Beware: Top 6 Surprisingly Venomous Animals

Looks can be deceiving. Some unsuspecting venomous animals are gifted with brilliant, attractive colors or large, innocent-eyes that are too irresistible not to touch until you get a kiss of their poison.

How to spot whether animal is venomous or not?

Here are some unsuspecting venomous animals that everyone must be aware of:

The Golden Poison Frog (Phyllobates terribilis)This frog is considered one of the most toxic animals on Earth. The single, bright-colored frog measures two inches but it has enough venom to kill ten adult-sized men. The venom of these frogs is used by the indigenous Emberá people of Colombia to poison the tip of their blowgun darts when hunting.

Colors vary from yellow, orange, pale green and are meant to ward off a predator. Scientists believe that Golden Poison Frogs assimilate plant poisons carried by their prey. 

READ: Man Survives Multiple Bites From Eastern Brown Snake

• Inland Taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus)

Inland Taipan Snakes are found in Australia and are considered the world's most venomous snake. This relatively shy serpent, however, has a calm disposition. Also called the fierce snakes, these snakes are rarely encountered in their remote, semi-arid homeland. Like all animals, it will defend itself when provoked. Bite symptoms include headache, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, collapse, and paralysis. It also contains a "spreading factor" enzyme that increases the rate of absorption of its venom thus its bites are life-threatening.

• Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)

Platypus males are venomous: the heels of their rear feet have sharp stingers, and they use these stingers to deliver a strong, toxic blow to their enemies. 

The venomous spurs on their hind legs are used for sexual jousting with other males. It is also believed that male platypus uses their spurs to injure females with who they have recently copulated to stop them from mating with other males.

READ ALSO: Virginia Invaded by Venomous Caterpillars Which Appear Like Walking Toupées

• Hooded Pitohui (Pitohui dichrous)

Hooded Pitohui's feathers are known to have batrachotoxins, the extremely potent neurotoxic steroidal alkaloids that can cause paralysis, cardiac arrest, and death in large doses.

The bird is found in Papua New Guinea. Jack Dumbacher from the California Academy of Sciences also discovered that the toxic birds get their batrachotoxins from the small melyrid beetles that it consumes.

• Newts 

These colorful amphibians may look colorful and vibrant but many newts are poisonous. The toxins secreted through their skin as a self-defense mechanism could kill a person. Newts thrive in the Northern Hemisphere in North America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. According to Caudata Culture, newts that wear bright warning colors secretes toxic mucus. At least 10 species of newts are known to have tarichatoxin and tetrodotoxin, the most poisonous non-protein substance. It is a powerful neurotoxin that blocks signals from the nervous systems. A newt's toxin is powerful enough to cause numbness, weakness, cardiopulmonary arrest, and even death. 

• Slow Loris (Nycticebus sp.)

The slow loris is a classic unsuspecting venomous animal. It had earned a fandom worldwide due to its cuteness but these species are the world's only venomous primates. Worst, its venom has no known cure. The glands underneath their armpits release noxious oil. As the slow loris lick the glands, the saliva mixes with the oil and concocts the venom which is then filled in their grooved canines. The bites are nasty enough to pierce through the bone, causing the bitten areas to rot. A recent study revealed that they use their venom to defend their territory, their mates, or their young. 

Cute, attractive, gentle or cute as these unsuspecting venomous animals may seem, it is always better to keep ourselves away from them. 

READ NEXT: The Cute and Slow Loris: Deadly Flesh-Rotting Venom are Meant for Its Peers

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