Random question about poisonous animals

Some friends and I were wondering why poisonous animals live in warm climates. If you go to Norway, there are no poisonous snakes or lizards or plants or anything...but in the desert, or in the rainforest and all other warm climates, it seems like every animal is poisonous

not sure why i'm asking a soccer board this, but I can't find anything about it on the internet and perhaps there is a biologist fulham supporter

 

Last time I checked Johnny, women populate all climatic regions...

 

You don't mean "climactic" regions, do you... :wink:

Anyway, here's my explanation (but I'm not a biologist or anything, I'm just making it up as I go along...):

Most poisonous animals are cold-blooded creatures (snakes, spiders, insects etc...). (Not sure why that is - maybe that's the follow-up question...)
Cold-blooded creatures are generally much more prevalent in consistently hot climates, so there will be much more competition between them in such climates.
Competition between similar species is likely to result in faster evolutionary development towards more extreme behaviour, such as going around poisoning things you want to catch and eat, or that want to catch and eat you.
The sorts of evolutionary developments that help you survive in the cold involve things like being bigger and hairier, being able to hibernate etc. These don't really help much if you're a small cold-blooded creature with a life-span that is short compared to the length of the 4 seasons we have in our "earth year"...

OK - I'm clutching at straws now, but I reckon it's linked to the fact that most poisonous creatures are cold-blooded...

 

Poisonous animals

Actually you DO get poisonous animals in Norway:Vipera Berus or the Northern Viper has been found at least 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle.This same animal has the largest range of any snake,slithering from the UK in the west to the Kamchatka peninsula in the east.Its not in the same league venomwise as a Cobra or even a Diamondback,but deaths have occurred, the worst areas for such being southern England and (would you believe it!) SWEDEN.