Posted on 03/16/2016 6:11:27 PM PDT by MtnClimber
The Texas rat snake was just as much of a speed demon as deadly vipers, challenging long-held notions about snake adaptations.
When a snake strikes, it literally moves faster than the blink of an eye, whipping its head forward so quickly that it can experience accelerations of more than 20 Gs. Such stats come from studies of how a snake lunges, bites and kills, which have focused mostly on vipers, in part because these snakes rely so heavily on their venomous chomps.
"It's the lynchpin of their strategy as predators," says Rulon Clark at San Diego State University. "Natural selection has optimized a series of adaptations around striking and using venom that really helps them be effective predators."
That means scientists have long assumed vipers must have the speediest strikes in town. "There's this kind of preemptive discussion that [vipers] are faster," says David Penning at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.
Not so fast: When Penning and his colleagues compared strike speeds in three types of snakes, they found that at least one nonvenomous species was just as quick as the vipers. The results hint that serpents' need for speed may be much more widespread than thought, which raises questions about snake evolution and physiology.....
They put each snake inside a container and inserted a stuffed glove on the end of a stick. They waved the glove around until the animal struck, recording the whole thing with a high-speed camera. The team tested 14 rat snakes, 6 cottonmouths and 12 rattlesnakes, recording several strikes for each individual.
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...
Though there are some rattlers in Southern Alberta, the largest concentration of snakes may be located at 111 Wellington St., Ottawa, Ontario.
Likewise, I would suspect that there are more snakes per acre near the intersection of E Capitol St NE & 1st St NE Washington, DC 20001 than in your part of SE Texas.
OK, maybe not snakes, but snake oil salesmen, both on Duh!Ottawa and Washington.
My corn snakes loved to bite me
It entertained them I think
I was hiking in central Florida and came across an Eastern Diamondback that was around 7 ft long. It coiled up and made a heck of a racket. I watched it from a safe distance. Even though I knew it could only strike 2-3 ft I kept about a 10 ft distance. It was really angry at me being there!
I take it not one of these scientists ever lived around snakes or played with them as a kid.
Constrictors use their mouths to capture their dinners too. They just put the squeeze on after they’ve caught it.
They are probably from LA, NYC or Chicago. When I was a kid I knew poisonous vs. non-poisonous snakes and caught many non-poisonous and a few poisonous ones growing up in Florida. The tough ones were Banded Water Snakes vs Water Moccasins. Both were pretty aggressive.
Our last Bulldog (an Olde English Bulldog) like to deliver crushed armadillos to our front door. Not a pleasant delivery, but we had fewer of those nuisance holes in the yard. Convinced our dogs love to impress us, and want to earn their keep.
Yep...I know...I was corrected earlier..*LOL* Thanks, though...
“Rattlesnakes (Eastern Diamondback and Pigmy) - Very Fast
Water Moccasin - Fast
Coral Snake - Very Slow
Coachwhip - Very fast and hurt
Corn Snake - Fast
Cobra - Fairly Slow”
Me when in vicinity of snake - warp speed
The snakes that would scare me the most are:
Black Mamba
Krait
Taipan
Gaboon Viper
Bushmaster
Eastern Brown Snake
Death Adder
Tiger Snake
Perhaps I should be afraid of Rattlesnakes, but I have been around them so much and they often rattle as a warning.
Please feel free to add snakes that would worry you unless you are afraid of Garter Snakes.
All snakes gotta be fast or go hungry.
Huge scientific break through......../s
Anybody seen this guy? Makes the Crocodile Hunter look like a wimp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wynx1ukwdVA
The rattlers in feral hog infested areas don’t rattle much if at all. The rattle is a dinner bell for the hogs. Natural selection at work.
No, garter snakes don’t scare me. :-)
I don’t like water moccasins and copperheads.
I learned not to rake leaves in the fall while wearing flip-flops when I raked a copperhead just to my toes. Luckily he was disoriented and my warp-speed backwards jump saved the day.
Water moccasins are just plain creepy when they’re swimming or hiding in the brush along the water’s edge. One jumped out of a woodpile at me once and, yet again, my lightning-fast backwards jump proved to be a valuable self-defense plan.
:-)
We have lots of Texas Rat snakes (aka chicken snakes) For every one with a good temperment, there are about a dozen with foul attitudes.
That doesn’t stop me from catching every one I find. Mostly we find 5’ ones.
I have seen numerous Mongoose vs Cobra fights ... Cobra is WAY Outmatched.
Coachwhips in Texas are wicked FAST and like to get up high to scare the crap outta ya before they race off.
Hogs don’t have much respect for Rattlers probably because Rattlers don’t “Run” (try to escape) like Corn Snakes or Whips and for some reason Hogs just don’t seem to care, they just eat them.
.02
I chased a big coachwhip through an orange grove in Florida when I was in 7th grade. I finally tired it out and grabbed it by the tail. It turned and bit me on the arm. It took a long time to get it off.
Close calc: snakes’ strike range is 2/3 of length so the 7fter could have gone 5ft strike. Question is how fast can they set up coil for second strike another 5ft away :)
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