Ask A Scientist Zoology Archive

name         Kristi L. V.
status       other
age          40s

Question -   What kinds of poisonous creatures live in Brazil?
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Hi Kristi!
Brasil is a huge country and has great areas covered by forests, much of them still  not 
destroyed or even touched by men. These forests, both at Amazon and at tropical region  are 
big reservoirs for vegetal and animal native life  and are kept that way for
the sake of humanity. So there in the middle of all kinds of savage beasts, small species and 
a tremendous number of insects and
arachdinideae there are some  ones that are very poisonous. The small ones are mostly some kind 
of spiders and scorpions.
There are also  toads and frogs that carry venoms in special glands.
But of course the species that are more dangerous because of their poison are the serpents. The 
main varieties of poisonous snakes in Brasil are the ones called Jararaca, Cascavel and 
Surucucu.  All of them belong to the Viperidae family. The Jararacas are from the Bothrops 
gender, the Cascavel belong to the Crotalus gender and the Suruccucu is from the Lachesis. 
These genders have a quite big number of different species. The more dangerous are the Crotalus 
and the biggest the Lachesis that can grow up to 3 m.
There are also the terrible Coral from the Elapidae family. They are small (around 50 cm.) 
but their venom is one of the more dangerous. If you want to see pictures of these snakes you 
can look at http://www.saudetotal.com/animais/cobras/venenosas.htm
An thanks for asking NEWTON!

Mabel
(Dr, Mabel Rodrigues)
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