h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

These are really and I don't remember seeing them in any zoos, even the ones with lots of lemurs. They are really interesting so many thanks for introducing them to me.

Posting to move this to Brunel.

Just lost some copy in Pliny.

That's an interesting point about the possibly venomous character of the bites of the potto and the slow loris, to be added to a super-group of significantly venomous mammals including the vampire bats and venomous shrews.

On evolutionary affinity, lemurs and bats differentiate from tree shrews at about the same time in evolutionary history, excepting the flying foxes which later differentiated from a far east line of lemurs.

With respect to what constitutes a venom, the usual classifications are neurotoxins and proteolytic toxins, toxins that respectively attack neural function, or in the latter case, proteolytic enzymes that destroy proteins.

There was for a very long time a controversy about the kommodo dragon as to whether it was venomous or its bite merely extremely septic, it being thought for a time it was merely the latter, nothing of toxic character being found in its saliva, until it was found that it had small venom glands after all between its teeth, producing a venom with apparent immunosuppressant and/or necrosis inducing properties.

(Black widow spider venom, by the way, operates primarily by means of inducing necrotic changes.)

So there's a significant possibility of similar agents with the potto and the slow loris.

The vampire bats are not usually described as venomous, but its well established that their saliva contains hemolytic enzymes that prevent blood from clotting as well as nerve agents of local anaesthetic character that stop pain sensation in the region of the bite.

I was once actually bitten once by a 'least shrew' hiding in the grass of a freshly mowed lawn, which I inadvertantly stepped on with my bare left foot.

I felt something warm and furry squirming under my toes, then the bite on the tip of the middle toe.

I was only about twenty feet from my own back door.

Hoping I hadn't seriously hurt that little shrew, I immediately put my foot into a chlorites laundry bleach soak, a pint of laundry bleach in a gallon of water.

Chlorites is often reccomended for first aid for dangerous venomous bites on account of it being very destructive of proteinaceous toxins and on account of its disinfectant properties.

On close examination of the bite, I found two tiny fang marks, about a mm wide, one of them barely penetrating into the granular layer immediately beneath the epidermis, less than 2 mm between them, the fang marks visibly red and inflamed, but no visible inflamation beyond them.

The sting felt like a paper wasp sting, with a difference, rather than the sting staying confined to an inflamed area within a couple of centimeters of the sting, it was spreading.

I took off my belt and used it to make a constriction band between my calf and ankle, the sting having spread by this time to cover the instep of my foot without much subsiding.

It continued to spread as far as the constriction band.

After 15 minutes, by which time the sting had begun to subside, I removed the constriction band.

After about half an hour, everything was pretty much back to normal.

On the least shrew venom, I'd class it as a neutotoxin, and would say that though very painful, the bite isn't likely to be life threatening for an adult in reasonably good health.

If the bite victim had been a mouse, the bite would have probably been almost instantly lethal.

While a large rat might have survived, it would certainly have been at least temporarily disabled.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_least_shrew

Wow, it was neat that you knew what to do for that bite ITIWBS. Did you have some medical training that you knew what to do for it? Who knew that a critter that little could cause that much damage?

Grew up on a farm, advanced boy scout first aid training on venomous bites and stings and generalized reading.

Hiya ITIWBS and Elektra! Glad you liked the article. Interesting shrew bite story ITIWBS! I've only seen shrews on a few occasions here ... never been bitten ... but a cat of ours once tried to kill a shrew, it fought back and she did not succeed ... now I wonder if she might have been bitten by it?

Shrew fang marks are so tiny they're hard to gind without a close examination.

I once witnessed a contest between a tomcat and a short-tailed shrew.*

Neither survived.

The cat collapsed immediately after its adrenalin rush subsided, was dead the following morning, presumably of envenomation.

The shrew died of injuries.

*http://www.arkive.org/southern-short-tailed-shrew/blarina-carolinensis/