Supposed effects of a puff adder bite on a rhinoceros
Jul 23, 2020 8:40:40 GMT 5
Ceratodromeus likes this
Post by Infinity Blade on Jul 23, 2020 8:40:40 GMT 5
A few years ago, the Smithsonian Channel's YouTube channel uploaded a video titled "What Can a Puff Adder Snake Bite Do to a Rhino?". It is an excerpt from a documentary called "Viper Queens", and it supposedly shows the effects of a puff adder's bite to the leg of a rhinoceros in the form of photographic evidence in a book.
Here's the problem: I actually went out of my way to search for the original reference they cite for this by Googling some text we see in their book verbatim.
www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/153/1537883805.pdf
While this source does have the same text as the book we see in the above video (I particularly Googled some of the text accompanying Figure 80-2), the figures we see are not the same. Figure 80-2 is not a picture of a rotting rhinoceros leg bitten by a snake, it's a histological image of pathologic rhinoceros skin. This reference also does not appear to mention snakes at all.
So obviously, if there is a genuine source for a rhinoceros leg being bitten and subsequently rotting from a puff adder's bite, it's not this source. And looking at the supposed book figures in the Smithsonian video now, they do look like they were edited to show those pictures. My question, then, is where do these images of a rotting rhinoceros leg come from? Giving them the benefit of the doubt, could it be that their original source genuinely documents a puff adder's bite on a rhinoceros? Or is it just a fabrication? Some help would be neat.
Here's the problem: I actually went out of my way to search for the original reference they cite for this by Googling some text we see in their book verbatim.
www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/153/1537883805.pdf
While this source does have the same text as the book we see in the above video (I particularly Googled some of the text accompanying Figure 80-2), the figures we see are not the same. Figure 80-2 is not a picture of a rotting rhinoceros leg bitten by a snake, it's a histological image of pathologic rhinoceros skin. This reference also does not appear to mention snakes at all.
So obviously, if there is a genuine source for a rhinoceros leg being bitten and subsequently rotting from a puff adder's bite, it's not this source. And looking at the supposed book figures in the Smithsonian video now, they do look like they were edited to show those pictures. My question, then, is where do these images of a rotting rhinoceros leg come from? Giving them the benefit of the doubt, could it be that their original source genuinely documents a puff adder's bite on a rhinoceros? Or is it just a fabrication? Some help would be neat.
