eli5: What does it mean when people say that an animal has enough venom to kill X amount of people?

Question

I’ve always been curious to what exactly this means. I may be overthinking it but like what does this refer to? Does this mean that they have can inject venom up to X amount of people before they die or run out?

In: 3

Answer 1

it’s volume before their venom sacs are depleted. Cobras for instance don’t have the most toxic venom but they pack a ton of it. That’s why it’s said they can kill 20 people or an elephant.