Why Do Warm Climates Have More Poisonous Animals than Cold Climates?
It’s interesting that it doesn’t matter whether or not there actually *are* more poisonous animals in warm climates than cold climates, but that the perception exists that there are. I don’t have any idea whether that’s true. Let’s see. Contrary to mcwetboy, I think that size and toxicity are related, though not in an absolute way. I know that baby copperheads are more poisonous than adults. And are there any poisonous anythings bigger than a cat? Poison exists as a defense mechanism primarily among small animals, or as part of a predatory strategy among other small animals. Larger animals rely on their physical size or speed for predation and escape. Now up to a point, large animals are better adapted to surviving in cold climates than small animals due to issues of body mass and heat retention. It follows then that if poison is a trait of small animals, and small animals aren’t well adapted to cold environments, then there are fewer poisonous animals in cold climates by virtue of the
