Our next guest is Robert O'Horo and he's going to be talking to us about venomous reptiles. Thank you very much for being here and welcome to The Junction.

Well, thanks for having me.

Can we start by telling us your background, uh, your education and where you're at right now?

Sure. Uh, I'm a retired lawyer. I went to law school, practiced law for about 10 years, uh, decided I wanted to do something different. Ended up taking a job with Florida Fish and Wildlife 18 and a half years ago. I'm an investigator for Florida Fish and Wildlife now for about the past 10 years, uh, focusing in the, uh, Captive Wildlife Division.

Excellent. So this is a topic that is kind of creepy for me because I am afraid of snakes. So I guess the main question is, what is the difference between venomous and poisonous?

Well, I'm not a trained biologist, but I do know that answer to that. So, uh, poison is something you ingest. Um, so if it's, uh, a mushroom, it's going to be poisonous. Uh, certain frogs if you were to ingest them, they're poison dart frogs because they're poisonous, they secrete a poison. Venomous is usually something that's injected, uh, like a sting, or fangs from a snake

What are the most common snakes that we're going to find in the, in the U. S. that are venomous?

Um, I would say our rattlesnakes are the most well known. Uh, there's about 32 species of rattlesnakes, throughout the United States. So most states, not all, but most states have at least one rattlesnake. Um, and so that's pretty common. Uh, we've got the cottonmouths and, and copperheads, which are found more in the eastern part of the United States.

Now, does the venom differ between snakes or do they all do kind of the same thing? Um,

Uh, no, there's quite a bit of difference. Uh, and there's people that have spent their careers analyzing venom, and how it differs. So it differs among, um, the families of venomous snakes. So there's, you know, the elapid family, which is the cobras and the coral snakes. They have a particular type of venom, uh, neurotoxic that tends to, to work on the nervous system. And then of course you've got the rattlesnakes and some other snakes that have venom that acts more to digest tissue and flesh. And then, of course, there's all of these snakes that have a mixture and there's all different types of, of venom components. There's like certain toxins that affect the heart. Um, some snakes have that, some don't. Um, so it's, it's extremely complex. Um, I'm certainly not an expert in, in that complexity. And there's, there's people that have spent their entire life, uh, researching, analyzing and categorizing the different types of venoms.

So when somebody gets bitten by one of these snakes, is the venom like universal or are there different types of antivenom?

It really depends. So we've done something here in the United States. We've created, or a company has created, polyvalent. anti venom for viper bites here in the United States. So if you're bitten, for example, in Florida, whether you're bitten by a cottonmouth, a copperhead, an eastern diamondback rattlesnake, or a, uh, a pygmy rattlesnake, you're going to get the same anti venom. So if you go to a hospital and you've got swelling and two, you know, snake bite marks, two fang marks, and you can't identify the snake, it's okay because you're going to get the anti venom that works. And the way they do that is when they create the anti venom, they use venom from all of those snakes to create the plasma that they're going to create the anti venom from. So that's a little bit different with coral snakes that requires a particular antivenom specific to coral snakes. But once you get outside of the United States, um, there's probably, you know, over 600 species of venomous, uh, reptiles. There's all kinds of anti venoms and usually, you know, in those situations, you need to know what you've been bitten by. Um, there are other countries that are producing anti venoms that are also polyvalent for their area. Um, but, you know, it's, it gets complicated.

I've always heard about being able to look at, like, the snake's eyes to determine if it's venomous or not. Is that true? And also, like, what kind of things do people need to pay attention to, to identify the type of snake to see if it's venomous or not?

So, that can be, that can assist you in making an identification, but I wouldn't lean on eye shape, mainly because if it's a, if it's a venomous snake that has an elliptical pupil, if it's If it's dark out and the pupils dilated, that's going to appear round. Um, so, and there are snakes that are non venomous that have elliptical pupils. So, that's not, I mean, I wouldn't, I wouldn't favor that as my primary go to warning. But, and plus you usually have to be pretty close to see that. Um, I would just become familiar with the snakes in your area where you live, uh, because, you know, we do have a lot of diversity here in the United States. Although we have 32 rattlesnake species, give or take, um, they don't all occur in one place. So if you live in Utah, there's a handful of snakes you should know. Uh, if you live in Florida, there's six that you should know, um, if you're going to be outdoors and recreating and things like that.

I've been in some cruelty cases, cruelty investigations that are out in the wild and they they'll tell us these are the snakes that are in this area. And I'm certainly not going around looking for these snakes, but how aggressive are these snakes like do. Do you have to worry about just walking around minding your own business and them coming out of your, out of their way to bite you?

No, not here. Uh, at least in the United States, it seems like most of our snakes are pretty defensive in nature. Um, I've had a lot of experience, uh, with Eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, and I would say every single one that I've approached has tried to get away. And I'll often hear stories of people who stepped right next to one and the snake didn't bite. Now, if they had stepped on it, they probably would have been, been bitten. But, um, yeah, we just don't seem to have any snakes that go out of their way. I the cottonmouth has had a reputation for chasing people. Uh, and they sometimes do come towards people, but usually it's because they're trying to flee to where they perceive safety is, and you're just in the way. Um, so I tell people if a cottonmouth is coming straight at you, get off the X, move, and chances are it will continue on its way, on its path. Um, there are snakes in other countries that aren't quite like that. I've dealt with some cobras myself that when they get agitated, they will come after you. And when you do get off the X, they will change course and follow you. Um, and black mambas have been known to do that. So there are snakes in the world that are aggressive, but I don't think we have any here.

So if somebody is going to be going to a different area and wants to become acquainted with what kind of snakes to expect, what, what resources are out there to be able to find that information?

So if it's the United States, the DNR, uh, Department of Natural Resources for that particular state, almost all states have a really good web page. Um, and, you know, there's a lot of good resources online now. Um, I would just try to make sure you get, get it from some reputable source, whether it's the DNR in that state or, or, or something, not just a random web page.

Great. Well, thank you so much for being here and for sharing this information and for what you do.

Well, thank you. I appreciate it.