1: The decapitated head of a dead snake can still bite, even hours after death. If the snake is venomous, then these bites usually contain huge amounts of venom.
2: What is considered the most “dangerous” snake depends on both a specific country’s health care and the availability of anti-venom following a bite. Based on these criteria, the most dangerous snake in the world is the saw-scaled viper, which bites and kills more people each year than any other snake.
3: Snakes live every where on earth except, Ireland, Iceland, New Zealand, and the North and South poles.
4: Of the approximately 725 species of venomous snakes worldwide, 250 can kill a human with one bite.
5: Snakes evolved from a four-legged reptilian ancestor- most likely a small, burrowing, land-bound lizard- about 100 million years ago. Some snakes, such as pythons and boas, still have traces of back legs.
6: The fear of snakes is called ophiophobia or herpetologist, and it is one of the most common phobias worldwide. Approximately 1/3 of all adults are ophiophobic, which suggests that humans have an innate, evolutionary fear of snakes.
7: The top 5 most venomous snakes in the world are the inland taipan, the eastern brown snake, the coastal taipan, the tiger snake, and the black tiger snake.
8: The warmer a snake’s body is, the more quickly it can digest its prey. Typically, it takes 3-5 days for a snake to digest its meal. For very large snakes, such as the anaconda, digestion can take weeks.
9: Some animals, such as the mongoose, are immune to snake venom.
10: To avoid predators, some snakes can defecate whenever they want. They make themselves so dirty and smelly that predators will run away.
11: The heaviest snake in the world is the anaconda, it weighs over 595 pounds and can be as long as 30 feet. It is known to eat caimans, capybaras, and jaguars.
12: The Brahminy blind snake, or flowerpot snake, is the only snake species made up of solely females and as such does not need to mate to reproduce. It is also the most widespread terrestrial snake in the world.
13: Some snakes can have more than 400 ribs, while humans have 24.
14: The most advanced species of snake in the world is the black mamba, it has the most highly evolved venom delivery system of any snake on earth. It can strike up to 12 times in a row, only one bite is enough to kill a grown man.
15: The inland taipan is the world’s most toxic snake, meaning it has both toxic venom and it injects the most venom when it bites. Its venom sacs hold enough poison to kill up to 80 people.
16: The death adder has the fastest strike of any snake in the world. It can attack, inject venom, and go back to a strike position in under 0.15 seconds.
17: While snakes do not have external ears or eardrums, their skin, their muscles and bones carry sound vibrations to their inner ears.
18: Some snakes are known to explode after eating a meal that is too large for them.
19: The word “snake” is from is from the Proto-Indo-European root *sneg-, meaning “to crawl,creeping thing.” The word “serpent” is from the Proto-Indo-European root *serp- meaning “to crawl, creep.”
20: Rattlesnake rattles are made of rings of keratin, a rattler will add a new ring each time it sheds its skin. These rings can also break off at times.
21: Some snakes have over 200 teeth, these teeth are not used for chewing, they are re-curved (curved backwards) to prevent prey from escaping the snake’s throat.
22: There are 5 recognized species of flying snakes. Growing up to 4 feet, some types can glide up to 330 feet through the air.
23: Scales cover every inch of a snake’s body, even it’s eyes. Scales are thick, tough pieces of skin made from keratin.
24: The most common snake in north America is the garter snake. While previously thought to be non-venomous, garter snakes actually do produce a neurotoxic venom that is harmless to humans.
25: To drink water snakes dunk their snouts into the water and use their throats to pump water into their stomachs.
26: A snake’s fang lasts about 6-10 weeks, when it gets worn out a new one grows in its place.
27: A snake’s tongue is forked, and because of this they smell in “stereo” with each tip of each fork tasting different chemicals. Snakes can even tell which direction a smell is coming from. They identify scents on its tongue using pits in the roof of its mouth called the Jacobson’s organ.
28: The amount of food a snake eats helps determine how many eggs it will lay.
29: Some snakes use their tongues to follow scent trails, and others have heat sensing organs called labial pits in their snouts.
30: Snakes typically need to eat 6-30 meals each year to be healthy.
31: If the temperature reaches below 50 degrees a snake’s body does not work properly.
32: The Mozambique spitting cobra can spit venom from over 8 feet away. Their body can be in any position when they spit, they like to aim for their victim’s eyes.
33: Snakes can eat prey that is 75-100% bigger their own bodies.
34: To keep from choking on large prey a snake will push the end of its trachea, or windpipe, out of its mouth , similar to the way a snorkel works.
35: The Gaboon viper has the longest fangs of any snake, they can reach up to 2 inches.
36: Anacondas can hold their breath up to 10 minutes under water.
37: Sea snakes with their paddle shaped tails can dive over 300 feet into the ocean.
38: If a snake is threatened soon after a meal it will regurgitate its food so it can escape the threat quicker.
39: a snakes digestive system can dissolve everything but hair, feathers, and claws.
40: Snakes do not have eyelids, rather a single transparent scale called a brille, which protects their eyes.
41: The world’s longest venomous snake is the king cobra, it comes from Asia and can grow up to 18 feet. The king cobra can rear up almost as high as a person, they can growl loudly , and they can inject enough venom to kill an elephant.
42: King cobras are thought to be the most intelligent of all snakes.
43: Snakes sleep with their eyes open, since they don’t have eyelids.
44: Only snakes that kill their prey with venom have fangs, When their fangs are not in use, they fold them back into the roof of their mouth.
45: Some venomous snakes have died after biting and poisoning themselves by mistake.
46: Elephant trunk snakes are almost completely aquatic, they are unable to slither on land as they lack the “scute” scales on their bellies. They do have large knobby scales to hold onto slippery fish and constrict them underwater.
47: The shortest known snake is the thread snake, it is about 4 inches long and lives on the island of Barbados. It is said to be as “thin as spaghetti” and it feeds primarily on termites and larvae.
48: The venom from the Brazilian Pit Viper is used in a drug to treat high blood pressure.
49: Anacondas mate in a huge “breeding ball” a ball that consists of 1 female and nearly 12 males. They stay in a mating ball for up to a month.
50: Two-headed snakes are similar to conjoined twins: an embryo begins to split to create identical twins, but the process does not finish.
SnakeWorld.org 