Some time ago, when a restaurant chef was preparing Thai cobra soup for a guest, he cut off its head and boiled its body. Then he waited as he began cleaning the kitchen. Unexpectedly, when he just picked up the snake's head and threw it in the trash, the cobra "came back to life" and bit the cook. Eventually, the chef was poisoned and killed before the ambulance arrived.
The Thai cobra (also known as the Siamese cobra) is a venomous cobra found in Southeast Asia. Instead of shooting out toxins, they spray toxins at their enemies. The toxin is a neurotoxin that, once shot into the eye, can be highly toxic and blind. When they are threatened, Thai cobras stand up first and swell their skin folds. If the other party does not retreat, it will spray poison on the snake's head, up to nearly three meters. After that, they will flee first, and if they can't escape, they will choose to attack.
In this regard, many people believe that it is revenge after the death of the snake, but revenge is the cognitive function of higher animals. As inferior reptiles, snakes should not have this function. So from a scientific point of view, why can the only remaining head of a snake still bite people?
Conditioned reflexes caused by changes in external temperature
In the face of a freshly cut snake's head, put a piece of iron in front of it and it may bite; give it a wooden stick and it may bite; give it a steel pipe and it may bite, even if you give it its own body, it may bite. So, it has nothing to do with retaliation.
The nerves that guide this conditioned reflex are located on the limbs of the snake. After the head is cut off, each organ can independently maintain its original motor function for a certain period of time. Therefore, once the cut snake head is touched, it can also be adjusted.
When a person approaches, the cold-blooded snake head can sense changes in the temperature of the outside world, causing conditioned reflexes and making biting movements.
Ethnic characteristics of reptiles
The racial characteristics of reptiles are, first, wide distribution of nerves, and slow metabolism.
In mammals represented by humans, a large number of nerves are concentrated in the brain, and most actions require instructions from the brain to be made. Without a blood supply from the body, it will die within minutes.
In reptiles like snakes, the nerves throughout the body are much more widely distributed. That is, many movements can be done without the brain's command, so even if the head is broken, the body can still twist for minutes or even hours. The benefit of slow cell metabolism is that nerve cells can survive for a long time even without a blood supply. The survival of nerve cells is guaranteed, and the severed snake's head also has the basic neural reflex ability to bite people and inject venom.
Don't touch dead snakes!
A completely dead snake whose venom will remain for a long time. Put the cut snake's head in the refrigerator, maybe after a long time, its venom is still very poisonous.
Doctors who specialize in snake wounds say that even if the snake venom has deteriorated, it is best not to touch it!
The fangs of snakes also contain a large number of bacteria. If scratched, sepsis may be caused.
wary! Dead snakes can still attack people, dead snakes' venom is still effective, whether it is a snake head or a poisonous fang, be sure to avoid it as much as possible!