Eli5 why are human more susceptible to snake venom than other mammals ?
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Humans are generally not more susceptible to snake venom than other mammals. Horses, for example, are only less susceptible because they are much larger.
What makes you think that?
Because it is a natural killer, wild animals are more resistant to it, and they have developed to have greater defences against it. Humans, on the other hand, are rarely exposed to snake venom, so our bodies haven’t had opportunity to develop defences against it.
I wouldn’t say we are more susceptible, we are just bigger creatures then a lot of mammals and realistically as such we die more dramatically and more slowly. If we were the size of a mouse, a snake would kill us in moments with very little struggle.
In comparison to larger mammals such as elephants for example, we can die a lot faster as theirs less of us to infect (and the venom can only cause so much damage in the body). 100ml of squash is stronger in 1 litre of water vs 10 litres of water.
Humans are by far the biggest drama queens of all species on the planet, as we are dying as we are heavily social animals who manipulate their environment for their own benefit – as such as we are dying we make much more noise. We also verbalise exactly what we are feeling, and as such it can seem we are basically doomed – despite the fact all animals would act the same.
The only way we could be considered more susceptible is the fact we aren’t a rhino with armoured skin, so you can harm us easier. Beyond that we are probably the least susceptible animal on the planet, because we know how to extract venom and create anti venoms.
We are very good at using tools to kill them so we didn’t develop defenses against their venom.
Outside of a few animals that have evolved a natural resistance we aren’t. If a snake bites something 99% of the time it is going to die or have a really bad day.
We aren’t. Typically the efficacy of a venom depends on 3 main factors:
The amount of venom, the size of the victim, and what the venom is.
This means that humans can typically take more venom than other mammals, given that the other mammals are smaller.
There could be edge cases where humans are actually more susceptible, but I am not aware of any but I can’t say with certainty that there aren’t.
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