How do they act with their prey?
- They can creep stealthily until they launch themselves towards their prey biting it, thus making it paralyzed and immobile, or they choose to suffocate it, by means of a technique that consists of rapidly rolling up their body until the animal is stiff and they end up swallowing it. It is also technically referred to as “constriction”. It is common especially in the larger ones.
- They have glands that are located in different parts, specifically in the head, under the eyes and in the maxilla at the top, these glands accumulate poison inside, when the snake bites its prey, the set of movements that They cause the muscles inside these glands to narrow and press the venom that is expelled through the fangs, depositing it inside the body of the captured animal. This poison, which is nothing more than a special type of saliva with toxic properties, causes the prey to be destroyed in the form of mush due to the gradual degradation of its tissues.
- If after catching the prey they feel persecuted or watched, they do not waste time and despite already having their prey inside their elongated body, they are capable of expelling it through vomiting, and when they feel that the danger has disappeared they return to the place where they left it and again ingest it.
Types and their diet:
- Within the larger snakes: you can find those that can measure up to eight meters in length, that is the maximum they usually reach, and from there they can descend to be between four or five meters, the longer The greater the food they catch and need to meet their dietary needs. They work their prey through constriction, such as boas or pythons, which are not poisonous. The green anaconda stands out in particular since it is capable of eating amazing things such as a deer, a pig and human beings.
- Those with a medium size: they carry a diet based on small mammals, and different birds such as hens, chickens, crows, pigeons, even vultures, even their eggs, if they have the opportunity to do so. In addition, they also like rodents and farm animals that usually have their burrows, such as rabbits, guinea pigs, gerbils and hamsters. If they are kept as a pet, they can also be fed with already dead animals, which can be made into pieces, as well as the specific food that can be found in specialized stores for them.
- Those of smaller size: such as snakes of any kind, they do not exceed a meter and a half in the best of cases, they usually receive the name of snakes or king cobras, and specifically they are called Mexican Lampropeltis, gentile, pyromelana or triuangulum among others. They eat mainly reptiles or mice and other snakes of the same species. However, within their diet they also consume; insects such as crickets, beetles, cockroaches, larvae, fly, as well as spiders of different varieties and sizes. There are even those that like freshwater fish, such as carp or guppies, which they catch on the banks of rivers.
Characteristics
They have striking features such as their jaw, which, despite being quite small visually, is capable of molding and stretching just to the size of the animal that is ingesting at that moment, in particular that development is carried out when their prey is of large size and they need to introduce it in their mouth, specifically the part they move is the lower part. All this is due to the fact that their joints are very elastic and to the adaptive capacity of the bones that they have in the skull. They do not chew what they eat, they swallow it whole, but it is their gastric juices that are responsible for killing the animal that they have put inside, these are very strong and corrosive. However, the size of their prey means that they digest slowly; in fact, they can spend days, weeks or months, no more than three, without eating anything else and taking advantage of it. During the period that this eating rest lasts, they usually expel, through vomiting, the remains of the animals that their body has not been able to disintegrate, such as insect shells, mammalian teeth, nails, even horns or hair.
The ways they have to detect their victim are usually three:
- Language.
- The view.
- Infrared-type sensors: through the heat and temperature level that their bodies give off, they are able to find where they are located.
