Snake - description, characteristics, structure. What does a snake look like? What compensates for the poor development of vision and hearing in snakes Does the snake see with its eyes
There are about three thousand snakes on earth. They belong to the scaly order and like to live in places with a warm climate. Many, walking through the forest in an area where snakes can live, wonder if they see us? Or should we look under our feet so as not to disturb the reptile? The fact is that among the diversity in the animal world, only the eyes of a snake are able to determine shades and colors, but their visual acuity is weak. For a snake, sight is, of course, important, but not in the same way as smell. In ancient times, people paid attention to the snake's eye, considering it cold and hypnotic.
How is the eye of a snake
Reptiles have very cloudy eyes. This is because they are covered with a film that changes during molting along with the rest of the skin. Because of this, snakes have poor visual acuity. As soon as reptiles shed their skin, their visual acuity immediately improves. During this period, they see the best. This is how they feel for several months.
Most people believe that all snakes are venomous. This is not true. Most species are completely harmless. Poisonous reptiles use poison only in case of danger and when hunting. It takes place both during the day and at night. Depending on this, the pupil changes its shape. So, during the day it is round, and at night it is extended into a slot. There are whip snakes with a pupil in the form of an inverted keyhole. Each eye is able to form a whole picture of the world.
For snakes, the main organ is the sense of smell. They use it as a thermolocation. So, in complete silence, they feel the warmth of a possible victim and indicate its location. Non-poisonous species pounce on prey and choke it, some of them begin to swallow directly alive. It all depends on the size of the reptile itself and its prey. On average, the body of a snake is about one meter. There are both small and large species. Directing their gaze to the victim, they focus it. At this time, their tongue catches the slightest smells in space.
To be fair, snakes are not as blind as is commonly believed. Their vision varies greatly. For example, tree snakes have fairly sharp eyesight, and those leading an underground lifestyle are only able to distinguish light from darkness. But for the most part, they are really blind. And during the molting period, they can generally miss during the hunt. This is due to the fact that the surface of the snake's eye is covered with a transparent cornea and at the time of molting it also separates, and the eyes become cloudy.
What they lack in vigilance, however, snakes make up for with a thermal sensing organ that allows them to track the heat radiated by prey. And some representatives of reptiles are even able to track the direction of the heat source. This organ was called a thermolocator. In fact, it allows the snake to "see" prey in the infrared spectrum and successfully hunt even at night.
snake hearing
With regard to hearing, the statement that snakes are deaf is true. They lack the outer and middle ear, and only the inner ear is almost completely developed.
Instead of an organ of hearing, nature gave snakes a high vibrational sensitivity. Since they are in contact with the ground with their whole body, they very keenly feel the slightest vibrations. However, snake sounds are still perceived, but in a very low frequency range.
Smell of a snake
The main sense organ of snakes is their surprisingly subtle sense of smell. An interesting nuance: when immersed in water or when buried in sand, both nostrils close tightly. And what is even more interesting - in the process of smelling, a long tongue forked at the end takes a direct part.
With a closed mouth, it protrudes out through a semicircular notch in the upper jaw, and during swallowing it hides in a special muscular vagina. With frequent vibrations of the tongue, the snake captures microscopic particles of odorous substances, as if taking a sample, and sends them into the mouth. There she presses her tongue against two pits in the upper palate - Jacobson's organ, which consists of chemically active cells. It is this organ that provides the snake with chemical information about what is happening around, helping it find prey or notice a predator in time.
It should be noted that in snakes living in water, the tongue works just as effectively underwater.
Thus, snakes do not use their tongue to determine taste in the truest sense. It is used by them as an addition to the body to determine the smell.
Reptiles. General information
Reptiles have a bad reputation and few friends among humans. There are many misunderstandings related to their body and lifestyle that have survived to this day. Indeed, the very word "reptile" means "animal that crawls" and seems to recall the widespread idea of them, especially snakes, as disgusting creatures. Despite the prevailing stereotype, not all snakes are venomous and many reptiles play a significant role in regulating the number of insects and rodents.
Most reptiles are predators with a well-developed sensory system that helps them find prey and avoid danger. They have excellent eyesight, and snakes, in addition, have a specific ability to focus their eyes by changing the shape of the lens. Nocturnal reptiles, like geckos, see everything in black and white, but most others have good color vision.
Hearing is of little importance to most reptiles, and the internal structures of the ear are usually poorly developed. Most also lack an outer ear, except for the tympanic membrane, or "tympanum," which receives vibrations transmitted through the air; from the eardrum they are transmitted through the bones of the inner ear to the brain. Snakes do not have an external ear and can perceive only those vibrations that are transmitted along the ground.
Reptiles are characterized as cold-blooded animals, but this is not entirely accurate. Their body temperature is mainly determined by the environment, but in many cases they can regulate it and maintain it at a higher level if necessary. Some species are able to generate and retain heat within their own body tissues. Cold blood has some advantages over warm blood. Mammals need to maintain their body temperature at a constant level within very narrow limits. To do this, they constantly need food. Reptiles, on the contrary, tolerate a decrease in body temperature very well; their life interval is much wider than that of birds and mammals. Therefore, they are able to populate places that are not suitable for mammals, for example, deserts.
Once having eaten, they can digest food at rest. In some of the largest species, several months may pass between meals. Large mammals would not survive on this diet.
Apparently, among reptiles, only lizards have well-developed eyesight, since many of them hunt fast-moving prey. Aquatic reptiles rely more on the senses of smell and hearing to track prey, find a mate, or detect an approaching enemy. Their vision plays a secondary role and acts only at close range, visual images are vague, and there is no ability to focus on stationary objects for a long time. Most snakes have rather weak eyesight, usually only able to detect moving objects that are nearby. The numbing response in frogs when approached by, for example, a snake, is a good defense mechanism, since the snake will not realize the presence of the frog until it makes a sudden movement. If this happens, then visual reflexes will allow the snake to quickly deal with it. Only tree snakes, which coil around branches and grab birds and insects in flight, have good binocular vision.
Snakes have a different sensory system than other hearing reptiles. Apparently, they do not hear at all, so the sounds of the snake charmer's pipe are inaccessible to them, they enter a state of trance from the movements of this pipe from side to side. They do not have an outer ear or eardrum, but they may be able to pick up some very low frequency vibrations using their lungs as sense organs. Basically, snakes detect prey or an approaching predator by vibrations in the ground or other surface they are on. The body of the snake, which is entirely in contact with the ground, acts as one large vibration detector.
Some species of snakes, including rattlesnakes and pit vipers, detect prey by infrared radiation from its body. Under the eyes they have sensitive cells that detect the slightest temperature changes down to fractions of a degree and, thus, orient the snakes to the location of the victim. Some boas also have sensory organs (on the lips along the mouth opening) that can detect changes in temperature, but these are less sensitive than those of rattlesnakes and pit vipers.
For snakes, the senses of taste and smell are very important. The quivering, forked tongue of a snake, which some people think of as a "snake's sting," actually collects traces of various substances quickly disappearing into the air and carries them to sensitive depressions on the inside of the mouth. There is a special device (Jacobson's organ) in the sky, which is connected to the brain by a branch of the olfactory nerve. Continuous extension and retraction of the tongue is an effective method of sampling the air for important chemical constituents. When retracted, the tongue is close to Jacobson's organ, and its nerve endings detect these substances. In other reptiles, the sense of smell plays a large role, and the part of the brain that is responsible for this function is very well developed. The organs of taste are usually less developed. Like snakes, Jacobson's organ is used to detect particles in the air (in some species with the help of the tongue) that carry the sense of smell.
Many reptiles live in very dry places, so keeping water in their bodies is very important to them. Lizards and snakes are the best conservers of water, but not because of their scaly skin. Through the skin, they lose almost as much moisture as birds and mammals.
While in mammals a high respiratory rate leads to a large evaporation from the surface of the lungs, in reptiles the respiratory rate is much lower and, accordingly, water loss through the lung tissue is minimal. Many species of reptiles are equipped with glands capable of purifying the blood and body tissues of salts, excreting them in the form of crystals, thereby reducing the need to pass large volumes of urine. Other unwanted salts in the blood are converted into uric acid, which can be eliminated from the body with minimal water.
Reptile eggs contain everything necessary for a developing embryo. This is a supply of food in the form of a large yolk, water contained in the protein, and a multilayer protective shell that does not let in dangerous bacteria, but allows air to breathe.
The inner shell (amnion), immediately surrounding the embryo, is similar to the same shell in birds and mammals. The allantois is a more powerful membrane that acts as a lung and excretory organ. It provides the penetration of oxygen and the release of waste substances. Chorion is the shell that surrounds the entire contents of the egg. The outer shells of lizards and snakes are leathery, but those of turtles and crocodiles are harder and more calcified, like eggshells in birds.
The organs of infrared vision of snakes
Infrared vision in snakes requires non-local imaging
The organs that allow snakes to "see" thermal radiation give an extremely blurry image. Nevertheless, a clear thermal picture of the surrounding world is formed in the snake's brain. German researchers have figured out how this can be.
Some species of snakes have a unique ability to capture thermal radiation, which allows them to look at the world around them in absolute darkness. True, they “see” thermal radiation not with their eyes, but with special heat-sensitive organs.
The structure of such an organ is very simple. Near each eye is a hole about a millimeter in diameter, which leads into a small cavity of about the same size. On the walls of the cavity there is a membrane containing a matrix of thermoreceptor cells approximately 40 by 40 cells in size. Unlike rods and cones in the retina, these cells do not respond to the "brightness of light" of heat rays, but to the local temperature of the membrane.
This organ works like a camera obscura, a prototype of cameras. A small warm-blooded animal on a cold background emits "heat rays" in all directions - far infrared radiation with a wavelength of about 10 microns. Passing through the hole, these rays locally heat the membrane and create a "thermal image". Due to the highest sensitivity of receptor cells (a temperature difference of thousandths of a degree Celsius is detected!) And a good angular resolution, a snake can notice a mouse in absolute darkness from a fairly large distance.
From the point of view of physics, just a good angular resolution is a mystery. Nature has optimized this organ so that it is better to "see" even weak heat sources, that is, it simply increased the size of the inlet - aperture. But the larger the aperture, the more blurry the image turns out (we are talking, we emphasize, about the most ordinary hole, without any lenses). In the situation with snakes, where the aperture and depth of the camera are approximately equal, the image is so blurry that nothing but “there is a warm-blooded animal somewhere nearby” can be extracted from it. However, experiments with snakes show that they can determine the direction of a point source of heat with an accuracy of about 5 degrees! How do snakes manage to achieve such a high spatial resolution with such a terrible quality of "infrared optics"?
A recent article by German physicists A. B. Sichert, P. Friedel, J. Leo van Hemmen, Physical Review Letters, 97, 068105 (9 August 2006) was devoted to the study of this particular issue.
Since the real “thermal image”, the authors say, is very blurry, and the “spatial picture” that appears in the animal’s brain is quite clear, it means that there is some intermediate neuroapparatus on the way from the receptors to the brain, which, as it were, adjusts the sharpness of the image. This apparatus should not be too complicated, otherwise the snake would "think" over each image received for a very long time and would react to stimuli with a delay. Moreover, according to the authors, this device is unlikely to use multi-stage iterative mappings, but rather is some kind of fast one-step converter that works according to a program permanently hardwired into the nervous system.
In their work, the researchers proved that such a procedure is possible and quite real. They performed mathematical modeling of how a "thermal image" appears, and developed an optimal algorithm for greatly improving its clarity, dubbing it a "virtual lens".
Despite the loud name, the approach they used, of course, is not something fundamentally new, but just a kind of deconvolution - the restoration of an image spoiled by the imperfection of the detector. This is the reverse of motion blur and is widely used in computer image processing.
True, there was an important nuance in the analysis carried out: the deconvolution law did not need to be guessed, it could be calculated based on the geometry of the sensitive cavity. In other words, it was known in advance what kind of image a point source of light would give in any direction. Thanks to this, a completely blurred image could be restored with very good accuracy (ordinary graphic editors with a standard deconvolution law would not have coped with this task even close). The authors also proposed a specific neurophysiological implementation of this transformation.
Whether this work said some new word in the theory of image processing is a moot point. However, it certainly led to unexpected findings regarding the neurophysiology of "infrared vision" in snakes. Indeed, the local mechanism of "normal" vision (each visual neuron picks up information from its own small area on the retina) seems so natural that it is difficult to imagine anything much different. But if snakes really use the described deconvolution procedure, then each neuron that contributes to the whole picture of the surrounding world in the brain receives data not from a point at all, but from a whole ring of receptors passing through the entire membrane. One can only wonder how nature has managed to construct such a "non-local vision" that compensates for the defects of infrared optics with non-trivial mathematical transformations of the signal.
Infrared detectors are, of course, difficult to distinguish from the thermoreceptors discussed above. The Triatoma thermal bed bug detector could also be considered in this section. However, some thermoreceptors have become so specialized in detecting distant heat sources and determining the direction to them that it is worth considering them separately. The most famous of them are the facial and labial fossae of some snakes. The first indications that the pseudo-legged snake family Boidae (boa constrictors, pythons, etc.) and the pit viper subfamily Crotalinae (rattlesnakes, including the true rattlesnakes Crotalus and the bushmaster (or surukuku) Lachesis) have infrared sensors, were obtained from the analysis of their behavior when searching for victims and determining the direction of attack. Infrared detection is also used for defense or flight, which is caused by the appearance of a heat-radiating predator. Subsequently, electrophysiological studies of the trigeminal nerve, which innervates the labial fossae of pseudo-legged snakes and the facial fossae of pit vipers (between the eyes and nostrils), confirmed that these depressions do indeed contain infrared receptors. Infrared radiation is an adequate stimulus for these receptors, although a response can also be generated by washing the fossa with warm water.
Histological studies have shown that the pits do not contain specialized receptor cells, but unmyelinated trigeminal nerve endings, forming a wide non-overlapping branching.
In the pits of both prolegged and pit vipers, the surface of the bottom of the fossa reacts to infrared radiation, and the reaction depends on the location of the radiation source in relation to the edge of the fossa.
Activation of receptors in both prolegs and pit vipers requires a change in the flux of infrared radiation. This can be achieved either as a result of the movement of a heat-radiating object in the "field of view" of a relatively colder environment, or by scanning the movement of the snake's head.
The sensitivity is sufficient to detect the flow of radiation from a human hand moving into the "field of view" at a distance of 40 - 50 cm, which implies that the threshold stimulus is less than 8 x 10-5 W/cm 2 . Based on this, the temperature increase detected by the receptors is on the order of 0.005°C (i.e., about an order of magnitude better than the human ability to detect temperature changes).
"Heat-seeing" snakes
Experiments conducted in the 30s of the XX century by scientists with rattlesnakes and related pit vipers (crotalids) showed that snakes can actually see the heat emitted by the flame. Reptiles were able to detect at a great distance the subtle heat emitted by heated objects, or, in other words, they were able to feel infrared radiation, the long waves of which are invisible to humans. The ability of pit vipers to feel heat is so great that they can detect the heat emitted by a rat at a considerable distance. Heat sensors are located in snakes in small pits on the muzzle, hence their name - pitheads. Each small, forward-facing fossa, located between the eyes and nostrils, has a tiny hole, like a pinprick. At the bottom of these holes there is a membrane similar in structure to the retina of the eye, containing the smallest thermoreceptors in the amount of 500-1500 per square millimeter. Thermoreceptors of 7000 nerve endings are connected to the branch of the trigeminal nerve located on the head and muzzle. Since the zones of sensitivity of both pits overlap, the pit viper can perceive heat stereoscopically. The stereoscopic perception of heat allows the snake, by detecting infrared waves, not only to find prey, but also to estimate the distance to it. Fantastic thermal sensitivity in pit vipers is combined with a fast reaction time, allowing snakes to respond instantly, in less than 35 milliseconds, to a thermal signal. Not surprisingly, snakes with such a reaction are very dangerous.
The ability to capture infrared radiation gives the pit vipers significant capabilities. They can hunt at night and follow their main prey - rodents in their underground burrows. Although these snakes have a highly developed sense of smell, which they also use to search for prey, their deadly charge is guided by heat-sensing pits and additional thermoreceptors located inside the mouth.
Although the infrared sense of other groups of snakes is less well understood, boas and pythons are also known to have heat-sensing organs. Instead of pits, these snakes have more than 13 pairs of thermoreceptors located around the lips.
Darkness reigns in the depths of the ocean. The light of the sun does not reach there, and there flickers only the light emitted by the deep-sea inhabitants of the sea. Like fireflies on land, these creatures are equipped with organs that generate light.
The black malakost (Malacosteus niger), which has a huge mouth, lives in complete darkness at depths from 915 to 1830 m and is a predator. How can he hunt in total darkness?
Malacoste is able to see the so-called far red light. Light waves in the red part of the so-called visible spectrum have the longest wavelength, about 0.73-0.8 micrometers. Although this light is invisible to the human eye, it is visible to some fish, including the black malakost.
On the sides of the Malacoste's eyes are a pair of bioluminescent organs that emit a blue-green light. Most of the other bioluminescent creatures in this realm of darkness also emit bluish light and have eyes that are sensitive to blue wavelengths in the visible spectrum.
The second pair of bioluminescent organs of the black malakost is located below its eyes and gives off a distant red light that is invisible to others living in the depths of the ocean. These organs give the Black Malacoste an advantage over rivals, as the light it emits helps it see its prey and allows it to communicate with other members of its species without betraying its presence.
But how does the black malacost see the far red light? According to the saying "You are what you eat," he actually gets this opportunity by eating tiny copepods, which in turn feed on bacteria that absorb far red light. In 1998, a group of scientists from the UK, which included Dr. Julian Partridge and Dr. Ron Douglas, found that the retina of the black malakost contained a modified version of bacterial chlorophyll, a photopigment capable of capturing far red light rays.
Thanks to far red light, some fish can see in water that would appear black to us. A bloodthirsty piranha in the murky waters of the Amazon, for example, perceives the water as a dark red, a color more penetrating than black. The water looks red because of the particles of red vegetation that absorb visible light. Only beams of far red light pass through muddy water and can be seen by the piranha. Infrared beams allow her to see prey, even if she hunts in total darkness. Just like piranhas, crucian carp in their natural habitats often have fresh water that is murky and overcrowded with vegetation. And they adapt to this by having the ability to see far red light. Indeed, their visual range (level) exceeds that of piranhas, since they can see not only in the far red, but also in true infrared light. So your favorite pet goldfish can see a lot more than you think, including the "invisible" infrared rays emitted by common household electronic devices such as the TV remote control and the burglar alarm beam beam.
Snakes strike prey blindly
It is known that many species of snakes, even when deprived of their sight, are able to strike their victims with supernatural accuracy.
The rudimentary nature of their thermal sensors does not suggest that the ability to perceive the thermal radiation of victims alone can explain these amazing abilities. A study by scientists from the Technical University of Munich shows that it is likely that snakes have a unique "technology" for processing visual information, reports Newscientist.
Many snakes have sensitive infrared detectors that help them navigate in space. In laboratory conditions, snakes were glued with a plaster over their eyes, and it turned out that they were able to hit a rat with an instant blow of poisonous teeth in the neck of the victim or behind the ears. Such accuracy cannot be explained only by the ability of the snake to see the heat spot. Obviously, it's all about the ability of snakes to somehow process the infrared image and "clean" it from interference.
The scientists developed a model that takes into account and filters out both thermal "noise" from moving prey and any errors associated with the functioning of the detector membrane itself. In the model, a signal from each of the 2,000 thermal receptors causes the excitation of its own neuron, but the intensity of this excitation depends on the input to each of the other nerve cells. By integrating the signals from the interacting receptors into the models, the scientists were able to obtain very clear thermal images even with a high level of extraneous noise. But even relatively small errors associated with the operation of the detector membranes can completely destroy the image. To minimize such errors, the membrane thickness should not exceed 15 micrometers. And it turned out that the membranes of pit vipers have exactly this thickness, says cnews. ru.
Thus, scientists were able to prove the amazing ability of snakes to process even images that are very far from perfect. Now it is up to the validation of the model by studies of real snakes.
It is known that many species of snakes (in particular from the group of pitheads), even being deprived of vision, are able to hit their victims with supernatural "accuracy". The rudimentary nature of their thermal sensors does not suggest that the ability to perceive the thermal radiation of victims alone can explain these amazing abilities. A study by scientists from the Technical University of Munich suggests that it may be because snakes have a unique "technology" for processing visual information, reports Newscientist.
Many snakes are known to have sensitive infrared detectors that help them navigate and locate prey. In laboratory conditions, snakes were temporarily deprived of their sight by sticking their eyes with a band-aid, and it turned out that they were able to hit a rat with an instant blow of poisonous teeth aimed at the neck of the victim, behind the ears - where the rat was not able to fight back with its sharp incisors. Such accuracy cannot be explained only by the snake's ability to see a blurry heat spot.
On the sides of the front of the head, pit vipers have depressions (which gave the name to this group) in which heat-sensitive membranes are located. How is the thermal membrane "focused"? It was assumed that this body works on the principle of a camera obscura. However, the diameter of the holes is too large to implement this principle, and as a result, only a very blurry image can be obtained, which is not capable of providing the unique accuracy of a snake throw. Obviously, it's all about the ability of snakes to somehow process the infrared image and "clean" it from interference.
The scientists developed a model that takes into account and filters out both thermal "noise" from moving prey and any errors associated with the functioning of the detector membrane itself. In the model, a signal from each of the 2,000 thermal receptors causes the excitation of its own neuron, but the intensity of this excitation depends on the input to each of the other nerve cells. By integrating the signals from the interacting receptors into the models, the scientists were able to obtain very clear thermal images even with a high level of extraneous noise. But even relatively small errors associated with the operation of the detector membranes can completely destroy the image. To minimize such errors, the membrane thickness should not exceed 15 micrometers. And it turned out that the membranes of pit vipers have exactly this thickness.
Thus, scientists were able to prove the amazing ability of snakes to process even images that are very far from perfect. It remains only to confirm the model with studies of real, not "virtual" snakes.
Snakes are one of the most mysterious inhabitants of our planet. Primitive hunters, when meeting with any snake, hurried to flee from it, knowing that just one bite could doom them to death. Fear helped to avoid bites, but prevented learning more about these mysterious creatures. And where there was not enough exact knowledge, the gaps were filled with fantasies and conjectures, which became more and more sophisticated over the centuries. And, despite the fact that many of these reptiles have already been studied quite well, the old, passed down from generation to generation, rumors and legends about snakes still own the minds of people. In order to somehow break this vicious circle, we have collected the 10 most common myths about snakes and refuted them.
snakes drink milk
This myth became known to many of us thanks to the work of Conan Doyle's "Colored Ribbon". In fact, trying to drink milk to a snake can be fatal: they do not absorb lactose in principle.
Attacking, snakes sting
For unknown reasons, many people believe that snakes sting with their sharp, forked tongues. Snakes bite with their teeth, like all other animals. Language serves them for completely different purposes.
Snakes before the throw, threatening, stick out their tongue
As already mentioned, the snake's tongue is not designed to attack. The fact is that snakes do not have a nose, and all the necessary receptors are located on their tongue. Therefore, in order to better smell the prey and determine its location, snakes have to stick out their tongue.
Most snakes are venomous
Of the two and a half thousand species of snakes known to serpentologists, only 400 have poisonous teeth. Of these, only 9 are found in Europe. Most poisonous snakes in South America - 72 species. The rest were almost evenly distributed across Australia, Central Africa, Southeast Asia, Central and North America.
You can "secure" a snake by pulling out its teeth
For a while, this might actually work. But the teeth will grow back, and the snake during their growth, not being able to express the poison, can become seriously ill. And by the way, it is impossible to train a snake - for them, any person is nothing more than just a warm tree.
Snakes always attack when they see people.
As statistics show, most often snakes bite people in self-defense. If a snake hisses and makes threatening movements at the sight of you, it means that she just wants to be left alone. As soon as you step back a little, the snake immediately disappears from view, in a hurry to save its life.
Snakes can be fed meat
Most snakes feed on rodents, there are species that eat frogs and fish, and even insectivorous reptiles. And king cobras, for example, prefer only snakes of other species to eat. So what exactly to feed the snake depends only on the snake itself.
Snakes are cold to the touch
Snakes are typical representatives of cold-blooded animals. And therefore the temperature of the body of the snake will be the same as the temperature of the external environment. Therefore, not being able to maintain optimal body temperature (slightly above 30 ° C), snakes love to bask in the sun so much.
snakes covered in slime
Another bike that has nothing to do with snakes. The skin of these reptiles contains practically no glands and is covered with dense smooth scales. It is from this pleasant to the touch snake skin that shoes, handbags and even clothes are made.
Snakes wrap around the branches and trunks of trees
Quite often you can see the image of the snake-tempter, wrapping around the trunk of the tree of knowledge. However, this has nothing to do with their actual behavior. Snakes climb onto tree branches and lie on them, but they don’t need to wrap their body around them.They do not have ears, but they react to every rustle. They don't have a nose, but they can sniff with their tongue. They can live for months without food and still feel great.
They are hated and deified, they are worshiped and destroyed, they are prayed to and with all this they are endlessly afraid. The Indians called them holy brothers, the Slavs - ungodly creatures, the Japanese - celestials of unearthly beauty ...
Snakes are not at all the most poisonous creatures on Earth, as most people think. On the contrary, the title of the most terrible killer belongs to the small South American leaf-climbing frogs. Moreover, according to statistics, every year more people die from bee stings than from snake stings.
Snakes, contrary to the terrible myths about aggressive reptiles that are the first to attack people and pursue them in a blind desire to sting, are in fact terribly shy creatures. Even among giant snakes, an attack on a person is an accidental and extremely rare phenomenon.
Seeing a person, the same vipers will first of all try to hide, hide, and they will definitely warn about their aggression, which is manifested, by hissing and false throws. By the way, the terrifying sweeps of the snake's tongue are not a threatening gesture at all. So the snake... sniffs the air! An amazing way to find out information about surrounding objects. In a couple of strokes, the tongue conveys the collected information to the sensitive serpentine palate, where it is recognized. And the snake - and this coincides with Chinese myths - is very prudent: it will never waste its poison in vain. She needs him herself - for real hunting and for defense. Therefore, most often the first bite is not poisonous. Even the king cobra often makes a blank bite.
It is the Indians who consider her a goddess endowed with great intelligence and wisdom.
By the way, it is cowardice that makes snakes and even spitting cobras feign death! In the face of a threat, these tricksters twist and fall on their backs, their mouths wide open and emitting unpleasant odors. All these subtle manipulations make the snake unattractive as a snack - and predators, disdainful of "carrion", go away. The Calabar boa acts even wiser: its blunt tail is very similar to the head. Therefore, sensing danger, the boa curls up into a ball, exposing its tail instead of a vulnerable head in front of the predator.
In fact, snakes that love to pretend to be dead are extremely tenacious creatures. There is a known case when an exhibit of a desert snake came to life in the British Museum! A copy that did not show signs of life was glued to a stand, and after a couple of years something was suspected. They peeled it off, placed it in warm water: the snake began to move, and then to eat with pleasure and lived for another two happy years.
No matter how attractive the legends about the bewitching snake look, in fact, these reptiles do not know how to hypnotize. The look of the snake is unblinking and fixed because it has no eyelids. Instead, there is a transparent film - something like glass on a watch - protecting the eyes of snakes from bruises, injections, litter, water. And no self-respecting rabbit will succumb to the “bewitching” gaze and dutifully wander into the mouth of a boa constrictor: the features of the snake’s visual system are such that they allow it to see only the outline of moving objects. Only the rattlesnake was lucky: it has three sense organs on its head that help to find prey.
The rest of the members of the creeping family have extremely poor eyesight: frozen, potential victims immediately lose sight of the hunter. By the way, most animals - and those very notorious rabbits - perfectly use this, knowing the tactics of snake hunting. From the outside - a duel of views, but in fact, the snakes have to work hard before they manage to catch someone for dinner. Is it possible to hypnotize the snakes themselves? After all, everyone knows the picture of a cobra dancing in front of the caster.
I don't want to be disappointed, but this is also a myth. The snakes are deaf and do not hear the mournful music of the pipes. But very sensitively capture the slightest fluctuations in the surface of the earth next to them. The cunning spellcaster first lightly taps the basket with the snake or stomps, and the animal immediately reacts. Then, playing a motive, he continuously moves, sways, and the snake, constantly watching him, repeats his movements so that the person is always in front of his eyes. A spectacular sight, but the hypnotist from the caster, alas, is useless.
By the way, king cobras are well versed in music. Quiet melodious sounds soothe them, and the snakes, rising, slowly sway to the beat. The abrupt, sharp sounds of jazz, especially loud, unnerve the cobra, and it uneasily inflates its "hood". Heavy and even more so "metal" rock leads the "music lover" into indignation: she stands on the tail and makes quick threatening movements in the direction of the music source. Recent studies by Russian herpetologists have shown that to the classical works of Mozart, Handel and Ravel, cobras dance with obvious pleasure, closing their eyes; but pop music causes lethargy, apathy and nausea.
By the way, about snake movements: it is interesting to observe how the body of a snake moves - there are no legs, nothing pushes, does not pull, but it slides and flows, as if without bones. In fact, the fact is that snakes are simply filled with bones - in some species, up to 145 pairs of ribs can be attached to a flexible spine! The peculiarity of the snake "gait" is given by the articulated spine, to which the ribs are attached. The vertebrae are attached to each other by a kind of hinges, and each vertebra has its own pair of ribs attached, which gives a unique freedom of movement.
Some Asian snakes can fly! They can famously climb to the tops of trees and from there soar down, spreading their ribs to the sides and turning into a kind of flat ribbon. If the heavenly tree snake wants to move from one tree to another, it literally flies to it without going down. In flight, they take an S-shape in order to stay in the air longer and get exactly where they need to be. As strange as it may sound, the tree snake is an even better glider than flying squirrels! Some flyers can cover distances up to 100 meters in this way.
By the way, all lovers of hot rumba should be grateful to snakes. There is a curious step in the dance: the gentlemen throw their legs far to the side and, as it were, crush someone. This dance move comes from not so ancient times, when a rattlesnake in Mexican dancing was quite common. The imperturbable machos, in order to impress the ladies, crushed the uninvited guests with the heel of their boots. Then this movement became the highlight of the rumba.
There are countless beliefs about the magical power of the snake heart, which gives strength and immortality. In fact, hunters for such a treasure would have to sweat a lot in search of this very heart: after all, it can slide along the body of a snake! This miracle is bestowed by nature in order to make it easier for the snake to pass food through the gastrointestinal tract.
Despite the reverent fear of snakes, mankind, as is known, has been using their "gifts" for healing since ancient times. But there are more curious cases of how people - and not only - use the features of these amazing creatures for their own benefit. For example, owls sometimes place small snakes in their nests. They deal with small insects competing with owlets for prey brought by their mother. Thanks to the amazing neighborhood, the chicks grow faster and get sick less.
In Mexico, along with kittens and puppies, local “domestic” snakes are considered the favorites of children. They are herbivores and are covered with thick, shaggy hair. Brazilians prefer royal boas: in the houses of the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro and in the cottages of the mountain resort of Petropolis, these huge reptiles enjoy great love and respect. The fact is that there are a great many poisonous snakes in the country. But not a single poisonous individual will crawl into a garden where a boa constrictor is found, even if everything around is teeming with them. Moreover, boas are tenderly attached to children. As soon as the child leaves the house, the "nanny" begins to follow his every step. The boa constrictor invariably accompanies children on walks and during games, protecting the kids from snake attacks. Unusual governesses have saved thousands of lives with their devotion, especially in rural areas, where it is extremely problematic to deliver a life-saving serum. Kids respond to their guards with ardent reciprocity: boas are very neat, always have dry, pleasant to the touch and very clean skin, and it’s worth mentioning especially about unpretentiousness in everyday life: a boa constrictor eats once every two, or even four months, being content with the annual diet in an amount not exceeding five rabbits.
And on the Greek island of Kefalonia, snakes are not tamed, they are not used as a rodent exterminator or sekuditsy. It is on this day that small poisonous snakes with black crosses on their heads crawl into the temple from all over the miraculous icon, before which the nuns were once asked for intercession. What is amazing: they are drawn to the miraculous icon, as if spellbound, not afraid of people and not trying to bite them. People just as calmly react to unusual "parishioners" who crawl over the icons and without fear get over on their hands when they are extended to them. Even kids play with snakes. But soon after the end of the festive service, the snakes crawl off the icon of the Mother of God they love and leave the church. As soon as they crawl across the road and end up in the mountains, they again become the same: it’s better not to approach them - they will immediately hiss and bite! Yes, one can talk endlessly about these amazing creatures of nature: they stand apart in the animal world so much. And yet, in vain, for the most part, we do not like snakes so much. After all, the Chinese say that a person uses snakes with everything except hissing, and in return they receive nothing but hostility. Well, is that fair?
