BOA CONSTRICTOR(Boa boa)
BOA CONSTRICTOR
(Boa boa)
The boa is not venomous. It kills by constriction, tightening its coils around its victums until they cannot breathe. Contrary to what people often imagine, boas do not crush their prey, and few bones are broken. Boas are among the six largest snakes in the world. They live in a variety of habitats, from deserts to dense forests. Their markings vary, but they are always more camouflaged. Boas prey mainly on birds, mammals, and sometimes farm livestock. They produce up to 50 eggs a year, which hatch as they are laid.
This beautifully colored rain forest snake spends most of its life in trees. With its bright green body clamped around a branch, it waits for birds and other animals to come within range. Once it has made an attack, the boa hangs in the air while clinging on with its tail. After it has constricted and swallowed its prey, it pulls itself back up. The green tree python (Chondropython viridis) from Austrailia is also bright green and hunts in a similar way.
The olive-green anaconda is one of the world's longest and heaviest snakes. One captive anaconda measured more than 28 ft. from head to tail, but it is not known what size this snake could reach in the wild. Though the anaconda is a good climber, it spends much of its time in or near water, catching animals that come to drink. Capybaras are among its favorite prey, but it also eats turtles and caimans. When young anacondas are born, they can be 3 ft. long.
This is one of the most common pythons in Southeast Asia. The true Burmese python is dark in color, but a subspecies called the Indian python is paler and smaller. Burmese pythons hunt both day and night for rodents, young deer, and other animals. They have been known to bite humans, but like other pythons, they are not venomous.
This is the largest snake in the world, and it is the only snake known to have reached a length of 33 ft. Reticulated pythons live in tropical forests, where they prey on birds and small mammals. Like other pythons, they have a small pair of heat sensitive pits on their snouts to help them track down their prey. They lay up to 100 eggs, which the female guards until they hatch.
There are three species of wart snakes, found from India to northern Austrailia. Wart snakes are thick and heavily built, and their baggy skin looks as if it is several sizes too large. They spend their lives in shallow water in rivers and estuaries or the ocean, and have great difficulty moving around on land. They feed on fish, killing them with a powerful bite. Acrrchordus javanicus, sometimes known as the Javan wart snake, is the largest species. It gives birth to live young.
This widespread North American snake is one of the most varied in color. In California, it is often black or brown with white bands, but farther south it is much paler. Kingsnakes kill their prey by constriction. They belong to a family called the colubrids, which includes more than three fourths of the world's snake species. Colubrids have solid teeth rather than true fangs, and most of them are harmless.
The rat snake can be plain or striped, and black, yellow, grey, or brown, but it has one characteristic feature - its underside is completely flat, turning up at sharp corners along its flanks. Rat snakes climb well. They eat mice and rats, which makes them useful visitors on farms. Rat snakes kill their prey by constriction. If a rat snake is in danger, it rears up, hissing.
The grass snake is a daytime hunter and spends much of its time near water. It is a good swimmer and feeds mainly on frogs and toads, although it also eats small mammals and young birds. Its olive green body is well camouflaged, and its slender shape is ideal for slipping through waterside vegetation. If a grass snake is threatened out in the open, it defends itself in an unusual way-it stays completely still and pretends to be dead. Many predators avoid dead animals, so this ruse sometimes saves the snake's life. Grass snakes reproduce by laying clutches of up to 40 eggs, which can take two months to hatch.
This North American snake is named for its stripes, which look like the patterns on old-fashioned garters. It is very widespread and is found farther north than any other North American reptile, within a few hundred miles of the Arctic Circle. There, large numbers of snakes gather in writhing heaps during the fall mating season. After mating, they hibernate together, which helps them survive in places with freezing winters. Garter snakes give birth to live young.
This green-yellow snake is a daytime hunter with well-developed eyes. It lives on rocky hillsides and in scrub and specializes in catching lizards. Compared to many snakes, it is fast and agile-characteristics needed for hunting fast moving prey. Whip snakes lay about 12 eggs each time they breed, hiding them in crevices among the rocks.
Vine snakes live in trees and mainly eat lizards. They are long but very slender, with pointed snouts. Their shape allows them to creep up on their prey. Vine snakes inject venom through grooved teeth at the back of their jaws. "Back-fanged" snakes are rarely dangerous to humans, as most of them can bit only small animals.
This snake is a rare exception to the rule that snakes hunt things that move. It feeds on birds' eggs, and it has become so well adapted for this unusual diet that it rarely eats anything else. Like other snakes, it cannot chew, so it swallows the eggs whole. As an egg moves down its neck, the snake arches its body, and downward-pointing spines on its backbone break the shell open. The contents of the egg travel into the snake's stomach, but the snake regurgitates the pieces of broken shell. There are six spieces of egg-eating snakes, all of them found in Africa.
The African boomslang is one of the few members of the colubrid snake family that has a bite poisonous enough to kill people. Like the vine snake, it lives in trees, but its venom is far stronger, and its fangs are set further forward, making it easier for it to strike and bite. Boomslangs are camouflaged brown or green. They lie in wait in the trees for their prey, often with the front of their bodies sticking out in the air. Birds sometimes mistake them for branches and land on them, only to become a meal for the snake.
This giant cobra is the largest venomous snake in the world. The largest on record, which was kept at London Zoo in England, reached a length of almost 8 ft. King cobras produce large quantities of highly toxic venom and prey entirely on other snakes. They are generally secretive, but they can be aggressive, sometimes attacking people without provocation. King cobras are unusual in the snake world because they make nests out of sticks and leaves. After laying up to 40 eggs, the female remains on top of the nest until her young slither out.
The ringhals is one of three cobras that defend themselves by spitting venom. The ringhals's fangs have venom ducts that open forward, so the venom squirts out of its open mouth. It can spray its venom up to a distance of 8 ft., leaning its head back to aim at its enemy's eyes. The effect is extremely painful and can sometimes cause blindness. This snake eats rodents and frogs. It is one of the few members of the cobra family that give birth to live young.
For centuries, this poisonous snake has been popular with Indian snake charmers. When disturbed, it rears up and spreads out its ribs to form a hood, preparing to strike. It cannot hear, so it responds to snake charmers movements rather than their music. Cobras have hollow fangs at the front of their mouths. They make a quick stab and hold their prey until the poison has taken effect. Indian cobras lay 20 or 30 eggs, which the female guards until they hatch.
This highly venomous snake is not a true adder, but an unusually short and fat memeber of the cobra family. It feeds on rodents, lizards, and birds and spends the day coiled up beneath leaves or in loose soil. Like a real adder, it often lies in wait for prey instead of searching it out. Its body tapers very sharply into a narrow tail, which it waves to attract animals within range. Death adders are dangerous because they strike instantly if they are disturbed.
Nine tenths of Austrailia's snakes belong to the venomous cobra family but the taipan is probably the most dangerous of all. It is the world's third-largest pooisonous snake and is unpredictable when threatened. The taipan has a dark brown body and a slim, cream-colored head. It lives in the sparcely populated north of Austrailia, and although it sometimes hunts in suger cane fields, it rarely attacks people.
Coral snakes are nocturnal, and they spend much of their time under leaves or logs. They have cylindrical bodies and small heads, and their black, yellow, red, or white hoops are often so bright that they look freshly painted. No one knows why burrowing, nocturnal snakes should be so vividly colored-it is most likely that the color warn predators that the snakes are dangerous. There are about 40 species of true coral snakes, all from warm parts of the Americas.
The black mamba is the largest poisonous snake in Africa. It is actually grey rather than black, and it hunts in trees and bushes as well as on open groud. Black mambas are probably the fastest-moving land animals without legs. In short bursts, they can move at up to 12 mph-fast enough to overtake someone running away.
About 40 species in the cobra family live in the sea. They have flat tails that work like paddle, nostrils that shut when they dive, and highly toxic venom. Huge groups of yellow-bellied sea snakes are sometimes seen hundreds of miles out to sea, though no one knows why so many gather together. Some sea snakes lay their eggs on land, but the yellow-bellied sea snake gives birth to live young and never comes ashore.
Viper do not pursue their prey, but wait for food to come their way, then strike with deadly efficiency. The common viper is a typical memeber of this small group of poisonous snakes. It has a large head, narrow neck, and thick body with a zigzag pattern for camouflage. Its fangs are normally folded away, but they swing forward as the snake attacks. Once a viper has struck, it waits for its venom to work, feeding only when its prey is dead. The common viper eats lizards, frogs, and small mammals. The female produces up to 20 young in late summer.
This rain forest snake is one of the fattest vipers and one of the best canouflaged. Its back is covered with intricate, brown and black, wedge-shaped markings, making it very difficult to see among fallen leaves. Its eyes face upward, an adaptation that helps it spot other animals as it lies on the forest floor. The Gaboon viper's fangs can be up to 2 in. long, and they are sharp enough to stab through clothes and shoes. Like the common viper, it produces eggs that hatch as, or just after, they are laid.
The puff adder is on of Africa's most dangerous snakes because it often lies in wait on roads and tracks after dark, staying still but fully alert. It is then all too easy to step on it. It lives in a wide range of habitats, from woodlands to semidesert and feeds on ground-living animals, such as reptiles and rodents. This snake got its name from its habit of puffing itself up if threatened.
This small pit viper is one of a handful of species that live and feed in trees. Many eyelash vipers are green or brown, but some are gold with speckles of red. Eyelash vipers eat lizards and frogs, but they also lurk near flowers to catch hummingbirds as they hover and feed.
This large, dangerous snake belongs to a family of reptiles called the pit vipers. Pit vipers track down warm-blooded animals using heat-sensitive pits between their eyes and nostrils. This works so well that many of them can strike accurately in total darkness. The fer-de-lance, one of the largest pit vipers, is responsible for more human deaths than any other snake in the American tropics. It lives in low-lying areas and often hunts in fields and suger plantations.
The western diamodback is one of the largest and most dangerous of the 35 species of rattlesnakes. These snakes are pit vipers with built-in rattles at the tip of their tails. Rattles consist of up to 12 loose, bony rings that make a buzzing or rattling sound when the tail vibrates. They are used to warn enemies to keep away, but they may also help distract small animals while the snake gets ready to strke. The western diamondback lives in dry places and woodlands and eats mammals, birds, and lizards. Like all rattlesnakes, it gives birth to live young.
This desert rattlesnake lives in sandy places, where the loose surface makes it difficult to slither. Instead, it throws its body sideways across the sand, leaving a series of parallel J-shaped tracks. This way of moving, called sidewinding, uses less energy than creeping, and helps to keep the snake cool. Sidewinders also have another adaptation to desert life-a pair of horns over their eyes that work like visors.
**All Facts and Information contained in this website can be found in the following reference materials: The Kingfisher Illustrated Animal Encyclopedia and The Complete Book of Animals from The American Education Publishers
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EMERALD TREE BOA
ANACONDA OR WATER BOA
BURMESE PYTHON
RETICULATED PYTHON
WART SNAKE
COMMON KINGSNAKE
RAT SNAKE
GRASS SNAKE
COMMON GARTER SNAKE
WESTERN WHIP SNAKE
MEXICAN VINE SNAKE
EGG-EATING SNAKE
BOOMSLANG
KING COBRA OR HAMADRYAD
RINGHALS OR SPITTING COBRAS
INDIAN COBRA
DEATH ADDER
TAIPAN
EASTERN CORAL SNAKE
BLACK MAMBA
YELLOW-BELLIED SEA SNAKE
COMMON VIPER
GABOON VIPER
PUFF ADDER
EYELASH VIPERS
FER-DE-LANCE
WESTERN DIAMONDBACK RATTLESNAKE
SIDEWINDER