r/Whatcouldgowrong • u/here4thegasms • 6d ago

Messing around with a snake that can spit

• Upvotes

97% Upvoted

531 comments sorted by

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u/Little_Shellfish 6d ago

it's always fascinating to me that despite having very different anatomy, animals always know where your eyes are, and that they're vital. Birds are especially good with it

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u/Warm_Candidate_9837 6d ago

Animals aren't as dumb as you may think. Eyes tend to look similar and work pretty much the same across the board even if they see in different colors or ways

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u/Little_Shellfish 6d ago

I don't think they're dumb. I'm admiring their intelligence

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u/DoesntMatterEh 6d ago

Isn't it wild how your entire post was about how incredible animals are and someone jumped in assuming you think animals are dumb. 

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u/BreadKnifeSeppuku 6d ago

That's because people are dumb. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk

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u/whenveganscheat 6d ago

Wait a minute...i'm people... HEYYY!

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u/SandySockShoes 6d ago

Isn’t it wild how you are just minding your own business and you get hit with strays like this. Someone just jumps in and assumes you are dumb!

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u/Cute_Obligation2944 6d ago

Isn't it crazy how people hijack the comment thread to weigh in for karma!? It's like Old McDonald started building bots!

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Poddx 6d ago

Either this whole thread got wooshed or I am the dumb one

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u/s0ul_invictus 6d ago

I for one am so jaded right now I'm glad they're being careful and assuming everyone is dumb until they prove otherwise. This heehaw situation overfilled a cup I didn't realize was nearly full..

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u/KassellTheArgonian 6d ago

OK Homer Simpson

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u/Fun_Ad5823 6d ago

I'm just one big long snake with arms and legs attached.

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u/LNL_HUTZ 6d ago

Wait. I’m people too. People are animals, I think. Does that mean I’m not as dumb as I think?

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u/FartCloudedNonsense 6d ago

Wait a minute...im eyes.... what are we talking about?

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u/dbass1994 6d ago

I thought you were fart

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u/FartCloudedNonsense 6d ago

Oh you're right...shouldn't have started drinking so early

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u/jiibbs 6d ago

You're not people until you're with another person.

If you're by yourself you're just an ople.

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u/xkey 6d ago

People aren't as smart as you may think...

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u/NobodyKnowsImFamous 6d ago

By the transitive property humans are animals

ONLY by the transitive property.

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u/vansterzzz 6d ago

Who the hell is this Ted I keep reading about and why does he always want to talk?

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u/SpicySoupBiscuit 6d ago

pretty sure the "you" is meant in the general sense. a shortcoming of english

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u/usrdef 6d ago

There are varying levels of intelligence.

We call most things "dumb" that are not on the same level as human's intelligence.

I've taken care of and owned many snakes, both non venomous, and venomous.

Dumb is not the word I'd use, however, they do have a very limited scope to their intelligence.

Such as when a snake mistakes its own tail as prey and attempts to consume itself. Usually this happens due to things like stress, or sensory confusion.

But the level of their intelligence also greatly depends on the species. A hognose snake, and a cobra, are vastly different in how they behave and analyze their environment.

If we're comparing snakes to humans, then yes, a snake is not very bright. But as far as animals are concerned, snakes are very good at using their brain. With a little help from their genetic coding / instincts.

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u/myrsnipe 6d ago

I would not blame the snake for lacking in abstract reasoning, it knows how to handle itself in in its own environment

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u/AFestiveShiving 6d ago

Thats what people forget, humans required abstract thinking and higher intelligence to survive because we lack what other animals have in troves

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u/Altruistic_Brick1730 6d ago

My boa mistook an Ozzy Osbourne t-shirt for a rat and ate it. He was not smart.

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u/lokismom27 6d ago

Was Ozzy holding a bat because that might explain it?

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u/AFestiveShiving 6d ago

Got a rescue king snake with scoliosis thats nearly 20 years old, lil dude is senile and often rolls around and bites himself. But instincts still work and eats fine even if he misses the first couple of strikes, amazing really.

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u/Warm_Candidate_9837 6d ago

I didnt mean it like that ;-;

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u/SomeBoredIndividual 6d ago

Lol Reddit’s gonna Reddit bro 😭 if it’s any consolation, I ain’t think you meant anythin negative

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u/Expensive_Umpire_178 6d ago

I think they’re dumb

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u/MelangeBot 6d ago

I caught two rats in one trap yesterday so they must have raced each other to the bread in there, after drowing them I cleaned the trap and set it again but I had no bait and was to lazzy to go get some in the middle of the night. By morning there was a third rat in the trap that had no bait in it. Animals might be smart but their instinct kick in all the time overruling all their intelligence.

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u/Onyxaj1 6d ago

It's why false eyes work. They look like eyes, so it can scare predators off.

And on that note, tigers have false eyes on thier ears. I'm less scared of tigers now, and more afraid of whatever the fuck is hunting them.

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u/Vladishun 6d ago

Cliffords the Big Red Dogs

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u/Flufnstuf 6d ago

Look at how big this dog is.

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u/M1R4G3M 6d ago

Them having fake eyes in the ears must be why they are still here and what hunted them is not.

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u/KevRev972 6d ago edited 6d ago

Mom: "Oh, so we're gonna have AIR for dinner again tonight, Dave?"

Dad: "Oh, HERE WE GO"

M: "Just go get dinner, Dave! That big cat is over there sleeping. It'll feed us and the kids for almost a week."

D: "It's looking right at us, Susan. The eyes on top don't even blink. It never sleeps!"

M: "And you're never awake. God forbid you do some actual work for this family! I'm taking the kids to my mom's tonight so they can EAT."

-some ancient megolithic horrors, probably

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u/CannonGerbil 6d ago

Crocs mainly, and pretty much any ambush predator that waits for when their prey is drinking water to strike. A tiger's false eyes only show when they have their head lowered, like when they are dipping down for a drink.

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u/rmbarrett 6d ago

Other tigers perhaps. Doesn't have to be hunting necessarily.

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u/paradoxxxicall 6d ago

Or dinner trying to fight back

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u/LovingHugs 6d ago

Perhaps more applicable to the younger tigers?

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u/RevenantBacon 6d ago edited 6d ago

It's not even "intelligence" really, it's a sort of biological predisposition to be able to recognize faces, even humans exhibit it. It's why we can see faces in something like the front of a car or a sink. It's also why some insect species were able to successfully develope camouflage that disguises their tail end to look like a head as a survival mechanism.

Also, fun related note: evidence strongly suggests that spitting cobras developed their venom spitting ability directly in response to their proximity to humans, so they're especially predisposed to be able to identify human facial features.

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u/Warm_Candidate_9837 6d ago

That is true, but I suppose I in a sense see some of that as a form of intelligence itself, the pattern recognition.

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u/RevenantBacon 6d ago

I would say it more qualifies as knowledge than intelligence. Knowledge being the knowing how to do a thing and what that thing does, intelligence being understanding why the thing does what it does. In this instance, I would say knowing that spitting poison into a potential predators face is likely to make it stop threatening you would be separate from understanding that by getting poison into the predators eyes, it could blind and injure them, thus causing halting their threat.

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u/randomguyonline0297 6d ago

Dont know man. Thats one pretty dumb animal holding the snake right there.

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u/ghostcatzero 6d ago

Yep even on earth most species look reletivily similar.

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u/DisorderlyAqueduct 6d ago

it's not reasoning, it's evolution, animals have parts of the brain that recognize faces!

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u/LizardChaser 6d ago

It is believed that literally this particular snake evolved to spit venom to combat human ancestors, e.g., upright primates using tools, from killing them. So this particular snake may have evolved specifically to f your eyes up.

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u/marino1310 6d ago

We all evolved side by side and have the same basic floor plan. Head is the control center, neck is the weak spot, eyes are generally in the same place and there are two of them, etc. Everything branched off of a handful of common ancestors so there isn’t too many animals that don’t have similar enough body plans (snakes being one of them since they lack limbs). That’s why we never see any animals with four legs and wings, there is no common ancestor with 6 legs, so everything has to work with 4 limbs, and if you need something else you need to improvise (prehensile tails are one of these improvisations) or you need billions of years to evolve something as complex as extra working limbs.

It’s also why insects bother us so much despite being harmless, they are so far off the standard body plan that they might as well be aliens to us. So we naturally feel uneasy looking at them, as we can no longer accurately predict movements and intentions due to their completely unreadable faces

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u/DJBFL 6d ago

Surprisingly, the earliest known vertebrates had 4 eyes.

https://le.ac.uk/news/2026/january/ancient-fossils-vertebrates-four-eyes

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u/imaginary_num6er 6d ago

Birds are just dinosaurs

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u/Tokon32 6d ago

If you think about the fact that we all come from the same pool of life goo than it makes a little more sense.

Like all living things share the same desire and drive to survive purely from instinct.

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u/SubstantialAgency914 6d ago

But then it gets crazier because eyes were independently evolved like 5 times. Thats why there are different pupil shapes.

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u/omnipresentrain 6d ago

Like how vertebrate eyes are wired in backwards so our brains have to constantly compensate for blind spots, while cephalopods are far more functional.

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u/Unhappy_Muscle_9582 6d ago

their cable management is so much better!

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u/erasmulfo 6d ago

Blind spots are fascinating though, when I found out about them with the dot test I questioned the whole reality

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u/Tactical_Moonstone 6d ago

Funny enough, humans also made the same backwards wiring weirdness when they invented the CMOS sensor.

Took a while before they managed to figure out how to put the wiring at the back and called it the back-illuminated CMOS sensor.

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u/DJBFL 6d ago

I don't dispute eyes evolving in different unrelated lines, but we have different pupils even with a single source. Goats, cats, and humans all trace back to an earlier vertebrate that already had eyes, right?

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u/omnipresentrain 6d ago

Yep, all vertebrate eyes have the same origin, diversity in pupil structures in mammals are all just later adaptations. Cephalopods do have some weird and wonderful pupil structures that are similar adaptations from a different base design.

We think it's because they don't have cones for detecting colour like we do, despite communicating largely in colour and using it for camouflage. These pupils allow them to detect colour through chromatic aberration, though they may also have additional decentralised colour perception through their skin.

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u/SubstantialAgency914 6d ago edited 6d ago

Pretty sure goats are at least a different one. Pupil shape is just the explain like im 5 answer. I know cuttlefish have a unique line.

Edit: cephalopod was the word I was thinking of, not cuttlefish.

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u/dillweed67818 6d ago

Animals are smarter than we give them credit for. Wasps can recognize faces and horse flies dive bomb your head when trying to remove you from their territory.

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u/bonesNrice 6d ago

These cobras specifically evolved to survive encounters with apes

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u/AceCombat1977 6d ago

Me stung in the Tear duct by a hornet. 1 hornet just bam, no warning.

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u/funkychickens 6d ago

I think id'ing all kinds of eyes are up top in intelligence priority when it comes to predators and prey. Gotta know when something is watching or not watching. Or how to stop them from watching. Terrifying how the snake seemed to know to shoot over the glasses 😬. And how some species evolve false eyes to confuse others.

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u/Edison_The_Pug 6d ago

Crows and eagles are great examples, exceptionally intelligent creatures.

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u/Extension-Night3825 6d ago

animals always know where your eyes are, and that they're vital. Birds are especially good with it

Australian magpies have entered the chat 

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u/Little_Shellfish 6d ago

The exact thing I was thinking of 😵

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u/ElephantContent8835 6d ago

That snake is twice as smart as anyone in the Trump Regime.

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u/dzan796ero 6d ago

Even sea life is very aware of eyes

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u/InOutlines 6d ago

Human babies know it too. Eyes and nipples. They’re the first things they lock on as their brain starts to come online.

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u/robloxIsLyf 6d ago

Me but reverse. It's nipples and then eyes

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u/Snoo_56669 5d ago

I was once cutting down a fell tree across my driveway from the previous night’s storm. This tree apparently was laying on a bald face hornets nest. After a couple of axe chops this hornet lands on the only portion of my body not covered! Just above my gloved hand. That mfer stung me three times and sauntered away while I sprinted off in tremendous pain. It still astounds me that he knew to land there and sting me there. Little shit

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u/goronmask 6d ago

They can see you too

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u/SadMangonel 6d ago

The guy was wearing sunglasses. Which is even more impressive.

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u/maimedwabbit 6d ago

It also looks like it was weaving to spit around the glasses to actually hit the eyes themselves. Danger noodle mode activated

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u/CastorVT 6d ago

fucking magpies.

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u/Yallberforce 6d ago

We can also automatically identify animal eyes without being taught where or what they are. Shouldn't be that surprising that animals are the same.

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u/Patient_Activity_489 6d ago

they know what eyes look like, which is why lots of camouflage is built on making a fake face or eye or a larger eye elsewhere

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u/DisorderlyAqueduct 6d ago

animals, including bees, have areas of the brain dedicated to recognizing faces!

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u/Big-Ship21 5d ago

Damn clearly so do the the black flies I keep running into on my bike its like they specifically aim for the eyes I am convinced!

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u/King_of_the_Goats 6d ago

Is he blind now?

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u/Ex-maven 6d ago

If that got into the eyes and he doesn't get treatment soon (at least flush the stuff from his eyes), then those sunglasses might have a different purpose 

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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u/Comfortable-Low-9764 6d ago

Dude, thanks for reminding me of that movie

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u/Zhirtiv 2d ago

Frank Cuesta is a Spanish wildlife documentarian specialized in snakes. In one of his TV Documentaries he was spit by a snake directly to the eye. I don't remember if a hospital was close or he was treated on the field by TV medical crew, but even with a fast treatment and knowing well what happened to him he lost around 40% of vision in one eye. Imagine if you are a prick in the middle of nowhere and you don't know what's going on.

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u/Suds08 6d ago

Fun fact. Repeated exposure to venom may result in severe if not lethal allergy to it. You dont even need to be bitten

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u/DarkDonut75 6d ago

Heck I think I'm already severely allergic to venom. Not gonna try and find out anytime soon though

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u/kevin3350 6d ago

Just like I’m pretty sure I’m allergic to bullets

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u/TheresNoAmosOnlyZuul 6d ago

What you need is exposure therapy. Just find someone that's willing to shoot you with a BB gun, maybe move up to a .22 after a few months. Eventually you should be able to take a .556 without too much trouble.

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u/LoonahGBT 6d ago

I'm at the daily 120mm mortar round these days, never felt so good

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u/HughJorgens 6d ago

Aim for the meat of the thigh, it'll be fine.

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u/Successful_Note_5871 6d ago

But haven't some people acquire resistance to poison through repeated exposure as well?

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u/Suds08 6d ago

One guy microdosed the most potent snake venom and says he built up an immunity to it but idk why you would even want to try that

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u/mildly_houseplant 6d ago

One guy got so used to poison over time that he was eventually able to beat a Sicilian even when death was on the line.

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u/nater255 6d ago

But but, that's one of the classic blunders!!

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u/GaseousGiant 6d ago

Still, it’s not like starting a land war in Asia.

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u/Successful_Note_5871 6d ago

I think back in the day female spies would be trained to develop a resistance to poison so they could drink something with another man without killing herself too.

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u/011010- 6d ago

I think that would be called sensitization. It can happen with all sorts of stuff. Chemicals you work with, animals you work with, plants you work with.

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u/SnooMaps7370 6d ago

those sunglasses MIGHT have saved his eyes, if his blink reflex was fast enough and he had the sense to keep his eyes shut until he could wash his face.

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u/sephyir 6d ago

You watched this video and think dude's got sense?

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u/SanityPlanet 6d ago

Except he flinched away, allowing the snake to spray the venom past the side of the glasses.

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u/Antique-Resort6160 6d ago

I had a friend get sprayed directly in his eyes from arm's length, he looked like he had been welding without a mask but he was fine after a few days 

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u/AtaracticGoat 6d ago

I saw this posted a year or two ago and someone linked to an article that said he lost vision in one eye.

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u/Optimal-Wonder-1281 6d ago

Can you help me find the article

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u/AtaracticGoat 6d ago

No, I have no idea where it is anymore

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u/interstellar2799 6d ago

no he’s snake man now

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u/frshprincenelair 6d ago

By instinctively flinching sideways he effectively voided any protection those glasses could have provided

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u/88aisha 6d ago

That’s involuntary

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u/Hiw-lir-sirith 6d ago

So is laughing at him

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u/Phimb 6d ago

Hence, instinctively.

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u/cybervalidation 6d ago

Free handling venomous snakes though- entirely voluntary.

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u/ashtetice 6d ago

It literally sais instinctively

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u/RyloBreedo 6d ago

Eh, I think most of the venom hit before he turned his head. It's pretty fast. And guessing that he had his eyes closed before his head was turned sideways, I think he would be in ok shape if he can wash the venom off quickly. I think preventing it from going straight into his eyes was achieved. I recognize I'm making a few assumptions here.

Regardless, you couldn't pay me enough to hold that thing.

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u/SanityPlanet 6d ago

Idk if it also delivers venom through fangs, but it definitely could’ve bitten him based on how he was holding it.

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u/itspointyhatguy 6d ago

The spray is just defensive and they deliver it by "spraying" it out their fangs. Still delivers venom through a bite when hunting or if spitting didn't work

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u/Regiscoffee 6d ago

Hurry up Man! Wash your eyes before its too late!

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u/solo_leveler_69420 6d ago

Perfect usecase of this template!

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u/Aeriuxa 6d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/s239QJIh56sRW

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u/saywutnoe 6d ago

Because stupid.

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u/GiantDwarfy 6d ago

And social media useless points.

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u/ArnoldTheSchwartz 6d ago

Useless!?! FUCK!! I was saving my points to buy a house...

https://giphy.com/gifs/2WxWfiavndgcM

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u/Pelixelk 6d ago

He was holding it like a selfie stick.

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u/WillOrph 6d ago

Selfie snek

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u/willfauxreal 6d ago

Great. Now youre blind snd still holding a snake.

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u/Allthatforchips 6d ago

How to improve your hearing with one simple trick

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u/N0rthWind 6d ago

Hahahaha

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u/Crowdfundingprojects 6d ago

Otolaryngologists hate this one simple trick

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u/pwatts 6d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/G1TBofy2cCwtG

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u/really_stupidfrog 6d ago

That's insane. Such cool animals

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u/ADMINlSTRAT0R 5d ago

I have the antidote it's called right fist.

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u/Miserable-Resolve-76 6d ago

there are studies that say venom spitting in cobras may have evolved as a direct defense mechanism against early humans. I think there are not really any other threats in their region that would require the height and range that they are able to spit.

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u/Effective_Ad_8296 6d ago

PBS Eons has made a video about the topic, for those who are interested

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u/TheUrbaneSage 6d ago

The evidence is that spitting venom has evolved in multiple lineages, right after early humans expanded into their range

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u/HeinzeC1 6d ago

We could throw rocks, the local fauna needed to learn to throw down.

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u/ARCADEO 6d ago

Not gonna need those shades anymore.

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u/ballman666 6d ago

Oh yes he is, but for a different reason.

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u/bakahyl 6d ago

Did the snake deliberately spit over his sunglasses into the guy's eyes?

If so, that venom spit was personal

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u/cesare980 6d ago

No, the dumbass was holding the snake above the sunglasses.

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u/LeeMcNasty 6d ago

It could have just as easily bitten his arm. The fact that it could spit was hardly what went wrong. “Fucking around with a venomous snake” seems like a more appropriate title

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u/dk_is_here 6d ago

imagine if he was not wearing sunglasses

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u/IndependentMoney9700 6d ago

Ok, it spit in my eyes as an offensive strike. I should probably close my eyes, turn my head and offer my jugular 🤡

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u/Gilly-Fresh 6d ago

Ahh! I've been temporarily blinded!

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u/Glitched420 6d ago

Tf you mean temporarily? Bitch you blind forever!

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u/Pelixelk 6d ago

Are we sure it's temporary...?

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u/Orome2 6d ago

Spitting cobras can cause permanent blindness in some cases. I'm curious what the aftermath was and if he made a full recovery.

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u/BoxofCurveballs 6d ago

Can't be blind after you die

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u/Upbeat-Reach7315 6d ago

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYg3pzAz4wQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Here's the link direct from the source. Dude is fine

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u/mickle1026 6d ago

His entire page involves snake activities

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u/weasel_mullet 6d ago

Bud, you can't use the silly head bob trick on a cobra with ranged weapons...

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u/Califrisco 6d ago

Why this man decides to hold one of these creatures is just asking for trouble. From Wikipedia about the black-necked spitting cobra (Naja nigricollis): "The cytotoxic venom irritates the skin, causing blisters and inflammation, and can cause permanent blindness if the venom makes contact with the eyes and is not washed off."

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u/teh-haps 6d ago

Why not just bite his arm

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u/itsjusthafiz 6d ago

did he turn blind??

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u/PurbulentTriest 6d ago

Nah, he turned then he went blind. 

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u/Critical_Dealer6635 6d ago

No sympathy whatsoever and double that if the idiot was an influencer.

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u/Dave_1464 6d ago

hes still holding it out too after all that

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u/ThanksImjustlurking 6d ago

Ahhh Skeet Skeet Skeet!

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u/raffie77 6d ago

there are lot's of video's on youtube about longevity:
eat healthy foods
get enough sleep
be social active
move a lot

and here is my extra bonus tip:
don't pick up (spitting)cobra's!

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u/Hipertor 6d ago

Yeah, raise the spitting snake above the angle the eyes would be protected by the glasses

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u/-Dub21- 6d ago

aaaand now your glasses double for blind man glasses

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u/ContagiouslyAdorable 6d ago

Mess around with a snake that can swallow

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u/Neuronzap 6d ago

I’m not sure what that spit does, but I’m guessing that he’s lucky he had sunglasses on

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u/angst_ridden 6d ago

Poor snake was just trying to be a snake, and this doofus picks it up and starts waving it around for fake internet points. The snake reacted in fear, like anyone would. I don't wish that kind of pain on anyone, but I also have a hard time feeling too much sympathy for the doofus.

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u/I_Ponders 6d ago

Hope he went straight to a hospital. That will literally melt your cornea and blind you.

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u/Amazing-Movie8382 6d ago

Oh sheet, he gonna lose his eyes