Poison arrow question

Romeo | 09:05 Tue 16th Aug 2005 | People & Places

9 Answers

South American Indians hunt animals in the Amazon Forest with poison darts and arrows. They then eat the meat of their prey. Why do they not get poisoned? (It's not a joke, I'm serious).

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BigDogsWang

I remember seeing a documentry some time back in which a reporter followed a bunch of nomads around, and they made him take a small dose of the poison (which I think comes from a tree frog). He was as sick as a parrot.

I'm guessing they do this to form some kind of immunity against the poison.

I'm guessing..........

Loosehead

Most poisons from plants and animals work by a chemical reaction with the subject so when the poison enters the animal in question, during the process of neutralising the animal it becomes a completely different substance.

newtron

I think that some poisons may affect a living organism when injected directly into the bloodstream, but do not have the same effects when it goes through the digestive system. This may be due to interaction with digestive fluids.

bernardo

My guess is that the poison gets into the bloodstream and the brain and heart and lungs, but doesn't get built ino the musclews (which take weeks or months to grow).

Cetti

I seem to remember way back in my school days that this killer drug was called Curare, and that the poison tipped dart was blown through a tube.

That's a very good point Romeo. It's something I've never thought about till now, so I hope someone will have the answer.

darkmatter

The hunters cook their prey and the cooking process denatures (kills the efficacy of) the protiens in the poison so that the poison no longer works and has no affect on the those who eat the prey.