If a thing is very rare, coupled with artificial hype, even if it is a poisonous snake that can kill people, it may be worth a lot!
In 1984, a worker in mangshan forest district in Yizhang County, Hunan Province, was bitten by a snake and found Chen Yuanhui, the most famous local doctor who treated snake venom, and a new species was about to enter the field of vision of mankind.
Chen Yuanhui is skilled and experienced in the treatment of snake venom, and no matter what kind of snake venom, he can cure it in a week. However, this time, the employees in the forest area were bitten by poisonous snakes, but it took Chen Yuanhui more than a month to remove the snake venom.
And what puzzled him was that the bite marks at the patient's wound were particularly large, and only a five-step snake could cause such a large bite mark, but from the mouth of the person concerned, it was known that the poisonous snake that bit him was yellow-brown all over the body, and there was a white tail, which was obviously not a five-step snake.
With this doubt, Chen Yuanhui embarked on the road of finding snakes, and nearby residents were also very enthusiastic to help Chen Yuanhui, and every time he caught an unknown snake, he would show Chen Yuanhui whether it was the snake he was looking for.
However, Chen Yuanhui searched for five years, but he could not find this large poisonous snake with a white tail. He even doubted whether the forest workers who had been bitten at that time had hallucinations, but from the perspective of bite marks and toxicity, Chen Yuanhui felt that this must not be a common poisonous snake breed.
Finally, in early September 1989, a staff member of the Mangshan Forestry Management Bureau found a strange nest of small snakes and two large snakes in the water valley of the reserve. According to the introduction of the staff, this nest of snakes has a white tail, and Chen Yuanhui realized after hearing the news that this may be the white-tailed snake he has been looking for for five years.
Chen Yuanhui found Zhao Ermi, a Chinese reptile expert, and contacted the Chengdu Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and after studying and comparing the nest of small snakes, it was determined that this was a new species.
In 1990, Chen Yuanhui and Zhao Ermi co-signed a paper in the first issue of Sichuan Animals, announcing to the world that a new snake species had been found in Mangshan, China, named Mangshan soldering iron head.
At this point, the Mangshan soldering iron head, which can be called "the panda in the snake", began to enter people's field of vision. In the next few years, with the fame of Mangshan soldering iron head and the hype of some lawbreakers, some people began to arrest Mangshan soldering iron head to sell.
What is even more incredible is that the price of a Mangshan soldering iron tip on the black market was once more than one million yuan, which was still in the 1990s, when one million was an astronomical amount.
So the question is, what kind of snake is mangshan soldering iron head? Why is it worth millions of pieces? Let's explore the answer to the question.
Mangshan soldering iron head, also known as Mangshan spearhead viper, is a poisonous snake species in the viper family, and no subspecies have been found. Mangshan soldering iron head is a poisonous snake unique to China, mainly distributed in Hunan Province, Guangdong Province has found a female and a male and two poisonous snakes.
The head of mangshan soldering iron head is triangular, shaped like a triangular soldering iron, and is specially produced in Mangshan, so it is named Mangshan soldering iron head. Its whole body is dark brown , mixed with yellow-green or rust-colored dots , forming a finer reticulated pattern , with yellow-green transverse spots on the back and a white color on the tail.
Mangshan soldering iron head attracted Chen Yuanhui's attention, mainly because the bite marks of the bitten workers were particularly large, and they were caused by poisonous snakes. Therefore, the most prominent feature of Mangshan soldering iron head is that it is one of the largest venomous snakes found so far.
The adult body length of mangshan soldering iron head is at least 2 meters long, weighs more than 3 kilograms, and the heaviest one that has been captured weighs 17.75 kilograms, which is the heaviest poisonous snake on record.
If you look at the toxicity of snake venom alone, the ld50 value of Mangshan soldering iron head snake venom is not excellent, only 4.3mg/kg, while the most toxic silver ring snake in China has a ld50 value of 0.08mg/kg, and the world's most poisonous inland Taipan snake ld50 value is 0.021mg/kg.
The ld50 value represents the minimum dose required to kill more than half of a certain number of mice by subcutaneous injection, and the smaller the value, the more toxic it is.
From the ld50 data, Mangshan soldering iron tip is not a poisonous snake with severe venom, but this does not prevent it from belonging to the breed of deadly poisonous snake, because its weight exceeds most poisonous snakes, which means that its single detoxification volume is huge, reaching more than 300mg, which is enough to kill people.
Venomous snake ld50 numerical ranking
In addition, the toxin of Mangshan soldering iron head belongs to the blood circulation toxin, that is to say, if it is bitten, there will be burns at the wound, and the blood flow is not stopped, if it is not treated in time, the wound will gradually swell and eventually necrosis, the blood circulation toxin is called "roast meat poison", from the name can see its toxicity.
When Chen Yuanhui found the mangshan soldering iron head and was ready to release it after completing the relevant research, he was bitten by one of the small snakes and got his middle finger. Chen Yuanhui initially thought that the toxin of the little snake might not be so strong, in order to study the fresh wound did not deal with it immediately, and as a result, he fainted after taking the photo, fortunately, his daughter treated the wound for him in time, but in the end he amputated because of the ulceration of the finger.
Dr. Chen Yuanhui's image is somewhat "scrawled"
As mentioned above, around 1996, the price of Mangshan soldering iron head on the black market was speculated to millions, which made Mangshan soldering iron head the most expensive poisonous snake in the world, in fact, it is not difficult to know the reason for selling so expensive, there are mainly the following two points:
Its rarity can be seen from the discovery process of Mangshan soldering iron head, and Chen Yuanhui took five years to find a nest, which shows that the snake is very rare in the local area, and before that, there was no written record of Mangshan soldering iron head.
After Chen Yuanhui and Zhao Ermi announced the discovery of new snake species, the relevant departments carried out research on Mangshan soldering iron heads, and statistics showed that the total number of mangshan soldering iron heads in the Mangshan area did not exceed 500. And so far, except for two found in The Guangdong region, there have been no reports and records of the snake found in other provinces and regions.
That is to say, the wild number of Mangshan soldering iron heads in the world is at most about 500, and the number of giant pandas this time is even rarer, which is why it is called "panda in the snake".
In 1996, the IUCN classified Mangshan soldering iron heads as endangered according to their limited distribution and scarcity, which made Mangshan soldering iron heads even more precious.
Mangshan soldering iron head can be sold at a sky-high price, which is the result of the speculation of outlaws, such a rare poisonous snake, if there is no market, no one is willing to spend a lot of time, energy and energy, and even risk their lives to catch.
Because mangshan soldering iron head is only distributed in the Mangshan Nature Reserve in Hunan Province, China, it is a unique poisonous snake species in China. As a result, some criminals illegally caught and sold abroad for profit, and hyped up on the black market, a rare poisonous snake was speculated to a price of millions.
Rumors of a million-dollar sales on the head of mangshan soldering iron appeared in the 1990s, which reflects the rarity of the snake. But in fact, there is no record of Mangshan soldering iron tips selling for millions of dollars, and I personally believe that the rumor lacks factual basis and is very suspicious of speculation.
If viewed from a rational point of view, Mangshan soldering iron head is just a species of poisonous snake, which has no special value other than being able to increase biodiversity.
The snake's toxin is an ordinary blood circulation toxin, the toxicity is not strong, and can not be raised as a pet, snake meat has no special effect, only by virtue of the rarity of the characteristics, it is difficult to sell for millions of dollars, and it is millions in 1996.
Mangshan iron tip is an indispensable link in the biological chain of Mangshan Nature Reserve, and plays a role in preying on harmful species such as preserving rats. At the same time, it also has its own natural enemies, especially in the juvenile snake stage, which is easily preyed upon by snake predators.
Biodiversity Day Promotional Map
As a poisonous snake unique to China, Mangshan soldering iron head is already endangered, and protecting them can increase China's biodiversity and is also conducive to maintaining the ecological balance of Mangshan area.
However, there are now artificially bred Mangshan soldering iron heads, and the breeding technology is not too much of a problem, but in order to prevent the outflow of unique species in China, the state still has restrictions on the cultivation of Mangshan soldering iron heads.