Snake Facts
• The first of the snake facts: there are more than 2200 species of snakes in the world.
• Twenty percent of all snakes are poisonous.
• Snakes have no sense of hearing but they do pick up vibrations.
• Snakes are not intelligent--they lack the part of the brain that controls the ability to think and learn.
• All snakes have eyes that are lidless.
• Some snakes are born and some hatch from eggs.
• Snakes live in every part of the world, although there is much greater diversity in snakes in warm climates.
• No one knows for sure how long many snakes live, but some snakes in captivity have lived to be in the range of thirty years.
• The majority of human beings have an instinctive fear of snakes.
• Snakes control their body temperature by the heat from the sun.
• Snakes bite humans if they smell like food, they’re afraid, or they think you are a threat to them.
• One of the smallest of snakes, a ground snake is five inches long.
• A python is one of the largest snakes at 30 feet long and weighing 200 lbs.
• Snakes only eat when hungry so they can go from 5 days to 6 months between meals.
• One of the non-comforting snake facts is that snakes can have 200 teeth.
• Snakes do not chew but they do bite.
• Snakes can eat prey up to three times bigger than its mouth. This is because the snake’s mouth has tendons that stretch.
• Another one of the snake facts that is documented is that on a couple of occasions, a snake has eaten a tiger. Obviously, it was a very large snake.
• Some snakes are much more aggressive than others.
• Snakes move because of muscles that attach to their ribs. These muscles grab onto things on the surface they are crawling on. If you put a smooth surface, like glass, under a snake he would not be able to crawl.
• Arboreal snakes are snakes who can climb trees.
• There are both male and female snakes.
• Snakes have many of the same organs as humans--heart, kidneys, lungs.
• Snakes are not all that slow--traveling from 3-5 mph normally.
• Snakes carry salmonella bacteria in their feces.
• Many venomous snakes have diamond or triangular shaped heads.
• Not all rattlesnakes rattle.
• Small snakes live by eating insects.
• Large snakes eat small and large animals.
• Poisonous snakes fall into two categories--Elapids and Viperids.
• The Elapid category of poisonous snakes contains cobras, mambas, kraits, Australian Copperheads, coral snakes and sea snakes.
• The Viperid category of poisonous snakes includes vipers, rattlesnakes, copperheads, bushmasters and adders.