This Is Not For The Faint Of Heart…Snakes Can Eat Just About Anything (including each other)

When it comes to snakes, most people either don’t mind them, or are terrified of them (kind of like Indiana Jones). As for me, I can take em’, or leave em’. But I will make one observation, snakes have the most evil eyes of all of God’s creations, they have the same look when they’re hunting, eating, or mating, it’s like they are remorseless and truly evil. But, since the beginning of time, snakes have gotten a bad rap, y’know, like that whole thing with Eve and the Garden of Eden.

Here are some facts about snakes:

There are more than 3,000 species of snakes on the planet and they’re found everywhere except in Antarctica, Iceland, Ireland, Greenland, and New Zealand. About 600 species are venomous, and only about 200—seven percent—are able to kill or significantly wound a human.

Nonvenomous snakes, which range from harmless garter snakes to the not-so-harmless python, dispatch their victims by swallowing them alive or constricting them to death. Whether they kill by striking with venom or squeezing, nearly all snakes eat their food whole, in sometimes astoundingly large portions.

Almost all snakes are covered in scales and as reptiles, they’re cold blooded and must regulate their body temperature externally. Scales serve several purposes: They trap moisture in arid climates and reduce friction as the snake moves. There have been several species of snakes discovered that are mostly scaleless, but even those have scales on their bellies.

Snakes also have forked tongues, which they flick in different directions to smell their surroundings. That lets them know when danger—or food—is nearby.

Snakes have several other ways to detect a snack. Openings called pit holes in front of their eyes sense the heat given off by warm-blooded prey. And bones in their lower jaws pick up vibrations from rodents and other scurrying animals. When they do capture prey, snakes can eat animals up to three times bigger than their head is wide because their lower jaws unhinge from their upper jaws. Once in a snake’s mouth, the prey is held in place by teeth that face inward, trapping it there.

H/T- nationalgeographic.com