Warm temps, diet seem to influence how protected desert wood rats are against snake toxins
The secret to surviving a rattlesnake bite may lie not just in genetics, but in the temperature outside: New research reveals that weather and diet can shape how well desert wood rats, a form of pack rat, resist deadly venom. In a new study published Wednesday in Biology Letters , researchers discovered that wood rats acclimated to an environment kept at 85 degrees Fahrenheit produced blood serum that better neutralized rattlesnake venom than wood rats acclimated to a 70-degree environment. Scientists also found that blood serum from wood rats that were fed their natural diet of creosote, a toxic plant, was less effective at combating venom than serum from rats fed standard chow, per a release . Desert wood rats,…