Average speed of movement of a poisonous snake. Scientists have measured for the first time the speed at which a viper bites

The snake attacks so quickly that it manages to bite its victim four times in a split second. If a person moved with the same acceleration, he would simply lose consciousness.

The Texas rattlesnake, lurking among the sands and meadows of southern California (USA), is one of the most patient predators in the world.

These snakes typically spend their lives alone, lying in wait for their next meal.

They can wait a long time. If necessary, they can go without food for up to two years, but as soon as they get the chance, they become one of the most dangerous and skillful hunters on the planet.

And, like all snakes, their main weapon is not size or strength, but speed.

According to a study published in March 2016, a snake bite takes between 44 and 70 milliseconds.

For clarity, it takes a person about 200 milliseconds to blink. It turns out that during this time a particularly ruthless snake is capable of biting him as many as four times.

This is an almost unimaginable speed: it turns out that snakes bite much faster than we can move.

In fact, if we moved as fast as snakes, we would simply faint.

“In most cases, potential prey has no chance of surviving,” says David Penning, an employee at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (USA).

He spent several months observing rattlers, as well as a wide variety of venomous and harmless snakes, using a high-speed camera.

"These predators are able to reach their target and strike before the prey even realizes it is under attack."




It's not just rattlers that can move that fast. The total number of snake species on the planet is estimated at 3.5 thousand - from tiny vipers to huge pythons - but very few of them have been studied.

However, even if we take only those species that have already been studied, it is obvious that very many are capable of developing such amazing acceleration.

This is due to the unique physiology of snakes, which has been perfected over millions of years.

Firstly, snakes are extremely muscular. Whereas in human body There are 700-800 muscles; snakes - even the smallest ones - have from 10 to 15 thousand.

How this abundance of muscles allows the snake to move at such breakneck speeds is still unknown.

Some people believe that they compress and accumulate energy to throw, and then straighten out like a spring.

However, snakes have even more interesting feature, which baffles scientists.

Because these reptiles attack at such speed, enormous forces are applied to their bodies - ones that would completely immobilize almost any animal.

Penning discovered that at the moment of throwing the snake experiences a force 30 times greater than the force of gravity.

At the same time, the most trained fighter pilots feel that their arms and legs stop obeying them even under an overload that is 8 times greater than the force of gravity, when performing rapid stunts in the air.

Under the influence of an overload of 10 times the force of gravity, they quickly lose consciousness.

“It is known that chameleons and some salamanders, when attacked, rapidly extend their tongue towards the prey, and the acceleration in this case can be much greater than that of a stinging snake,” explains Penning. “However, the main difference is that in this case only the tongue moves, not the brain."

The brain is simply not able to withstand high acceleration.

"The brain is an incredibly delicate organ that is hypersensitive to acceleration and impact," says Penning. "That's why American football players wear helmets and why concussions are considered serious injuries."

When a fighter pilot is exposed to high acceleration, blood flows to the legs, depriving the brain of vital oxygen.

If this happens too quickly, the blood does not have time to return back to the brain, and the person loses consciousness.

However, snakes manage to cope with this difficulty and maintain complete control over the situation, while moving with much greater acceleration and striking their prey with crushing force. This is partly due to the structure of the snake's skull.

“The snake’s skull is incredibly dynamic and flexible,” says Penning. “Having so many different joints gives the snake flexibility and maneuverability.”

Penning believes the difference is the same as "hitting a bag or hitting a brick wall."

According to him, “the wall stands still and takes the entire blow, and the bag moves, as if distributing the shock.”

Scientists are now trying to figure out how the skeleton and nervous system snakes.

They are going to use the knowledge gained to protect a person in situations where his body is subjected to a large overload.

The idea that studying snake attack tactics will help us design cars that better protect people from impact may seem funny. But it is much closer to reality than one might expect.

"We're now trying to figure out exactly what happens when a snake strikes its prey," Penning said.

“Snakes are able to extend their heads, freeze, immediately shift into a defensive position, and then repeat these movements over and over again.”

“The question is what helps them endure such stress relatively painlessly, and whether their secret can be used in the future for the benefit of humanity,” he concludes.





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100 great records of wildlife Nepomnyashchiy Nikolai Nikolaevich

FASTEST SNAKE - BLACK MAMBA

The black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis), with a speed of 19 km/h, is the most fast snake in the world. It can sting even at head level. The snake reaches more than 4 m in length. Adults are dark brown or black on top, and the ventral side is light brown or off-white. Young specimens are green in color.

The black mamba is distributed from Senegal to Somalia and from Ethiopia to South-West Africa. However, it does not penetrate into tropical rain forests Congo Basin. This snake is less adapted than other species to life in trees and usually lives among sparse tree or shrub vegetation. When irritated or disturbed, the black mamba opens its mouth wide, using this as a threatening technique.

Mambas are the true scourge of Africa. Neither cobras nor vipers are feared here as much as these, mainly arboreal, snakes. There have been cases where people died 20 minutes after being bitten. In the branches of trees, this snake is perhaps even more swift.

“Those born to crawl cannot fly!” - said Maxim Gorky. But the classic was wrong. Thin big-eyed snakes from the genus Chrysopelea (a subfamily of false snakes), living in Indonesia, the Philippines, South China and in Sri Lanka, they cover a distance of 60–80 m in the air. However, they do not have wings! These wonderful creatures start from the top tall trees, on whose branches, by the way, they jump no worse than squirrels. And one more remarkable fact: They fly irregularly, but only when they are overcome by unbearable hunger.

It has long been known that some snakes hear perfectly and react vividly to music. It is on this ability that the “snake spell” is based (again, we are talking about cobras) in the countries of the East. Previously, it was believed that poisonous reptiles were deeply indifferent to what melody the “trainer’s” flute played. However, recent studies have led to sensational results: snakes feel music very subtly and treat the compositions performed differently, as evidenced by their behavior during the session. To the soundtrack of classical works by Mozart, Handel and Ravel, the cobras dance with obvious pleasure, their eyes closed; rock compositions make their movements sharp and nervous; and Russian pop music causes lethargy and apathy.

Everyone knows that the snake is an emblem of medicine. Which one exactly? Ancient myths name as such a half-meter-long grayish-yellow Aesculapian snake with white spots on its back, living in the south of Europe. The terrible plague epidemic that raged in Ancient Rome, stopped when the embassy of the Eternal City delivered this snake to its homeland from the Greek Epidaurus, where it lived in the temple of the god Asclepius. The Romans immediately declared the glorious animal sacred and associated it with medicine for centuries.

The worst enemies of poisonous snakes are known: man, mongoose, hedgehog, secretary bird... But the worst thing, probably for snakes... is a pig. Rattlesnakes were once a nuisance to American farmers. They found a way to fight them by accident, after noticing one day how one pig trampled and ate a snake, whose bite is fatal to humans, bulls and horses. Therefore, before plowing a new field, the owners allowed a herd of pigs into the field and after that they calmly cultivated the land in full confidence that there were no rattlers left.

American researchers claim that the same biblical tempting snake that began the history of mankind is the Asian apple snake - the only snake that eats apples and climbs trees. By the way, today there are almost no such snakes left in nature - they have been exterminated.

author

THE MOST POIMOUS GROUND SNAKE IS THE CRUEL SNAKE The fierce snake (Oxyuranus microlepidotus) reaches a length of 1.9 m. The color of the back varies from dark brown to straw; varies depending on the time of year - in winter this snake is noticeably darker. The head may turn glossy black

From the book 100 Great Wildlife Records author Nepomnyashchiy Nikolai Nikolaevich

THE SHORTEST SNAKE IN THE WORLD - A TWO-LINED NARROW SNAKE The Most long individuals This species (Leptotyphlops bilineata), found only on the islands of Martinique, Barbados and Santa Lucia in the Caribbean Sea, reaches only 110 mm. True, there is an opinion that the Brahman blind horse (Fiamphotyphlops braminus)

From the book 100 Great Wildlife Records author Nepomnyashchiy Nikolai Nikolaevich

THE LARGEST SNAKE IN THE WORLD - ANACONDA Anaconda ( Eunectes murinus) - the world's largest snake - inhabits the entire tropical South America east of the Cordillera and the island of Trinidad. The average size of an adult anaconda is 5–6 m, but occasionally individuals up to 10 m in length are found. Unique in

From the book 100 Great Wildlife Records author Nepomnyashchiy Nikolai Nikolaevich

THE LARGEST AND FASTEST OF MODERN TURTLES IS THE LEATHER TURTLE, OR LUT The leatherback sea turtle Dermochelys coriacea is the largest of all modern turtles: body length up to 2 m, weighing up to 600 kg. Male found dead on the beach in Harlech, UK in 1988

From the book Everything about everything. Volume 1 author Likum Arkady

Which one is the most big snake in the world? There are more than 2000 various types snake. These creatures cause people negative emotions, which has led to many erroneous stories about them. So, sometimes they say that there are huge, terrifying snakes with a length of 18 to 21

author

Which fish is the fastest? The scuba diving record holder for speed is the swordfish. An adult specimen of this large and very strong fish grows up to 6 meters and weighs more than half a ton. Swordfish moves at the speed of a hurricane - up to 130 kilometers per hour! She has

From book Newest book facts. Volume 1 [Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and Medicine] author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

What is the largest venomous snake in the world? The largest poisonous snake is the king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah), also known as the hamadryad, which lives in tropical forests South-East Asia. Its length reaches 5.5 meters. King Cobra(local name naya) climbs well

From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 1 [Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and Medicine] author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

What is the largest snake in the world? The largest (in other words, the longest and thickest) snakes are found among non-venomous ones. The largest modern snake is the anaconda (Eunectes murinus), which lives along the banks of rivers, lakes and swamps in Brazil and Guiana. The length of an anaconda can reach

From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 1 [Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and Medicine] author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

Which bird is the fastest? In dive mode, the peregrine falcon flies the fastest, reaching a speed of 185 kilometers per hour. The fastest bird in horizontal flight is the eider, capable of flying at speeds of up to 80 kilometers per hour.

author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 1. Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and medicine author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 1. Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and medicine author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 1. Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and medicine author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

From the book Everything about everything. Volume 3 author Likum Arkady

Which snake is the deadliest? The answer to this question depends on what is meant by the word “deadly.” Does it mean the snake that kills more people than other snakes, or refers to a snake that has the most strong poison? Some scientists believe the most

author Kolosova Svetlana

Fastest Typist 5 Hamma, Margaret – USA,

From the book Crossword Guide author Kolosova Svetlana

The fastest submarine 5 "Alpha" - Russia

Here is a black mamba - the fastest snake in the world. Its movement speed reaches 23 kilometers per hour or 6.4 m per second, but only over short distances. True, the reptile uses its speed more often to escape from enemies, since it hunts while sitting in ambush, waiting for its prey.

Mamba is found from Senegal to South West Africa. Lives on the ground among bushes and grass. It crawls onto trees extremely rarely, as it is poorly adapted to life on them. At the same time, it often settles in fields among deep thickets. Since the lands are often cultivated by workers, and even manually, they are attacked by a snake. Almost no one survives.

Average length- 2.5-3 m, although sometimes specimens up to 4.5 m long are found in nature. Young animals are greenish in color, while adults are painted black or Brown color, the abdomen is white or light brown. It is famous for its aggressive character - it usually attacks first. Leaning on its tail, it raises the front part of its body and makes an instant throw towards its victim, immediately inflicting a bite.

Snake venom is incredibly toxic. Contains dendrotoxins, cardiotoxins, neurotoxins, blockers of voltage-dependent potassium channels of nerve fibers and blockers of muscarinic cholinergic receptors. One bite injects about 100-150 mg of poison, in rare cases - up to 400 mg. Wherein lethal dose for a person it is only 10-15 mg, and for an animal it is even less. If the antidote is not administered within the first minute, the probability of death can reach 100 percent.

Approaching Year of the Snake By eastern horoscope, and why not dedicate today’s post to him? Let's sit and talk about what types of these mysterious animals exist on our planet, what conditions they live in, what they eat, how they reproduce. There are many varieties of them, some live underground, others under water. Some are poisonous, others are not, of various colors and sizes, viviparous and those that lay eggs.

But let's remember today record-breaking snakes: the very best.

The most long snake - This is an anaconda boa constrictor. It lives in the swampy banks of the Amazon and feeds on fish, small animals and birds. Maximum length The boa constrictor that was recorded reached 11.43 m, it was this “snake” that fell into Guinness book record holders.

And in Egypt, during excavations, the remains of an ancient snake were found - the Giant African python, its estimated length was 11.8 m.

And only recently, in 2002, it was found on the island of Sumatra reticulated python, whose length was 14.85 m and weighed 447 kg. Now he lives in a menagerie on the island. Java is proudly called Guihua.

The largest snake that lives in captivity V this moment located in the terrarium of the New York Zoological Society , This is a Giant (green) anaconda, 9 m long and weighing 130 kg.

The largest poisonous snake- King cobra, it lives in India and Indochina. The length of these reptiles can reach up to 5.5 meters. They very often live near humans, the reason for which was deforestation tropical forests. Cobra, oddly enough, feeds on other types of snakes. There are times when she can attack them when they are already hunting prey.

The smallest snake– Brahmin blind snake or blind snake, (more like a well-fed earthworm), lives on the island of Nosy Be, near Madagascar.

The length of this little one is only 10 cm. This snake shares primacy with the two-lined narrow-mouthed snakes. It can only be found on the islands of Martinique, Santa Lucia and Barbados in the Caribbean Sea. The shortest snake of this species had a length of 108 millimeters.

The shortest poisonous snake- African viper. It lives on the coast of Namibia in sand dunes. Its length is on average 20-23 cm. It has a very unusual way When hunting, the snake buries itself in the sand, with only its eyes and the tip of its tail sticking out, which serves as bait. These reptiles obtain the necessary moisture from their victims. They also lick condensation off themselves, which allows them to survive in such harsh conditions without water.

The thinnest snake- This is an ordinary belt-shaped one. Its length is 2 meters, while its thickness is 1-2 cm. The snake looks quite unusual - the head is much larger than the body. They live exclusively in trees and feed on snails and slugs. Their hunting weapons - sharpened fangs - are safe for humans.

Fastest snake on the planet - the black mamba, it lives in Africa. It is almost impossible to escape from this snake; its speed is on average 11 kilometers per hour, and on flat terrain, with short throws, the speed can reach 16-19 km/h.

Plus, the black mamba deserved the title most poisonous land snake on the planet, sharing it with the Taipan, whose bites kill 80% of victims (and one dose of its poison can kill 100 people).

The most a large number of poison, 6 ml at a time is secreted by the king cobra.

The most poisonous sea snake- Belcher's sea snake. With one bite, the poison released can cause death in 250 thousand mice.

The most accurate snake on the planet - ringal. She lives in South Africa and India. She can spit poison at her victim from a distance of 5 meters, and she aims at the victim's eyes. Another snake that “shoots” venom over long distances is the African spitting cobra; its spit flies 2-3 meters.

The most common snake- a common viper, which, moreover, is not afraid of cold weather.

This snake is the only one that can be found in the north (even beyond the Arctic Circle).

The oldest snake considered to be a common boa constrictor named Popeia (Popeye), he died at the Philadelphia Zoo on April 15, 1977. and lived 40 years and 3.5 months.

The longest hungry snake is The Habu viper snake lived without food for 3 years and 3 months (almost like in a fairy tale, only a very sad one).

There are also types of snakes that can be called "flying"- These are tree snakes. They live in the tropics and are amazingly clever at maneuvering between trees and can even go around them. The S-shape gives them this ability, and they seem to glide through the air.

Exists on our planet snake with the highest ability to thermoregulate- This is a hieroglyphic python, it lives throughout Africa. The female wraps her body around the eggs in a spiral, and the female’s body temperature becomes 7 degrees higher than environment.

AND absolute record, which applies to all snakes, is the number of vertebrae. Snakes are the vertebrates that have the maximum number of vertebrae – up to 435.

In conclusion, I would like to say that no matter what the snake is, small or large, poisonous or not, it must be treated with respect and caution.

P.S. The frightening ability of some snakes to absorb prey significantly larger than their own size. See photo.

The snake attacks so quickly that it manages to bite its victim four times in a split second. If a person moved with the same acceleration, he would simply lose consciousness.

The Texas rattlesnake, lurking among the sands and meadows of southern California (USA), is one of the most patient predators in the world.

These snakes typically spend their lives alone, lying in wait for their next meal.

They can wait a long time. If necessary, they can go without food for up to two years, but as soon as they get the chance, they become one of the most dangerous and skillful hunters on the planet.

And, like all snakes, their main weapon is not size or strength, but speed.

For clarity, it takes a person about 200 milliseconds to blink. It turns out that during this time a particularly ruthless snake is capable of biting him as many as four times.

This is an almost unimaginable speed: it turns out that snakes bite much faster than we can move.

In fact, if we moved as fast as snakes, we would simply faint.

“In most cases, potential prey has no chance of surviving,” says David Penning, an employee at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (USA).

He spent several months observing rattlers, as well as a wide variety of venomous and harmless snakes, using a high-speed camera.

"These predators are able to reach their target and strike before the prey even realizes it is under attack."

It's not just rattlers that can move that fast. The total number of snake species on the planet is estimated at 3.5 thousand - from tiny vipers to huge pythons - but very few of them have been studied.

However, even if we take only those species that have already been studied, it is obvious that very many are capable of developing such amazing acceleration.

This is due to the unique physiology of snakes, which has been perfected over millions of years.

Firstly, snakes are extremely muscular. While the human body has 700-800 muscles, snakes - even the smallest ones - have from 10 to 15 thousand.

How this abundance of muscles allows the snake to move at such breakneck speeds is still unknown.

Some people believe that they compress and accumulate energy to throw, and then straighten out like a spring.

However, snakes have an even more interesting feature that baffles scientists.

Because these reptiles attack at such speed, enormous forces are applied to their bodies - ones that would completely immobilize almost any animal.

Penning discovered that at the moment of throwing the snake experiences a force 30 times greater than the force of gravity.

At the same time, the most trained fighter pilots feel that their arms and legs stop obeying them even under an overload that is 8 times greater than the force of gravity, when performing rapid stunts in the air.

Under the influence of an overload of 10 times the force of gravity, they quickly lose consciousness.

“It is known that chameleons and some salamanders, when attacked, rapidly extend their tongue towards the prey, and the acceleration in this case can be much greater than that of a stinging snake,” explains Penning. “However, the main difference is that in this case only the tongue moves, not the brain."

The brain is simply not able to withstand high acceleration.

"The brain is an incredibly delicate organ that is hypersensitive to acceleration and impact," says Penning. "That's why American football players wear helmets and why concussions are considered serious injuries."

When a fighter pilot is exposed to high acceleration, blood flows to the legs, depriving the brain of vital oxygen.

If this happens too quickly, the blood does not have time to return back to the brain, and the person loses consciousness.

However, snakes manage to cope with this difficulty and maintain complete control over the situation, while moving with much greater acceleration and striking their prey with crushing force. This is partly due to the structure of the snake's skull.

“The snake’s skull is incredibly dynamic and flexible,” says Penning. “Having so many different joints gives the snake flexibility and maneuverability.”

Penning believes the difference is the same as "hitting a bag or hitting a brick wall."

According to him, “the wall stands still and takes the entire blow, and the bag moves, as if distributing the shock.”

Scientists are now trying to figure out how the snake's skeleton and nervous system behave in such extreme circumstances.

They are going to use the knowledge gained to protect a person in situations where his body is subjected to a large overload.

The idea that studying snake attack tactics will help us design cars that better protect people from impact may seem funny. But it is much closer to reality than one might expect.

"We're now trying to figure out exactly what happens when a snake strikes its prey," Penning said.

“Snakes are able to extend their heads, freeze, immediately shift into a defensive position, and then repeat these movements over and over again.”

“The question is what helps them endure such stress relatively painlessly, and whether their secret can be used in the future for the benefit of humanity,” he concludes.

Tags: snake interesting nature speed swiftness

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oppps.ru

The fastest snake - 24SMI

In this material, the fastest snake on the planet – the black mamba – will appear before you “in all its glory.” We will tell you about the places where the snake lives, what speed it develops, and what size it has. Also, do not forget that, in addition to its speed skills, the black mamba has a real predator instinct, which helped it adapt to almost any habitat. The black mamba is also one of the most poisonous and deadly snakes, which the inhabitants of Africa fear like fire.

The snake got its terrifying name because of its mouth cavity, which is completely covered in black. The rest of the snake's body is colored yellow-green or metallic gray tones.

Meeting a black mamba is not at all difficult if you are an inhabitant of the southeastern part of Africa. The black mamba is found throughout almost the entire territory of southeast Africa, except Namibia and South Africa. Because of its innate survival instincts, the black mamba was able to adapt to all kinds of climatic conditions. Its favorite habitats are savannas, forests, rocks and even swamps.

Most of the land in Africa is occupied by areas devoted to Agriculture, therefore the black mamba is often found in ordinary fields and is not at all afraid of people. The snake is even able to climb to the very top of the reeds to bask in the sun after a cold night.

Therefore, it is not surprising that most attacks on humans by black mamba occur in rural areas. Frequent cases of attacks are due to the fact that most of even the largest fields in Africa are still processed manually. On average, about 20 thousand people die from the bite of a black mamba in southeast Africa. Moreover greatest number the victims occurred due to the banal stupidity of people who thought that catching and killing a black mamba would not be difficult.


The black mamba is the fastest snake in the world, capable of reaching speeds of up to 25 km/h (about 6.5 meters per second). As you may have guessed, to escape from a snake you will have to work hard. But often the black mamba does not use its speed for pursuits, because it mainly hunts, sitting deep in ambush and hiding. The snake needs such a high speed of movement in space in order to escape from various threats. After all, somehow only a snake senses even the slightest threat to its life; it immediately retreats several hundred meters.

2.5 meters is the average length of a black mamba. Less commonly, you can find longer specimens, the length of which can reach 4.5 meters.

The most terrible enemy of the black mamba is the mongoose. Not only are these cute animals quite agile and love to feast on snakes, but they are also not affected by the venom of the black mamba. Therefore, snakes are a favorite delicacy of mongooses. But, it’s true, mongooses mostly kill young and inexperienced snakes, while they prefer to interact with adult representatives much less often. But then wild boars They are quite brave and prefer to fry both of them.


The black mamba is aggressive not only during the hunt, but can also attack for no particular reason. When attacking, the mamba rests its entire body on the tip of its tail, thereby the front part of its body to make a lightning-fast throw in the direction of the chosen victim. To dodge such an attack, you must either have the same incredible reaction, or simply be born with a shirt on.

Mamba venom is extremely toxic. It contains neurotoxins, cardiotoxins, dendrotoxins and muscarinic cholinergic receptor blockers. In just one bite, a snake can inject 100 to 150 mg. poison, while the lethal dose for humans is approximately 10 mg. To put it simply, if the antidote is not administered in the first minute after the bite and the victim is not provided with the necessary medical care, then he cannot avoid death.


You can hear a lot of horror stories and legends about the black mamba, but real cases featuring this snake in leading role, much more terrifying. For example, one day a black mamba managed to get through a chimney into a hut in which seven people were calmly resting after a hard day at work. Perhaps the people would have been able to escape if one of them had not stepped on the snake’s tail. Defending itself and fleeing the threat, the snake bit everyone in the hut several times. The irony is that in the dark room the snake was not even visible, and people could not understand who was biting them.

Despite its “cold-bloodedness,” the black mamba still prefers to avoid direct contact with people, and most often attacks to protect itself.

Unfortunately, an antidote for black mamba bites is not yet widely available. Therefore, there are still a lot of deaths from snake bites every year. But at least now the probability of death is not a 100% guarantee, as it was previously before the advent of the vaccine.

24smi.org

Record-breaking snakes: the very best | Let's sit and talk

The Year of the Snake is approaching according to the eastern horoscope, and why not dedicate today’s post to it? Let's sit and talk about what types of these mysterious animals exist on our planet, what conditions they live in, what they eat, how they reproduce. There are many varieties of them, some live underground, others under water. Some are poisonous, others are not, of various colors and sizes, viviparous and those that lay eggs.

But today let’s remember the record-breaking snakes: the very best.

The longest snake is the anaconda boa constrictor. It lives in the swampy banks of the Amazon and feeds on fish, small animals and birds. The maximum length of the boa constrictor that was recorded reached 11.43 m; it was this “snake” that was included in the Guinness Book of Records.

And in Egypt, during excavations, the remains of an ancient snake were found - the Giant African python, its estimated length was 11.8 m.

And only recently, in 2002, a reticulated python was found on the island of Sumatra, its length was 14.85 m and its weight was 447 kg. Now he lives in a menagerie on the island. Java is proudly called Guihua.

The largest snake that lives in captivity, currently in the terrarium of the New York Zoological Society, is the Giant (green) anaconda, 9 m long and weighing 130 kg.

The largest venomous snake is the king cobra, it lives in India and Indochina. The length of these reptiles can reach up to 5.5 meters. They very often live near humans, the reason for which is the deforestation of tropical forests. Cobra, oddly enough, feeds on other types of snakes. There are times when she can attack them when they are already hunting prey.

The smallest snake is the Brahmin blind snake or blind snake, (more like a fattened earthworm), lives on the island of Nosy Be, not far from Madagascar.

The length of this little one is only 10 cm. This snake shares primacy with the two-lined narrow-mouthed snakes. It can only be found on the islands of Martinique, Santa Lucia and Barbados in the Caribbean Sea. The “shortest” snake of this species had a length of 108 millimeters.

The shortest venomous snake is the African viper. It lives on the coast of Namibia in sand dunes. Its average length is 20-23 cm. It has a very unusual way of hunting: the snake buries itself in the sand, with only its eyes and the tip of its tail sticking out, which serves as bait. These reptiles obtain the necessary moisture from their victims. They also lick condensation off themselves, which allows them to survive in such harsh conditions without water.

The thinnest snake is the common belt snake. Its length is 2 meters, while its thickness is 1-2 cm. The snake looks quite unusual - the head is much larger than the body. They live exclusively in trees and feed on snails and slugs. Their hunting weapons - sharpened fangs - are safe for humans.

The fastest snake on the planet is the black mamba, which lives in Africa. It is almost impossible to escape from this snake; its speed is on average 11 kilometers per hour, and on flat terrain, with short throws, the speed can reach 16-19 km/h.

In addition, the black mamba has earned the title of the most poisonous land snake on the planet, sharing it with the Taipan, whose bites kill 80% of victims (and one dose of its venom can kill 100 people).

The largest amount of venom, 6 ml, is released by the king cobra at a time.

The most poisonous sea snake is the Belcher's sea snake. With one bite, the poison released can cause death in 250 thousand mice.

The most accurate snake on the planet is the ringal. It lives in South Africa and India. She can spit poison at her victim from a distance of 5 meters, and she aims at the victim's eyes. Another snake that “shoots” venom over long distances is the African spitting cobra; its spit flies 2-3 meters.

The most common snake is the common viper, which, moreover, is not afraid of cold weather.

This snake is the only one that can be found in the north (even beyond the Arctic Circle).

The oldest snake is considered to be a common boa constrictor named Popeia (Popeye), he died at the Philadelphia Zoo on April 15, 1977. and lived 40 years and 3.5 months.

The longest-starving snake, the Habu viper snake, lived without food for 3 years and 3 months (almost like in a fairy tale, only a very sad one).

There are also types of snakes that can be called “flying” - these are tree snakes. They live in the tropics and are amazingly clever at maneuvering between trees and can even go around them. The S-shape gives them this ability, and they seem to glide through the air.

There is a snake on our planet with the highest ability for thermoregulation - this is the hieroglyphic python, it lives throughout Africa. The female spirals around the eggs with her body, and the female’s body temperature becomes 7 degrees higher than the environment.

And the absolute record, which applies to all snakes, is the number of vertebrae. Snakes are the vertebrates that have the maximum number of vertebrae – up to 435.

In conclusion, I would like to say that no matter what the snake is, small or large, poisonous or not, it must be treated with respect and caution.

P.S. The frightening ability of some snakes to absorb prey significantly larger than their own size. See photo.

posidim-pogovorim.ru

(updated: 17:49 01/13/2017)

MOSCOW, January 13 – RIA Novosti. For the first time, biologists have accurately measured the speed at which a viper or rattlesnake throws out its head and bites its prey. The snake accelerates to 100 kilometers per hour in just 79 milliseconds, according to Scientific Reports magazine.

“In nature, all encounters between predators and prey are unique – they are much more diverse than what we can see when they interact in the laboratory. Modern technologies"allowed us to understand what determines successful hunting or escaping from a predator, and move closer to uncovering the evolutionary factors that drive predators and their prey," said Timothy Higham from the University of California, Riverside.

Since the Middle Ages and even more early eras vipers, rattlesnakes and other representatives of the Viperidae family are considered a symbol of lightning-fast reaction, ultra-high speed and almost guaranteed accuracy of attack on the victim.

All these snakes hunt small mammals and reptiles from ambush, jumping out at great speed, opening their mouths 180 degrees and literally “driving” their fangs into the flesh of the victim. Higham and his colleagues decided to study this process in detail by traveling to the Mojave Desert in the southwestern United States, where rattlesnakes live in abundance.

Scientist: a chameleon's tongue accelerates to “hundreds” in a hundredth of a second

Having placed camera traps, the scientists connected them to a computer and centrally monitored the hunting of snakes, the favorite prey of which is the American kangaroo jumper (Dipodomys merriami) - large rodents, similar to jerboas and moving along the sand in the same “jumping” manner.

To photograph the snakes, scientists used high-speed infrared cameras capable of receiving 500 frames per second in three-dimensional format, as well as special thermal “illumination” systems.

The observations immediately dispelled one of the myths: it turned out that snakes quite often miss, flying over or missing the rodent, especially if it managed to notice the predator at the last moment. On the other hand, it turned out that snakes actually move very fast.

Scientists have dispelled the myth about the existence of “singing” vipers in America

On average, a snake bites a rodent within 60-70 milliseconds after it comes within the throwing radius. During this time, the snake's head flies about 12-16 centimeters, moving at a speed of three and a half meters per second and accelerating its movement by 170-506 meters per second per second. This corresponds to a g-force of 50 g - the maximum a person can experience - and is approximately equal to the speed at which an airbag in a car deploys.

Despite such impressive speeds and acceleration, the hunt of snakes for rodents ended in success only in half of the cases - in the rest, the jumpers managed to react to the snake’s throw and escape using the muscular “springs” in their legs. In some cases, even this was not required, since the snake made a mistake in calculating the “ballistics” of the throw and missed.

As Higham explains, an evolutionary "arms race" forced jumpers to learn to store energy in their tendons and release it sharply in critical situations. When a snake lunges at a rodent, it quickly jumps up greater height, and the viper flies through the place where he stood 30 milliseconds ago.

The ancestors of snakes had four legs and lived in burrows, scientists have found.

In the near future, the authors of the article plan to conduct similar experiments with the participation of other vipers and rodents, which will show whether the rattlesnake is the record holder for speed of movement and acceleration, or whether it has worthy competitors among its relatives.

ria.ru

Here is a black mamba - the fastest snake in the world. Its movement speed reaches 23 kilometers per hour or 6.4 m per second, but only over short distances. True, the reptile uses its speed more often to escape from enemies, since it hunts while sitting in ambush, waiting for its prey.

Mamba is found from Senegal to South West Africa. Lives on the ground among bushes and grass. It crawls onto trees extremely rarely, as it is poorly adapted to life on them. At the same time, it often settles in fields among deep thickets. Since the lands are often cultivated by workers, and even manually, they are attacked by a snake. Almost no one survives.


The average length is 2.5-3 m, although sometimes specimens up to 4.5 m long are found in nature. Young animals are greenish in color, while adults are black or brown, with a white or light brown belly . It is famous for its aggressive character - it usually attacks first. Leaning on its tail, it raises the front part of its body and makes an instant throw towards its victim, immediately inflicting a bite.


Snake venom is incredibly toxic. Contains dendrotoxins, cardiotoxins, neurotoxins, blockers of voltage-dependent potassium channels of nerve fibers and blockers of muscarinic cholinergic receptors. In one bite, it injects about 100-150 mg of poison, in rare cases - up to 400 mg. Moreover, the lethal dose for humans is only 10-15 mg, and for an animal it is even less. If the antidote is not administered within the first minute, the probability of death can reach 100 percent.

samie-samie.ru

Fast news today

For the first time, biologists have accurately measured the speed at which an adder or rattlesnake throws out its head and bites its prey, finding that the snake accelerates to 60 mph in just 79 milliseconds, according to a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports.

“In nature, all encounters between predators and prey are unique - they are much more diverse than what we can see when they interact in the laboratory. Modern technology has allowed us to understand what exactly determines a successful hunt or escape from a predator, and to get closer to uncovering the evolutionary factors that drive predators and their prey,” said Timothy Higham from the University of California, Riverside (USA).

Since the Middle Ages and even earlier eras of human existence, vipers, rattlesnakes and other representatives of the viper family (Viperidae) have been considered a symbol of lightning-fast reactions, ultra-high speed and almost guaranteed accuracy of hitting the victim.

All these snakes hunt small mammals and reptiles from ambush, jumping out at them with great speed, opening their mouths 180 degrees and literally “driving” their fangs into the flesh of the victim. Higham and his colleagues decided to study this process in detail by traveling to the Mojave Desert in the southwestern United States, where the famous rattlesnakes live.

Having placed camera traps throughout the desert, scientists connected them to a computer and centrally monitored the movements and hunting of snakes, the favorite prey of which are American kangaroo jumpers (Dipodomys merriami) - large rodents similar to jerboas, moving along the desert sands in a similar “jumping” manner.

To photograph the snakes, scientists used high-speed infrared cameras capable of receiving 500 frames per second in three-dimensional format, as well as special thermal “illumination” systems. When the snake began to hunt, the computer alerted Higham and his team, and the scientists began to “manually” monitor how the vipers tried to catch the jumpers. Scientists have made it easier for snakes by scattering plant seeds around them that their victims eat.

These observations dispelled one of the myths associated with vipers - it turned out that they quite often miss, flying over or missing the rodent, especially if he managed to notice the predator at the last moment before the rattlesnake leaps. On the other hand, it turned out that vipers really move very quickly and bite with enormous power.

On average, a snake strikes a rodent within 60-70 milliseconds after the jumper enters the strike radius. During this time, the snake's head flies about 12-16 centimeters, moving at a speed of 3.5 meters per second and accelerating its movement by 170-506 meters per second squared. This equates to 50g of force, the maximum a person can experience, and is about the same rate as how fast airbags in a car are deployed.

Despite such impressive speeds and acceleration, the snake’s hunt for rodents ended in success only in half of the cases - in 50% of cases, the jumpers managed to react to the snake’s jump and escape using peculiar “springs” in their legs. In some cases, this was not even necessary, since the snake made a mistake in calculating the “ballistics” of the jump and did not reach the jumper.

As Higham explains, an evolutionary "arms race" forced jumpers to learn to store potential energy in their tendons and release it in critical situations. When a snake jumps on a rodent, the jumper suddenly jumps up to a great height, and the viper flies through the place where it was standing 30 milliseconds ago.

In the near future, the authors of the article plan to conduct similar experiments with the participation of other vipers and rodents, which will show whether the rattlesnake is the record holder for speed of movement and acceleration, or whether it has worthy competitors among its relatives.

Source

What is the most dangerous snake on the planet?

In fact, all snakes begin hunting from the first minutes of life. Having hatched, young snakes immediately go hunting... And the fastest and also one of the most poisonous snakes is the mamba, terrible snake Africa. Neither cobras nor vipers are feared here as much as these thin-bodied tree snakes; there have been cases when people died 20-30 minutes after its bite. Ordinary venomous snakes crawl at a speed of about 1 km per hour. The mamba has a simply dizzying speed for a snake, recorded by a stopwatch - 11.3 km per hour! But to the question of which snake is the most dangerous in the world, there is no definite answer. The most venomous snakes in the world are the Australian tiger snake, the taipan, the death snake, the king cobra, the African mamba, the American rattlesnake, the cascavella and some sea snakes. Laboratory experiments and tropical everyday life convince us of this: 50-80% of those bitten by these snakes die if medical care is not provided. When biting an ordinary viper - only 5 - 8%, and our most poisonous snakes, viper and cobra - 10-20%. But snakes with highly toxic venom are not always the most dangerous. Here it is also necessary to take into account the dose of injected poison, the depth of penetration of the poisonous teeth (whether they bite through clothes or shoes), whether the snake is aggressive or in a hurry to crawl away, bites immediately or with warning, how well its color camouflages, whether it is active during the day or at night, as is often the case. . . For example, boomslang venom is five times more toxic than cobra venom, but the poisonous teeth are hidden deep in the mouth, so the chance poisonous bite decreases. Sea snakes would be very dangerous if it were not for a small dose of venom, short teeth and a peaceful disposition (they bite reluctantly, like bungars, cobras, Gaboon and noisy vipers). The bushmaster has long teeth (up to 4 cm!) and a decent dose of poison, and the poison is powerful, but this snake is extremely rare, even in the Amazon River valley, where its main habitats are. But the jararaka, the most numerous snake in Brazil, accounts for up to 90% of all snake bites in this country, but its poison is quite weak. There are 410 species of venomous snakes on earth, which is more than 1/6 of all snakes in general! Among them are marine species - 49 species, vipers - 58 species. There are 122 species of pitheads (here are our copperheads, jararaks, bushmasters and rattlesnakes). Aspids (cobras, mambas, taipans, tiger and deadly snake) - 181 species. And two types of African cobras - the collared and black-necked - can spit! The spit, of course, is poisoned, it contains 4 mg of poison. It flies out of the holes of the poisonous teeth and flies 2-3 meters. There can be a whole line of 30 spits in a row! Usually the cobra aims at the eye of an approaching person or animal. It hits right. True, sometimes he shoots poison by mistake at shiny buttons, buckles, watches... :)

digger worm

My neighbor from the floor, damn it!

The black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) is one of the most dangerous, fastest and fearless snakes in Africa. It belongs to the genus mambas (Dendroaspis), which is Latin for “tree snake”. The black mamba is the holder of first place in the speed of movement among snakes; at short distances it reaches speeds of up to 20 km/h. It also has the strongest neurotoxic poison and is one of the twenty most poisonous snakes on the planet. Due to its bad character and full use of its physical capabilities, the black mamba is not kept in the collections of terrariumists, although perhaps there are fearless people who keep this snake at home. Black mamba can be found in the zoo's terrariums. Experts consider these snakes to be interesting to study and observe.

Taipan or Fierce Snake Distribution: Central Australia Habitat: Inhabits dry plains and fields. Food: Feeds on small mammals and frogs. The strength of the poison is such that in one bite it can kill about 100 adults or 250,000 thousand mice. Maximum dose (per bite) 100 mg.

King Cobra

green mamba... it's more dangerous than black...

It's called MOTHER-IN-LAY

The most dangerous ANACONDA

Australia lives the MOST POISONOUS SNAKE ON EARTH!! ! Here it is, the Taipan or coastal taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus) and the Fierce (ferocious) snake (Oxyuranus microlepidotus). The dimensions of the taipan are very impressive - up to 3-3.5 m, and the poisonous teeth are more than a centimeter long. In terms of quantity and strength of poison, the taipan surpasses all snakes in Australia; a horse dies from its bite in a few minutes, and several known cases bites of people by taipan invariably ended in their death. The taipan is very aggressive: at the sight of danger, it curls up, flattens its body, vibrates the end of its tail and, raising its front part of the body high, makes several lunges in the direction of the enemy. Unlike other snakes, which crawl away after biting the victim, the taipan clings to the victim and bites it repeatedly, injecting venom. Very often, it does this so quickly that victims do not even have time to react before being bitten several times. Most of the venom enters the victim's body during the first bite. The strength of the poison is such that in one bite it can kill about 100 adults or 250,000 thousand mice. Maximum dose (per bite) 100 mg. A person bitten by a taipan can die in just a few minutes; Thus, in the state of Queensland, where taipan bites are most often recorded, every second person bitten dies. The venom glands of the taipan contain an average of 120 mg of poison; maximum - 400 mg. Taipan venom has predominantly neurotoxic (respiratory paralysis) and coagulopathic (impairs blood clotting) effects. Before the development of an antidote to it (in 1955), more than 90% of cases died from a taipan bite

King Cobra

Look here: [link blocked by decision of the project administration]

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