People who are familiar with the special snake type in my country should be familiar with poisonous snake Xiaoqinglong . This guy is not only very toxic, but also has been hyped up to the price of 1 million on the black market, which is the "favorite" of many poachers.
So, why is it always "thinking" abroad? Why is one worth 1 million?
can one be worth 1 million?
Viodic snake Little Green Dragon
Mangshan is located in Hunan Province, my country. It has abundant rainfall and warm climate. It has a large area of green among the mountains. It is one of the most representative original evergreen broad-leaved forests in the subtropical zone, and there are many special animals living in it.
Violate snake little green dragon lives in Mangshan
For example, the one we are going to introduce today, Violate snake little green dragon .
The nickname of Xiao Qinglong is actually because the local ethnic minority Yao ethnic group is very afraid of snakes and dragons , so based on these two animals as the prototype, many myths and legends have been compiled. Among these legends, the little green dragon is very large. Once someone provokes it, he will be punished by God.
The animation image of the little green dragon
However, before the 1980s, this kind of snake was only in legends until Chen Yuanhui really found the little green dragon that was accidentally discovered by people and locked in a cage during the search of Mangshan.
Later, he sent the integrated relevant information to Deputy Director of Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Professor Zhao Ermi Professor , and in December 1989, after sending the specimen of Xiao Qinglong, the identity of this legendary "snake" was newly defined.
It is reported that Professor Zhao Ermi said at that time, "This is indeed a new snake species in the genus Viper family soldering iron head genus, which has never been internationally available. It is very large."
This snake identified by the two people belong to the new snake species
Later, the poisonous snake nicknamed Xiao Qinglong had its own scientific name, called Mangshan soldering iron head snail . Its body is cyan, with black marks distributed on it, and its head is triangular, looking like a soldering iron.
According to existing information, Mangshan iron-headed snake is very large, with the weight of body weighing about 3 to 5 kg and the body length can even reach 203 cm.
In addition to its special body shape and appearance characteristics, Mangshan iron-headed snake also contains highly toxic , and can even spray venom within a short distance. This means that even if it is not bitten by it, it is very dangerous to spray the venom into the eyes and other parts.
LD50 The higher the value, the stronger the toxicity
Of course, even if the toxicity is so strong, it cannot stop people's curiosity psychology . Especially on the black market abroad, Mangshan iron-headed snake is one of the most popular "pets" of , and many people are willing to buy it at a high price.
Due to the high market demand, many snake catchers would search around in Mangshan in the last century, grabbing this snake and "illegally sell it".
Don’t catch
so, why is Mangshan iron-headed snake so valuable? Why is
worth 1 million?
First of all, judging from the appearance of the Mangshan iron-headed snake, it is still very beautiful, with grass-green all over it, and the scales are like dead leaves. and it has one special feature, that is its tail.
It turns out that although the whole body is grass green, its tail is actually milky white, and it looks very "delicate". Therefore, it would be more pleasing to the eye if Mangshan iron-headed snake could be kept at home.
Some foreigners raise it as a pet
Secondly, it is the truth that everyone understands that " things are rare to be precious ". Before the Mangshan iron-headed snake was regarded as " rare snake " by the locals before they had the scientific name, which was very rare.
Because as a unique variety, they only live in a range of about 100 square kilometers of Mangshan. Such a narrow habitat is destined to not be particularly large, with a population of about 300 to 500 .
From this point of view, the rarity of Mangshan iron-headed snake has exceeded that of giant pandas and has been listed as an endangered species of early on. But it is precisely because of this that they are always remembered by "snake dealers".
Mangshan soldering iron head is listed as an endangered species
It is worth mentioning that foreign countries pay great attention to this kind of snake. In addition to the fact that there are a few rich people who are curious, there is another important reason that Mangshan soldering iron head snake has a high scientific research value .
As a local endemic snake species, it is so huge that it is unique among the genus. And because it is , it was confirmed to be a new snake species in the 1990s, people have relatively little information about . In this case, if you want to study it, you must obtain it through illegal means.
It can be seen from this that the value of Mangshan iron-headed snake is getting higher and higher, which is affected by various factors. And the problem that cannot be ignored is that the number of has been decreasing sharply in recent years. Because when it was discovered, it did not provide relevant legal protection, resulting in rampant poaching activities.
Due to poaching, the number has dropped rapidly
Furthermore, the frequent human activities of The impact of the deep mountain environment is increasing, and the Mangshan iron-headed snake's already small habitat is getting smaller and smaller.
Fortunately, with the improvement of relevant legislation, the highly-received "Little Qinglong" has been included in the list of key protected animals and has been protected by relevant departments. However, with the sharp decline in population size, relying solely on itself to recover its vitality in the wild is not enough. Instead, it is necessary to perform artificial assisted breeding like giant pandas.
Chen Yuanhui began to perform artificial assisted breeding on him
"Little Qinglong" rescue in progress
We mentioned above that the first person to discover Mangshan iron-headed snake was Chen Yuanhui. After gaining an official identity for him, Chen Yuanhui conducted a carpet-style inspection locally, trying to count their number. The final result was not optimistic. In this case, Chen Yuanhui had the idea of artificially cultivating at .
It is worth mentioning that if you want to carry out artificial cultivation, you must first study the reproduction rules of this snake.
During the exploration process, he found that most of the existing snakes in are adults, and young snakes around one year old basically do not exist in . This made Chen Yuanhui confused. It was not until later that he began to try breeding by himself that he discovered that the big snake in the same cage in would swallow the young snakes .
The hatched young snakes are difficult to survive
In this case, the population of Mangshan iron-headed snakes is definitely difficult to increase.
After understanding the breeding rules of this snake, he searched for adult snakes in the mountains, and then isolated the hatched young snakes to ensure that they were not eaten by adult snakes. As the breeding work went smoothly, many "snake dealers" also came to the door and proposed to buy the "Little Qinglong" he cultivated, but in the end they were all rejected.
In the eyes of Chen Yuanhui and other breeders, , a snake that belongs to Mangshan and China, is worth more than 1 million, and they are priceless.
Chen Yuanhui has been committed to protecting Mangshan iron-headed snake
It has only been more than thirty years since we discovered this snake, and many puzzles have not been solved. If this snake becomes extinct due to illegal trafficking at this time, it will definitely be a great loss for my country's scientific research.
Now, more and more people have mastered the methods of artificial breeding of "little green dragons" with the help of Chen Yuanhui and others. When these artificially bred snakes grow to a certain age, they will release them into the wild to increase the wild population.
Snakes will eventually be released into the wild
Of course, "save" a poisonous snake is not an easy task. Even Chen Yuanhui, who knows a lot about the poisonous snake, is often bitten by it, and even a piece of his finger was cut off due to being bitten by the snake.
believes that with the help of relevant legislation to restrict and artificial breeding, the number of such snakes will become more and more.And compared with its auction value on the black market, it has a significantly higher value to the Mangshan ecosystem. As long as there is no "buying and selling", there will be no more Mangshan iron-headed snakes being arrested.
