What to do when you face a venomous animal
Jonathan Leeming is a well-known author and expert on most things venomous. He presented a seminar to explain the role of a first responder when faced with a situation when venom is involved.
Jonathan Leeming, a well-know nature conservationist, speaker and author of nine books, held another venomous animals first responder seminar at the Kloofendal Nature Reserve.
This four-hour seminar focused on venomous animal bites and stings, different types of venom and the basic first aid steps if someone is bitten or stung.
He added that most animals will not come looking for you and will only attack if they feel threatened or are being disturbed.
Jonathan said venomous animals are very important to our ecosystems and with the right knowledge we can learn to live in harmony with them.
There are more than 100 000 different types of venomous animals around the world and their venom can have between 50 and 200 different components.
These types of venom are also used for research and for manufacturing medicine, and that makes venomous animals even more important to us.
He explained that for every one person dying because of snake venom, 350 others are alive because of snake venom.
Jonathan was born in the UK and moved to South Africa in 1984 where he became involved in spider research and later scorpion research.
Later he became involved with medical research and today he works for the Poison Information Help Line.
If you want to be prepared for this kind of emergency, Jonathan advised that you have an emergency response plan, a piece of paper with the contact details and address of your local hospital at hand and also keep the phone number of the help line on your cellphone. The number is 086 155 5777.
On 16 March, Jonathan will present another one of these seminar. If you would like to attend it, you can visit https://www.scorpions.co.za to book and for more information.
