West African Green Mamba

Symptoms from a green mamba bite include local pain and swelling, local necrosis, ataxia, headache, drowsiness, difficulty breathing, vertigo, hypotension, diarrhea, dizziness, and paralysis and death.

Symptoms from influenza include fever and chills, cough, nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, sore throat, hoarseness, ear pressure, earache, muscle aches, fatigue, headache, irritated eyes, flushed skin, petechial rash, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and death.

You can get a shot to reduce the impact of one of these and, as a bonus, it also protects those around you.

Originally posted at stories.starmind.org.

Sambava Tomato Frog

The literature informs me that this species lives in “swamps, freshwater marshes, and intermittent freshwater marshes”.

I am now envisioning frog-filled marshes appearing and disappearing Brigadoon-style.

Originally posted at stories.starmind.org.