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Immunity in kingsnakes
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by Rattler4 on January 5, 2010
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I have a question about Kingsnakes. Most people agree that kingsnakes are immune to pitviper venom, but a site I recently visited stated that they are only tolerent to the venom and that a bite with venom injection to the head or heart would kill the kingsnake. Now I can understand a direct bite to the heart, with the fangs punctering the heart, but I have read numerous cases where a rattlesnake that was being attacked by a kingsnake was free to bite the kingsnake. Some of those cases stated that there was direct bites to the head, while others stated there were direct bites to numerous parts of the body, all of which were ignored by the kingsnake. All cases stated there were no after affects to the venom in the days after the bites. The link to the site is: http://www.whozoo.org/Intro2000/vansibor/VanSib_CaliforniaKingsnake.htm. I Have also seen videos where a kingsnake attacks pitvipers such as copperheads, western diamondbacks, and mojave rattlesnakes. In the video with the copperhead the kingsnake took a direct bite to the head and was fine. In both videos of the rattlesnakes, the kingsnake's took body shots, again ignoring them. I just want to know the truth on this. Taylor
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RE: Immunity in kingsnakes
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by agkistrodude on January 6, 2010
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I would think that if a fang hit an organ, the fatality rate would be high, venom or no venom. A shot to the head, well there's not much there to sink a fang into as far as muscle or tissue goes, but a shot to the brain would be fatal. In the past I've had copperheads bite each other in the head, trying to strike the same mouse.(my mistake) They never showed any ill effects. Sorry, this may have not answered your question, I'm not an immunity expert, just my observations and thoughts.Take care, Marty
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