It is precisely because of the exceptionally excellent anticoagulant ability in the venom of the five-step snake that the patients with five-step snake injury will have terrible symptoms such as subcutaneous bleeding, nosebleeds, bleeding gums, blood in urine, blood in the stool, vomiting blood and bleeding in internal organs of the body.
The lethality of the five-step snake is so high, it is also related to their fierce temperament, generally venomous snakes will take the initiative to avoid humans when they encounter humans, such as silver ring snakes and golden ring snakes, and some poisonous snakes will take the initiative to warn humans, such as cobras will erect their bodies to warn humans, and the Thai round spot viper will make a hissing sound like "gas can leak". The five-step snake relies on perfect camouflage, it is difficult for ordinary people to easily detect their existence, when humans encounter them, they will not give in at all, only symbolically slap their tails to warn, once humans enter their attack range, they will not hesitate to give a deadly snake kiss. Perhaps because they are pit vipers, most of the pit vipers in the world will not actively avoid humans, perhaps the vipers of the viper family are lazy, like to stay still, they naturally encounter danger and will not take the initiative to retreat.
Although the venom of the five-step snake is not as good as the cobra and the silver ring snake, even if it is bitten by the cobra and the silver ring snake, the death process is at least decent, but the venom of the five-step snake will not only bleed the injured person, but their venom will also cause the ulceration of the injured muscles, and even the bones near the wound can rot, which can be said to be a veritable "rotten meat king". Even if you are lucky enough to survive the snake venom of the five-step snake, it will most likely cause the injured person to have his leg amputated.
In the past, the five-step snake was often caught by people for brewing wine, and a large number of catches caused a sharp decline in the number of wild five-step snakes, and now the five-step snake is also included in the national protected animals, hoping that the five-step snake will not become a national key protected animal like the mangshan original spearhead viper.
The five-step snake bites in The area of Shibi Township, Chenxi County, Hunan Province, are basically dead, and the reason why the five-step snake in this area is so poisonous is related to the geographical distribution, although they are all the same five-step snake, but because of the geographical distribution, the toxin component in the venom will also change. King cobras also have different venom compositions depending on the region of their distribution. For example, the serum made with the Thai king cobra cannot treat the snake wounds of the Indian king cobra, the venom of the king cobra living in Chinese mainland and indochina is highly toxic, and the venom of the king cobra living in the Western Ghats in India has more cytotoxins. Many species of venomous snakes are distributed in different parts of the same country, and their toxin composition will also be conflicting, and the sawfish living in southern India is much less toxic than the sawfish living in the desert of northwest India. Perhaps because of the different surrounding environment, in order to facilitate the predation of sawfish, there is less food in the desert area, which requires sawfish to evolve a more toxic venom to ensure the success rate of hunting.