Hooded pitoh - the first scientifically confirmed poisonous bird
In nature, there are a lot of poisonous insects and animals that live both on land and in water. I am glad that at least poisonous ones do not exist ... right, right? Alas, poisonous birds are also available. Here, please, get acquainted - a hooded pitoh or a thrush flycatcher. This little passerine is the first scientifically confirmed poisonous bird.
They live in the forests of New Guinea and Indonesia. The skin, feathers and organs of these birds contain the poison batrachotoxin, the same as that of the frog of the genus leaf climbers. And this poison is one of the most terrible! Getting into the blood through the mucous membrane, wound or crack in the skin, batrachotoxin causes severe arrhythmia, leading to cardiac arrest. Like frogs, birds become poisonous due to their specific diet. They eat Choresine pulchra beetles, which contain the same batrachotoxin. And in birds, of course, the immune system has adapted to it.
For humans, the amount of poison contained in feathers is not particularly life-threatening. But grabbing a pita with bare hands, a person can get serious skin burns, and if the poison somehow gets on the mucous membrane, for example, in the mouth, then poisoning is guaranteed. Attention, the question is: how crazy is the person in the video?
