"The Toad Wants to Eat Swan Meat" comes from the 101st episode of "Water Margin", which is a metaphor for people who have no self-knowledge and are bent on seeking things that are impossible to obtain. This also reflects from one side how disgusting the toad is as an animal.
The toad has many bumps on its body and poisonous glands, and people instinctively avoid it when they see this animal. From the perspective of biological evolution, animals are instinctively wary, actively avoidant, and even disgusted with potential threats from the outside world (including the environment and other organisms), which is actually a manifestation of evolution. Only in this way can animals survive in a natural environment full of dangers.
However, the strange behavior of some young people in the United States in recent years can no longer be explained by Darwin's theory of biological evolution, because it cannot be explained at all!
Some time ago, the National Park Service suddenly issued a reminder on social platforms without warning: "If you see a big toad with green eyes in the dead of night, please don't lick it!" ”
Please don't lick a toad? This sounds completely confusing! As a normal human being, who would take the initiative to lick a toad, let alone in the middle of the night when the lights are dark?
What is shocking is that this reminder was actually forced to be released, because recently too many people in the United States, especially young people, have shared the sourness of licking toads on social platforms! They either shoot a video, record the whole process, or share a few pictures, give a thumbs up in front of the camera, and finally write the next sentence: Very delicious!
Toads are known to be poisonous. On the mainland, the ancients listed centipedes, poisonous snakes, scorpions, geckos and toads as the "five poisons". Why do young Americans have a soft spot for toads, one of the "five poisons", so much so that they fall madly in love with the bizarre act of licking toads?
The toad, scientific name toad, is an amphibian with rough skin and a back covered with large and small bumps. The pimple on the back of the toad is actually a type of sebaceous gland, the largest pair of which is the posterior auricular gland located above the eardrum on the side of the head. These glands secrete a white venom, so many animals, including humans, don't touch toads.
The toad that young Americans lick is called the Colorado River Toad, also known as the Sonoran Desert Toad. This is a venomous toad native to the southwestern United States as well as northern Mexico. Young Americans like to lick the Sonoran desert toad because the toad, when frightened and perceived potential danger, secretes a venom on the parotid gland behind the ear. When a human tongue comes into contact with this venom, a strong hallucination is immediately created.
Young Americans are so excited about this new and exciting experience that they even get drunk to death, and even former boxing champion Tyson has raved about it.
The Sonoran desert toad is relatively large, generally able to grow to more than ten centimeters, and it is also one of the largest toads in the United States. It is a little different from the toads we usually see, its back is very smooth, not covered with pimples, and the color of the back is dark green, a bit like a frog.
Sonoran desert toad only has two raised pimples on both sides of the mouth, which contain 5-methoxydimethyltryptamine and toad tryptamine, both of which are toxic and produce strong mental stimulation once inhaled.
In recent years, some young people in the United States have gone into parks and into the wild not to exercise, but to catch Sonoran desert toads. After they catch these toads, they will hungrily lick their venom and even take them home.
Obviously, the venom that toads evolved into was not for humans to lick. In fact, small pimples full of venom on toads are weapons they use to protect themselves. The toad doesn't run fast, doesn't jump high, and doesn't have a hard "armor", so it can only evolve a passive defense mechanism, and when other animals bite it, it immediately releases venom that poisons the predator.
These young people licking toads in the United States can cause anxiety and induce seizures at best, and they will pay the price of their lives.
Generally speaking, the reason why human civilization has developed to a level far beyond other species depends almost entirely on continuous evolutionary processes, such as walking upright, increasing brain size, being good at making tools, and learning to use complex language and writing. However, the earth's population has officially exceeded 8 billion, and in this increasingly narrow space, some people have gradually deviated from the normal evolutionary track, and the abnormal evolutionary path has become more and more crooked, and the theory of evolution is no longer enough.