Source: Cool Earth
The world's largest collection of dead snakes, used to create vaccines to protect rainforest coffee workers from fatal bites, has been destroyed in a fire.
The Butantan Institute was home to some 85,000 snake specimens which along with 450,000 types of scorpion and spider were destroyed in the fire.Speaking to the Agencia Brasil news agency, curator of the collection Francisco Franco said the loss would impact humanity.
"The snakes … were used as the basis for studies and to increase our knowledge of the biodiversity of snakes. All of the snakes were lost. Today there is nothing left," she said.
According to the Guardian, the Butantan Institute, which is in Sao Paolo, was founded at the beginning of the 20th century following an outbreak of bubonic plague. The institute now creates around 90 per cent all of vaccines used in Brazil.
One of the most famous snake species to live in the Amazon rainforest is the anaconda, the biggest of which can grow to some 30 feet long.
