![]() While snakes can open their mouths much more widely than you would expect, this is not because the snake has dislocated or detached the bones of its jaw. This has led to a common myth that in order to get its mouth around its meal, a snake will dislocate its jaw. ![]() Many snakes eat food which is much bigger than their own heads appear to be. Instead, gently hold the snake’s tail and slowly unwrap it from your body. Do not grab at the snake and try to tug it off as this may make the snake nervous. If you do ever find yourself in the unlikely position of having a ball python or boa constrictor wrapped around your arm, remain calm. However, since humans are much bigger than the constrictor snake’s usual prey, the snake is unlikely to try to use this strategy on us. This causes the rat to have a heart attack, a much more efficient way for the snake to kill its prey.īeing attacked by a boa constrictor is a common fear for people. Instead, it is blocking the flow of blood to the rat’s heart. A boa constrictor wrapped around a rat is not cutting off the rat’s ability to breathe. It is in a hurry to get a meal, and suffocation is a long process. However, this is not the case.Ī boa constrictor does not have the time to wait for its prey to suffocate. According to this legend, being killed by a constrictor is a slow, torturous death. There is a long-standing myth that constrictors are suffocating their prey. These snakes are known as constrictors, and include anacondas, boa constrictors, and ball pythons. Other snakes wrap their coils around their prey, tightening their grip until the prey dies. Not all snakes depend on venom to subdue their prey. Kingsnakes and king cobras, in particular, are known for eating other snakes. Lots of snakes feed on other, smaller snakes. If you see a snake with another, smaller snake in its mouth, you are likely seeing one snake making a meal of another snake. Within a few days, baby snakes are slithering around with just as much strength as any adult snake. Fortunately, they can get their first meal from the lining of the egg they just hatched from. Male snakes do not stay near the female at all after they mate, and female snakes do not stick around near the nest after their babies have hatched.īaby snakes must be ready to fend for themselves almost immediately after birth. However, mother snakes do not generally stick around to care for their babies at all. Other versions of this myth say that the mother snake will carry its babies around in her mouth until they are large enough to fend for themselves. Later, when they are safe, the mother snake will regurgitate the babies to let them back out again. ![]() This isn’t because it wants to eat the babies, but because it is trying to protect them from harm. Snakes Swallow Their YoungĪ common myth about snakes is that a mother snake will swallow its young. Like most snakes, they would much rather avoid conflict. But mud snakes do not form a hoop with their body, and they do not roll towards people to attack them. This position makes the snake look a bit like a hoop. When threatened, this snake will curl into a sort of spiral shape, using its tail to protect its head. Mud snakes do have a sharp tail which they can use in self-defense. According to the Journal of Integrative Biology, the hoop snake legend may come from people who observed mud snakes. However, hoop snakes do not actually exist. Then, when the hoop snake catches up with its victim, it will use the sharp stinger at the end of its tail to make the kill. It chases its prey by grabbing its tail in its mouth, forming a hoop with its body, and rolling along the ground at high speeds. Stories of this creature often appear in tall tales, such as stories about Pecos Bill, but a lot of people believe that these old stories describe a real creature.Īccording to the legend, the hoop snake is an extremely dangerous reptile. One of the stranger snake myths is the legend of the hoop snake. We’ll examine what the myth says, why it isn’t true, and where it may have originated. We’re going to debunk the most comm myths about snakes.
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