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Snakes, one of the most deadly and widely feared creatures on the planet.
Snakes belong to the suborder Serpentes, are elongated, limbless and flexible reptiles. There are about 3,000 known species of snakes, of these, some 700 species are venomous and of those around 250 can deliver a bite capable of killing a human.
But even non-venomous snakes can be dangerous to humans, especially the biggest snakes in the world.
Snakes eat their prey whole and are able to consume prey up to over 3 times larger than the diameter of their head.
This is possible because their lower jaw and upper jaw can separate from each other.
To keep prey from being able to escape, most snakes have rear-facing teeth that hold their victim in their mouths, specially the constrictors like the Burmese Python.
Venomous snakes inject their prey with venom, while constrictors will squeeze the life out of their prey.
Snakes don't need to hunt and feed on a daily basis. Anacondas and pythons can survive for up to a year without food after feeding.
1. The decapitated head of a dead snake can still bite, even hours after death. These types of bites usually contain huge amounts of venom.
2. Rattlesnake antivenom costs $20,000 per vial. One Florida boy needed 75-80 vials, which adds up to about $1.6 million.
3. The muscle that causes a rattlesnake to rattle fires 50 times a second for up to 3 hours or 520,000 rattles without stopping.
4. What is considered the most “dangerous” snake depends on both a specific country’s health care and the availability of antivenom 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.
5. Snakes are found all throughout the earth except Antarctica, Iceland, Ireland, Greenland and New Zealand because they can't survive on the frozen grounds.
6. Of the approximately 725 species of venomous snakes worldwide, 250 can kill a human with one bite.
7. The fear of snakes (ophiophobia or herpetophobia)is one of the most common phobias worldwide. Approximately 1/3 of all adult humans areophidiophobic, which suggests that humans have an innate, evolutionary fear of snakes.
8. The warmer a snake’s body, 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. The heaviest snake in the world is the anaconda. It weighs over 595 pounds (270 kg) and can grow to over 30 feet (9m) long. It has been known to eat caimans, capybaras, and jaguars.
11. The most advanced snake species in the world is believed to be 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, though just one bite is enough to kill a grown man.
The black mamba is the world’s fastest snake and the world’s second-longest venomous snake in the world, after the king cobra.
Found in East Africa, it can reach speeds of up to 12 mph (19kph). It’s named not from the color of its scales, which is olive green, but from the inside of its mouth, which is inky black. Its venom is highly toxic, and without anti-venom, death in humans usually occurs within hours.
12. The death adder has the fastest strike of any snake in the world. It can attack, inject venom, and go back to striking position in under 0.15 seconds.
13. While snakes do not have external ears or eardrums, their skin,muscles, and bones carry sound vibrations to their inner ears.
14. There are about 3,000 different species of snakes. All of them are predator.
15. In 2009, a Florida couple was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter of their daughter after their pet Burmese python escaped its cage and squeezed the two-year-old to death.
16. The largest Chinese restaurant in the world seats 5,000 people, employs more than 300 chefs, and goes through 700 chickens and 200 snakes in a week.
20. In an island in Brazil, there are 5 snakes per square meter and hence it is declared a no human zone. So, if you are visiting Brazil, you better not visit this snake island.
21. The most deadly species of snakes are found in Australia which includes Brown Snakes, Copperheads, Death Adders, Tiger snakes and Taipan snakes.
