It added that collectors prize both species of turtles in the domestic and foreign trade markets, while the venom of the Gaboon viper – which is native to Sub-Saharan Africa -- "can cause shock, loss of consciousness or death in humans."

Finally, when the toad senses danger, it lets out a long, low hissing noise, similar to the warning hiss a Gaboon viper might make before it strikes.

But it escapes being eaten by birds, lizards, and snakes with a trick never seen anywhere else in the world: It looks and acts just like the Gaboon viper, one of the most venomous snakes in Central Africa.

The Gaboon viper has the largest fangs.

“This guy’s one of my favorites,” said French, a former army paratrooper, as he pulled a dead but very alive-looking Gaboon viper out of a walk-in freezer, one of several snakes seized in a federal investigation in Nevada.