Many of us have heard more than once about the terrarium and serpentarium that these are certain rooms or containers that contain tropical insects and amphibians. What is their purpose? Let's figure it out. The meaning of the word "serpentarium" is associated with the Latin lexeme serpens, which means "snake".
Where care about reptiles
Directories often define serpentarium as one of the types of terrarium. It creates optimal conditions for the life and reproduction of reptiles in order to use their "gifts" - poison and skin. So it’s quite possible to say about a room or a park called “serpentarium” that this is a real snake nursery. In many such establishments, reptiles can be admired and even held in hands.
Why do we need their poison
In Europe, the first public serpentarium appeared in 1849 at the London Zoo, which is located in Regent's Park. In 1899, in Brazil, in the city of São Paulo, a large institute studying snakes was opened. In his bowels a snake farm was set up, supplying various poisons for research on the tables of scientists.
Snake farms are now popular around the world as a source of invaluable components for serums and medicines. One of the ways of snake "milking" is massaging the poisonous glands of a reptile. A new method is the extraction of poison using electric current. Reptiles act on the mucous membranes of the mouth opening with electrodes with a small voltage, which is why the snake instantly releases the contents of its glands.
Siberian discoveries
In Russia, the Large Novosibirsk Serpentarium is famous. What is this herpetological center? Since the end of the last century, this most useful “factory of poisons” has been engaged in capturing snakes and manufacturing special toxins for pharmacology. Here they discovered their own methods of breeding and growing useful reptiles, create medicines based on snake venom, and are engaged in research in the field of biology, medicine and veterinary medicine. The Novosibirsk serpentarium is the only one in Russia that grows vipers and supplies poison to Nizhny Novgorod, where it is used in the production of the anti-inflammatory ointment Viprosal. And in the laboratories of the center they came up with their own recipe for vodka with a green tint and “bitterness”, after which, according to its creators, there is no hangover.
Bowl with poison and ... meat
In the Chinese village of Zisiqiao, which is also called the "City of snakes", almost three million snakes are grown for sale. The inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom use not only their poison, they consider the meat of these reptiles to be unusually refined and tasty.