Snake species recycles poison collected from its own prey.
Keelback snakes are master chemists. These unusual snakes possess glands in their skin that contain heart-stopping toxic steroids to defend against predators. When an attacker tries to eat them, the glands rupture, releasing a mouthful of potentially fatal poison.
But these snakes, native to China, Japan and Southeast Asia, don’t have the biochemical machinery to produce these toxic chemicals themselves. Instead they gather them from their own prey — poisonous toads — and repackage them into their own chemical defense. Read more in Inside Science.