system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why do some venomous snakes (such as the black mamba) have venom that is much more powerful than necessary to take down the prey they go after?

I am no expert on evolution, but it seems to me that having overpowered venom is evolutionarily illogical. Thanks in advance for your answer!
gpt
Red Queen Hypothesis: You must run as fast as you can to stay in one place.

It's an arms race. Snake develops stronger venom, so prey develops stronger resistance, so snake develops stronger venom, so prey develops stronger resistance, and this continues until the energy that each species spends on the contest is too great to sustain because it takes away from energy that needs to be spent on other things. I.e if a rabbit spends so much energy on resistance to snake venom that it can no longer reproduce, then the advantage will go to a rabbit that can reproduce even if there is also a great risk of this rabbit dying due to a snake bite.

So, one of two things is probably true: either the black mamba has a prey species that has a pretty strong resistance to its particular brand of venom, or it DID have a prey species with a strong resistance, but that prey species has exhausted its resources and is pressured in another direction, making it appear as though the mamba is overpowered, when in fact it is just lagging behind in terms of de-escalation.

It's important to remember that venom and resistance can also be very specific, so a venom that is very damaging to humans (who are not in the arms race) might not be very damaging to a rabbit (which is in the arms race).