eli5: Why do some tiny animals contain enough venom to kill thousands of humans, isn’t that just overkill?
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Kill vs stop. A 5.56mm will probably kill a charging elephant, in about 2 or 3 hours. A 4 boar will stop the charging elephant, aka kill it in about 1 second.
A cobras venom will kill a human it will stop a rat. The cobra needs to stop the rat so the rat does not bite back.
The more potent the poison, the quicker the prey drops. And the less you need to run after it to eat it.
Usually when an animal seems to have venom way too potent, it’s a bit of an accident. The spider/snake/whatever didn’t develop its venom to kill humans, it just happens to work really well on humans. Many other animals have venom that doesn’t harm humans at all.
Evolution is a constant arms race between predator and prey. As creatures are killed by predators, eventually resistance to the venom develops…so predators have to evolve stronger venom. Go back and forth for a million years, and you have creatures like the mongoose that are nearly immune to most the venom of snakes in their habitat. But the same venom would incapacitate a human in short order.
we’re not their main predator: us being affected by their venom is a random ocurrence, evolution-wise
better overkill than underkill that result in your death
more potent venom=better at killing both prey and predator alike
Something I haven’t seen many people touch on is the *rate* at which the venom kills something, not just the quantity. When a snake or spider bites a prey item, they don’t want to prey item running away and dying far away from them. In addition, prey items struggle, kick, bite, claw, etc. when threatened. Another comment mentioned this in a bit more detail but it’s really bad news if the predator is injured every time it tries to kill prey. By killing something quicker, it reduces this risk.
So the venom isn’t more powerful because it wants to kill bigger things; it’s more powerful because it wants to kill little things faster.
A lot of the most venomous creatures are those in harsh environments like the desert or ocean where the prey are few and far between. You need to ensure that when you DO see prey you kill it on the spot.
The first rule of survival: There is no such thing as overkill.
The other first rule of survival: There is no such thing as a fair fight.
Reason is: that venom isn’t meant for you! The fact that it’s so effective at killing you is more a coincidence than anything.
They evolved with creatures that evolved resistances to their toxins. It was an arm’s race where their prey kept getting better at resisting, so they had to get better at killing.
Then you look at humans, who never had to deal with many venomous things. We were typically above those guys in the food chain, so they never really wanted to use it against us. They only do when a human gets stupid.
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