RESEARCH SNAKE BITE

Now, that we have our wound time in this post there will be variety of research and visuals which will help me plan my design and sculpture. 

Whats is my wound type?
The wound which i have been give is a snake bite.

Research. 

As you can see in the above imagine there is a difference to the bites appearance of venomous snake bites compared to a nonvenomous snake bites. This research helped me determine which path to take for my final look.


Identify an venemous snake 

The type of snake i have chosen is a spitting cobra, cobras are a group of snake from the family of Elapidae, native to Africa and South Asia. Cobras don't represent a single lineage of snake, but a group of different, but related species and lineages. A few representative genra are Naja, Ophiophangus and Asidelaps. Cobras use some common tactics to defend themselves from predators such as birds and large lizards, some of these tactics are common to all snakes but some are uniquely developed. 

Below are 4 different ways for a snake to defend themselves; 

Hooding

 Hood of the Cobra is one of the most famous defensive mechanisms in the entire animal kingdom. When a cobra is frightened it will raise a third of its length of the ground, and through physical modifications, spreading the most portion of its ribs. The cobra will look much larger and intimidating by this as the ribs pull the skin and scales to show more enlightened through the display. 

There is various of ways a hood can look; some are very broad, with an oval-shaped silhouette. While others produce a longer, rectangular shape hood. Other elapid species display a weak hood not only Cobras. These can be completely unrelated species, like the North American Hognose snake have hoods which display horizontally, which reinforce the idea that hoods are effective anti-predator mechanisms.

Spitting Venom

Many of the Cobra species are able to spit venom at recognized threats, this is can help them defend themselves as they are seen as a big food source in the wild. The cobra can produce high pressure, by this the snake can shoot venom out of holes on the forward-facing surface of their fangs. Some cobras have been know to spit venom up to 8 feet. Most cases, venom causes pain when in contact with the eyes, if this is not treated appropriately this can cause permanent blindness. 

Venomous Bite

As you may know, all cobras are venomous, some of which are capable of killing large predators like us, humans. While a cobra's bite is an effective way of them defending themselves. It one of the last resorts most individuals will employ. Cobra venom is delivered to the victim through the cobras fixed fangs, these are location in the front of their mouth. Venom of a cobra is typically neurotoxic, meaning that it interferes with nerve impulse transmission. Animals which die from a cobra bite will usually succumb due to paralysis-induced asphyxiation.

Hiding and Crypsis

One of the first predator avoidance tactics of most snakes is simply avoid detection. Cobra's are clad in colours that provide them with very effective camouflage in their natural habitats. When a cobra is in a good hiding space, they will remain motionless, which will make it harder for the visual hunter like birds to find them. Other cobras are nocturnal and avoid predators like birds entirely. In every case, a cobra will hide while sleeping, preparing to shed or while digesting a meal. Their preferred hiding spot are tree hollows, deep rodent burrows under large rocks. 

The reason for researching into each way a cobra can defend themselves will determine on how my character got bitten and where the location of my character was. 

 While researching snake bites i found it hard to find one which will be the right size for me to model, I was more than worried that majority snake bites involved a lot of detail which could even end really well or really bad, with this being my first time working with silicone i thought more realistically of what i could and couldn't do with the time limit given.

Researching into snake bites i found majority of snake bites in Switzerland are children, not all snake bites are preformed by a spitting cobra but the images what following are, There is a couple in Switzerland which help the victim of a snake bite receive anti venom.  Without this fundraising business victims could possible loss a limb or their life.

The above image shows 6 years old Busi, He suffered from intensive tissue after being bitten by a Mozambique spitting cobra.

18 month old Ngwenya, was another victim of a spitting cobra bite, he ended up having  2 and a half fingers amputated.

After researching into these bites i found the bite was a lot more complicated for me to mould and i needed something more realistic and less complicated to follow.

How do Cobras defend themselves? (no date) Available at: http://animals.mom.me/cobras-defend-themselves-4356.html (Accessed: 29 November 2015).
Inline Citations: (How do Cobras defend themselves?, no date)

Torpy, J. M., Schwartz, L. A. and Golub, R. M. (2012) Snakebite. Available at: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1148153 (Accessed: 30 October 2015).
Inline Citations: (Torpy, Schwartz, and Golub, 2012)