Iguana Care | Snake Facts

Snake Facts

With the exception of Antarctica, snakes are everywhere on the globe in warm and temperate geographical areas. Snakes vary in size from a few centimeters to more than nine meters in the case of the anacondas or the pythons. Poisonous snakes are a minority in this huge reptile family, but venom they inject in prey is so powerful that it could cause the death of a human being within a few minutes. According to studies, the history and origins of snakes are lost in the Cretaceous period, some 150 million years ago, when snakes are assumed to have evolved from a lizard and adapted to a different living habitat.

Primitive distinctive marks of this ancestry are still present with some snakes, this is the case with pythons and boas that still carry hind limbs remains, which only make us think of a past when snakes were more lizard-like than they are today. Snakes or serpents making the subject of symbolic creations and being widely illustrated in the arts. Mankind hunted down or worshiped snakes throughout its history; yet, modern attitudes have changed towards snakes particularly under the emphasis of the ecological movements that insist on the importance of these creatures for the environment of the planet. And they couldn’t be more right.

Fascinating details in the lives of snakes indicate that not everything has been discovered about the many existing species. Thus, it is interesting to study how the patterns on the body of snakes differentiate between individuals even within the same species. Then, snakes’ response to vibrations, the superior sense of smell and even the reception of low frequency sounds make them pretty out of the ordinary. The same amount of scientific respect is due in terms of anatomical programing by the presence of the infrared sensitive receptors that allow pit vipers for instance to detect the warmth of the prey’s body.

Snakes share their habitat with us, and people from areas with a higher density of snake species and sub-species develop skills to distinguish between the dangerous or harmless varieties, and thus avoid them accordingly. Non-venomous snakes could also bite and injure one seriously when sensing danger, therefore, a healthy attitude towards such animals will save you a lot of trouble. Do not attempt to kill, catch or hunt snakes: they only feed and defend themselves as they cannot hold grudge and follow you just for the sake of biting.

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