What is the significance of the existence of creatures like snakes? Can the snake be missing from the biological chain?

There are about 3,000 kinds of snakes around the world, including about 650 kinds of poisonous snakes, not to mention that most poisonous snakes can pose a threat to human life, just say that more than 2,000 kinds of non-venomous snakes are enough to scare people. So, what is the significance of the existence of snakes, a creature that scares people and threatens their lives? What would happen if there were no more snakes? Let's look at the pros and cons of snakes' existence.

Disadvantages of snakes

Before we start, we should clarify that there is no such thing as "pros and cons" for any animal, because they are all part of the natural ecology, and there is no difference between high and low, and the "pros and cons" we are talking about here are from the perspective of human beings themselves. The "pros and cons" we are talking about here are considered from the human perspective, and do not mean that it is really "good or bad".

For humans, the disadvantages of snakes are quite obvious. First of all, most people are afraid of snakes, and there are very few people who are not startled by snakes, and even in some areas, snakes can be hidden in toilets and air conditioners, which will scare people a lot. Of course, this is a human self-protection mechanism, according to scientific research shows that people being afraid of snakes is not innate, but late learning comes, this learning can help people in the indistinguishable whether it is a poisonous snake or better protection of their own.

The second is the threat of snakes to people, as snakes usually inhabit the grass, rocks, and concealment very well, and many poisonous snakes live within a human activity, which makes the snakes hurt people frequently. According to the World Health Organization survey, about 5.4 million people are bitten by snakes every year, of which about 1.8 million to 2.7 million are bitten by venomous snakes.

As the toxicity of different snakes, the amount of venom released and the type of venom varies, so the lethality of these snakes also varies, on the whole, the number of deaths among the 2 million or so people bitten by venomous snakes is between 80,000 and 140,000, and the combined lethality rate is between 3 and 8 percent.

As you can see, the venomous snake is indeed a major killer of humans, but in the annual number of killings in the ranking, the venomous snake only ranked third, the first is the most annoying mosquito in the summer, killing 725,000 people a year to top the list, the second is human, human is the largest number of vertebrates killed, with 475,000 people a year in second place, so compared to mosquitoes and people, the venomous snake is somewhat inadequate, however, the It is still able to threaten the existence of human life.

In addition to poisonous snakes, some large snakes, such as pythons are also a threat to people. First of all, although pythons swallowing people in the world is relatively rare, there are cases in Thailand and India.

Secondly, pythons are a great threat to poultry and livestock raised by people. Although the python will spit out its prey after being found, these prey have no value and can only be harmlessly disposed of.

The "benefits" of snakes

Although snakes are feared and hurt people and animals, they also have positive effects on humans and the food chain.

01 Benefits of snakes for people

There are more than 3,000 species of snakes and a large number of them, and the biggest part of the snake's diet is rats. Rats are "the first of the four pests", not only can destroy people's belongings, but also carry some infectious diseases that cause illness and even death, and the presence of snakes can well suppress the number of rats.

The old man in the countryside used to say "home snake can not be beaten" because the snake's inhibiting effect on the house mouse, is beneficial to people.

The second is poisonous snakes. Vipers can harm people, but also save people, first of all, scientists have used the venom of vipers to develop the venom of anti-venom serum (usually used to inject the venom into large animals such as horses, control the dose, so that the animals themselves produce antibodies, to obtain), so that after being bitten by vipers, anti-venom can greatly reduce the mortality rate.

In addition to the venom of the snake can cultivate anti-venom, it also has a certain medicinal value, the known role of snake venom includes the treatment of stroke, cerebral thrombosis, coronary heart disease, and many other common human diseases, and snake venom also has a certain role in tumor suppression, so that snake venom can hurt people, but also to save lives.

02 Snakes play a positive role in the ecological chain

Snakes are a group of animals that are distributed almost all over the world, and their numbers are relatively large. All animals with large numbers and wide distribution play an important role in the natural ecology, and snakes are no exception. First, in addition to suppressing the number of wild rodents, snakes, like the large pythons, can also suppress the number of wild boars and other reproductive and destructive animals, which is very important for the control of some species down the food chain.

Secondly, in addition to being a predator, snakes are also food for many animals, and in nature, many animals mainly feed on snakes, such as snake vultures, snake mongooses, large raptors, etc. Once the snakes disappear, the survival of these animals is bound to be affected in many ways.

Write at the end

Although on the surface, snakes are a great threat to people, in fact, they also contribute a lot to people, such as rodent extermination, venom extraction of vipers for medical use, etc. In addition, snakes also play an irreplaceable role in nature, they suppress the number of many animals with great destructive and reproductive power, as well as being the main food for many animals.

Therefore, no animal is only harmful, no benefit, and the pros and cons of animals in nature should not stand only in the human perspective to see, which is a little too selfish.