130 Amazing Facts About Snakes!

Facts About Snakes: The snake is a reptile. The characteristic of snakes is that they do not have any kind of arms or legs. In evolution, their limbs have remained the only part of the skeleton. Since they have no limbs, they crawl on the ground in a serpentine shape. There is a fear in the minds of the people about snakes, because of their venom.

After being bitten by a snake, its venom is released into the prey. Due to the effect of the venom, the prey dies in a short time and then the snake eats the prey. Thousands die every year from snake bites. In fact, not all snakes are venomous, only a few species are venomous. Snakes can be classified as venomous and non-venomous. Due to the large number of joints in the skull of snakes, they can swallow prey larger than their jaws, which is why many snakes are killed every year.

There are many misconceptions about snakes. Snakes eat people, snakes take revenge, some snakes eat brains. But there is no truth in this. The four major venomous snakes found in India, mainly in human habitats, are the snake, manyar, ghonas and furse. Most people in India die due to snake bites. The only cure for snake bites is snake venom. Apart from this, there is no other remedy for snake bites.

130 Cool Facts About Snakes

Snakes had back legs for 70 million years before losing them.
Some animals, such as the Mongoose, are immune to snake venom.
Depending on the species, snakes can live from 4 to over 25 years.
Snakes typically need to eat only 6–30 meals each year to be healthy.
As opposed to many animals in the world, a snake never stops from growing.
Snakes sleep with their eyes open. Not that they have eyelids or something.
Speaking of lungs, some snake varieties can have one, two, or even three lungs.
Sea snakes with their paddle-shaped tails can dive over 300 feet into the ocean.
Some venomous snakes have died after biting and poisoning themselves by mistake.
Although a snake’s growth rate slows as it gets older, a snake never stops growing.
The venom from a Brazilian pit viper is used in a drug to treat high blood pressure.
The Gaboon viper has the longest fangs of any snake, reaching about 2 inches (5 cm) long.
Some snakes can project their windpipe out of their mouths to avoid choking on large prey.
There are about 500 genera and 3,000 different species of snakes. All of them are predators.
Of the approximately 725 species of venomous snakes worldwide, 250 can kill a human with one bite.
A snake’s fangs usually last about 6–10 weeks. When a fang wears out, a new one grows in its place.
The lifespan of a snake depends on its species, so their life length varies between 4 and 25 years.
Here is a weird fact about venomous snakes, they deliver less venom when biting someone wearing denim.
Snakes live on everywhere on Earth except Ireland, Iceland, New Zealand, and the North and South Poles.
The most rare and endangered snake is the St. Lucia racer. There are only 18 to 100 of these snakes left.

130 Shocking Facts About Snakes

If a snake is stressed or attacked after recently eating it will regurgitate its meal in order to escape.
The largest snake in the world in the wild is the Green Anaconda, measuring a whooping 550 pounds weight.
The likeliest largest captive snake in the world is “Ginormica” – a 200-pound, 20-foot-long reticulated python.
Endangered snakes include the San Francisco garter snake, eastern indigo snake, the king cobra, and Dumeril’s boa.
Keratin is the main “ingredient” in rattle snakes’ rattles – the same material found in human fingernails and hair.
There is such a thing as a flying snake. Yes, we know. Nature had a bizarre sense of humor when it comes to snakes.
Humans seem to have an evolutionary fear of snakes, as snake phobias seem to be common to one third of the population.
While snakes do not have external ears or eardrums, their skin, muscles, and bones carry sound vibrations to their inner ears.
There are five recognized species of flying snakes. Growing up to 4 feet, some types can glide up to 330 feet through the air.
To avoid predators, some snakes can poop whenever they want. They make themselves so dirty and smelly that predators will run away.
The decapitated head of a dead snake can still bite, even hours after death. These types of bites usually contain huge amounts of venom.
Most snakes are not harmful to humans and they help balance the ecosystem by keeping the population of rats, mice, and birds under control.
Some snakes have over 200 teeth. The teeth aren’t used for chewing but they point backward to prevent prey from escaping the snake’s throat.
The oldest written record that describes snakes is in the Brooklyn Papyrus, which is a medical papyrus dating from ancient Egypt (450 B.C.).
Anacondas mate in a huge “breeding ball.” The ball consists of 1 female and nearly 12 males. They stay in a “mating ball” for up to a month.
In some cultures, eating snakes is considered a delicacy. For example, snake soup has been a popular Cantonese delicacy for over 2,000 years.
Snakes do not lap up water like mammals do. Instead, they dunk their snouts underwater and use their throats to pump water into their stomachs.

Scary Facts About Snakes

The largest living snake is the reticulated python, measuring on average 7 m long. The reticulated python has also been known to eat sun bears.
To keep from choking on large prey, a snake will push the end of its trachea, or windpipe, out of its mouth, similar to the way a snorkel works.
Snakes kill over 40,000 people a year—though, with unreported incidents, the total may be over 100,000. About half of these deaths are in India.
One of the great feats of the legendary Greek hero Perseus was to kill Medusa, a female monster whose hair consisted of writhing, venomous snakes.
The amount of food a snake eats determines how many offspring it will have. The Arafura file snake eats the least and lays just one egg every decade.
Since they are elongated animals, snakes have their internal organs disposed in a linear pattern rather than in pairs (as we have lungs, or kidneys).
The death adder has the fastest strike of any snake in the world. It can attack, inject venom, and go back to striking position in under 0.15 seconds.
Samuel L. Jackson only accepted the role in Snakes on a Plane because of the title and threatened to leave productions when they suggested changing it.
The longest snake ever recorded is the reticulated python. It can reach over 33 feet long, which is big enough to swallow a pig, a deer, or even a person.
The California ground squirrel is immune to rattle snake venom. They will also warn a rattlesnake that it is aware of its presence by heating up its tail.
The top 5 most venomous snakes in the world are the inland taipan, the eastern brown snake, the coastal taipan, the tiger snake, and the black tiger snake.
While a snake cannot hear the music of a snake charmer, the snake responds to the vibrations of the charmer’s tapping foot or to the movement of the flute.
The word “cobra” means “hooded.” Some cobras have large spots on the back of their hood that look like eyes to make them appear intimating even from behind.
Are you interested in facts about what snakes eat? Scientists found that the amount of food a snake eats is determinant to how many offspring it will have.
Some members of the U.S. Army Special Forces are taught to kill and eat snakes during their survival training, which has earned them the nickname “Snake Eaters.”

Fun Facts About Snakes for Kids

Snakes do not have eyelids; rather, a single transparent scale called a brille protects their eyes. Most snakes see very well, especially if the object is moving.
Rattlesnake rattles are made of rings of keratin, which is the same material as human hair and fingernails. A rattler will add a new ring each time it sheds its skin.
The symbol of the snake is one of the most widespread and oldest cultural symbols in history. Snakes often represent the duality of good and evil and of life and death.
Snake teeth are always curved backwards. Unlike humans, snakes don’t chew with their teeth. Instead, their curved teeth are used to keep prey from escaping the snake’s mouth.
Scales cover every inch of a snake’s body, even its eyes. Scales are thick, tough pieces of skin made from keratin, which is the same material human nails and hair are made from.
The Mozambique spitting cobra can spit venom over 8 feet away. It can spit from any position, including lying on the ground or raised up. It prefers to aim for its victim’s eyes.
Some desert snakes, such as the African rock python, sleep during the hottest parts of the desert summer. This summer sleep is similar to hibernation and is called “aestivation.”
Because snakes shed their skin, they are often symbols of rebirth, transformation, and healing. For example, Asclepius, the god of medicine, carries a staff encircled by a snake.
Snakes are well known for going long periods between meals, but some can actually survive for over 2 years with no food, and can digest their own heart when starved for too long.
Next on our list of fun facts about snakes is the one with the jaws. Not the movie by the same name, though. Snakes can move either side of their jaw independently of one another.
The heaviest snake in the world is the anaconda. It weighs over 595 pounds (270 kg) and can grow to over 30 feet (9m) long. It has been known to eat caimans, capybaras, and jaguars.
The world’s longest venomous snake is the king cobra from Asia. It can grow up to 18 feet, rear almost as high as a person, growl loudly, and inject enough venom to kill an elephant.
If a person suddenly turned into a snake, they would be about 4 times longer than they are now and only a few inches thick. While humans have 24 ribs, some snakes can have more than 400.
The word “snake” is from the Proto-Indo-European root *sneg-, meaning “to crawl, creeping thing.” The word “serpent” is from the Proto-Indo-European root *serp-, meaning “to crawl, creep.”

All Facts About Snakes

Most snakes have an elongated right lung, many have a smaller left lung, and a few even have a third lung. They do not have a sense of taste, and most of their organs are organized linearly.
King Cobra is the longest venomous snake in the world and has few enemies and predators. However, the mongoose is famous for being able to fight and kill venomous snakes, cobras in particular.
A newly discovered disorder in snakes – called the Mad Snake Disease – determines pythons and boas in captivity to tie themselves in knots. It is fatal and its causes are still under scrutiny.
The inland taipan is the world’s most toxic snake, meaning it has both the most toxic venom and it injects the most venom when it bites. Its venom sacs hold enough poison to kill up to 80 people.
The warmer a snake’s body, the more quickly it can digest its prey. Typically, it takes 3–5 days for a snake to digest its meal. For very large snakes, such as the anaconda, digestion can take weeks.
Snakes evolved from a four-legged reptilian ancestor—most likely a small, burrowing, land-bound lizard—about 100 million years ago. Some snakes, such as pythons and boas, still have traces of back legs.
The largest snake fossil ever found is the Titanoboa. It lived over 60 million years ago and reached over 50 feet (15 meters) long. It weighed more than 20 people and ate crocodiles and giant tortoises.
In some Asian countries, it is believed that drinking the blood of snakes, particularly the cobra, will increase sexual virility. The blood is usually drained from a live snake and then mixed with liquor.
Some of the more primitive snakes such as pythons and boas have vestigial hind limbs – that is, remnants of what once were legs on ancient ancestors. These remain today as tiny claws known as a pelvic spur.
The Brahminy Blind Snake, or flowerpot snake, is the only snake species made up of solely females and, as such, does not need a mate to reproduce. It is also the most widespread terrestrial snake in the world.
The shortest known snake is the thread snake. It is about 4 inches long and lives on the island of Barbados in the Caribbean. It is said to be as “thin as spaghetti” and it feeds primarily on termites and larvae.
Anacondas bear the name of “man eaters”, although there is no proof of people actually being eaten by these snakes. However, the general scientific consensus is that anacondas could, in theory, eat an adult whole.
If a snake is threatened soon after a meal, it will often regurgitate its food so it can quickly escape the perceived threat. A snake’s digestive system can dissolve everything but a prey’s hair, feathers, and claws.
Not all snakes have fangs—only those that kill their prey with venom have them. When their fangs are not in use, they fold them back into the roof of the mouth (except for the coral snake, whose fangs do not fold back).

Strange Facts About Snakes

Want more facts about snakes? Here’s a fun one about baby snakes: they can hunt immediately after hatching out of their shell. Baby snakes are born completely independent and capable of hunting and defending themselves.
The king cobra is thought to be one of the most intelligent of all snakes. Additionally, unlike most snakes, who do not care for their young, king cobras are careful parents who defend and protect their eggs from enemies.
Anacondas can hold their breath for up to 10 minutes under water. Additionally, similar to crocodiles, anacondas have eyes and nostrils that can poke above the water’s surface to increase their stealth and hunting prowess.
The fear of snakes (ophiophobia or herpetophobia) is one of the most common phobias worldwide. Approximately 1/3 of all adult humans are ophidiophobic, which suggests that humans have an innate, evolutionary fear of snakes.
Most cases of snake bites are defensive attacks, and many will not inject any venom when they bite. That doesn’t mean that you should get any closer, they don’t do this to be nice, they don’t want to waste the venom on you.
Kevin Budden, an amateur herpetologist, was killed by a coastal taipan when collecting venom. Despite being killed early in the process, he is still credited with the creation of the taipans’ antivenom saving countless lives.
Approximately 70% of snakes lay eggs. Those that lay eggs are called oviparous. The other 30% of snakes live in colder climates and give birth to live young because it is too cold for eggs outside the body to develop and hatch.
Snakes cannot chew, so they must swallow their food whole. They are able to stretch their mouths very wide because they have a very flexible lower jaw. Snakes can eat other animals that are 75%–100% bigger than their own bodies.
Male garter snakes steal other snakes’ heat to stay warm. They imitate female hormones, manipulating other male garter snakes to believe they are she-snakes. Other males will entwine and rub around the “female” sharing their heat.
Don’t get into a staring contest with a snake. It is not a battle you will win. Snakes have no eyelids and can’t blink. Instead of eyelids they have a thin layer of transparent skin called brille that covers and protect their eyes.
Some snakes have been known to explode after eating a large meal. For example, a 13-foot python blew up after it tried to eat a 6-foot alligator. The python was found with the alligator’s tail protruding from its midsection. Its head was missing.
The most advanced snake species in the world is believed to be the black mamba. It has the most highly evolved venom delivery system of any snake on Earth. It can strike up to 12 times in a row, though just one bite is enough to kill a grown man.o
The most common snake in North America is the garter (gardener) snake. This snake is also Massachusetts’s state reptile. While previously thought to be nonvenomous, garter snakes do, in fact, produce a mild neurotoxic venom that is harmless to humans.

Dangerous Facts About Snakes

While smaller snakes, such a tree- or- ground-dwelling snakes, use their tongues to follow the scent trails of prey (such as spiders, birds, and other snakes). Larger snakes, such as boas, have heat-sensing organs called labial (lip) pits in their snouts.
The last – but not least – entry on our list of general facts about snakes is about a coral snake. The Sonoran coral snake has an unusual defense mechanism. When threatened, it will lift its tail to look like its head and will fart to scare predators away.
A mysterious, new “mad snake disease” causes captive pythons and boas to tie themselves in knots. Other symptoms include “stargazing,” which is when snakes stare upwards for long periods of time. Snake experts believe a rodent virus causes the fatal disease.
Snakes like to lie on roads and rocky areas because stones and rocks absorb heat from the sun, which warms them. Basking on these surfaces warms a snake quickly so it can move. If the temperature reaches below 50° Fahrenheit, a snake’s body does not work properly.
Another one of our cool facts about snakes says that they are immune to their own venom and those of their species, but not to the venom of other species. So a killer snake can kill another killer snake if they come from different species. Boy, this sounds vicious!
The Viet Cong also used snakes as physical and psychological warfare during the Vietnam War. They lined their secret underground tunnels with bamboo canisters loaded with bamboo vipers. If any Americans dared try to use the tunnels they would be met with a swift death.
Snakes are cold-blooded (ectothermic), meaning that they rely on their surroundings to warm their bodies. It means that in warmer climates they are warmer and able to move and digest food faster. Besides reptiles, frogs are also ectothermic, in case you wanted to know.
Elephant trunk snakes are almost completely aquatic. They cannot slither because they lack the broad scales in the belly that help other snakes move on land. Rather, elephant trunk snakes have large knobby scales to hold onto slippery fish and constrict them underwater.
Snakes can be grouped into two sections: primitive snakes and true (typical) snakes. Primitive snakes—such as blind snakes, worm snakes, and thread snakes—represent the earliest forms of snakes. True snakes, such as rat snakes and king snakes, are more evolved and more active.
The black-necked spitting cobra likes to aim for your eyes and has perfect accuracy up to 7 meters away. The venom can cause permanent blindness in its victims. If you ever stumble upon the nickname “Cobra Sniper” in some blockbuster, action-packed movie, you heard it here first!

Some Interesting Facts About Snakes

Two-headed snakes are similar to conjoined twins: an embryo begins to split to create identical twins, but the process does not finish. Such snakes rarely survive in the wild because the two heads have duplicate senses, they fight over food, and one head may try to eat the other head.
The snake has held various meanings throughout history. For example, The Egyptians viewed the snake as representing royalty and deity. In the Jewish rabbinical tradition and in Hinduism, it represents sexual passion and desire. And the Romans interpreted the snake as a symbol of eternal love.
Because the end of a snake’s tongue is forked, the two tips taste different amounts of chemicals. Essentially, a snake “smells in stereo” and can even tell which direction a smell is coming from. It identifies scents on its tongue using pits in the roof of its mouth called the Jacobson’s organ.
What is considered the most “dangerous” snake depends on both a specific country’s health care and the availability of antivenom following a bite. Based on these criteria, the most dangerous snake in the world is the saw-scaled viper, which bites and kills more people each year than any other snake.
Have you ever wondered why one of the most prominent symbols in medicine is the snake? It is on Asclepius’s (god of medicine) staff and makes it into almost all logos of medical clinics and pharmacies. This is because the snake is associated with transformation, healing, and rebirth, because snakes shed their skin.
In the United States, fewer than 1 in 37,500 people are bitten by venomous snakes each year (7,000–8,000 bites per year), and only 1 in 50 million people will die from snake bite (5–6 fatalities per year). In the U.S., a person is 9 times more likely to die from being struck by lightening than to die from a venomous snakebite.
You probably know this already, as it is one of the most popular facts about snakes: they have adapted their jaw to allow them to open them to 150 degrees wide. Instead of being fused directly to the skull, it is connected by loose ligaments. This means that they can’t chew their food but are able to eat animals up to double their size.
If you survive the initial bite and envenoming of a Russell’s viper you aren’t out of the woods yet! The venom can wreak havoc on the hormone producing pituitary gland causing you to undergo a sort of “reverse puberty”. The victims lose their fertility, sex drive and body hair, in addition to loss of body definition and some cognitive abilities.
Snakes flick their tongue to pick on smells and chemicals in the air. They collect particles on their tongue and deliver them to small openings on the top of their mouth known as the Jacobson’s organ. This organ will analyze any stimuli and elicit the appropriate response. Did you ever wonder how smell works in humans versus snakes? Now you know!
In 2009, a farm worker in East Africa survived an epic 3-hour battle with a 12-foot python after accidentally stepping on the large snake. It coiled around the man and carried him into a tree. The man wrapped his shirt over the snake’s mouth to prevent it from swallowing him, and he was finally rescued by police after calling for help on his cell phone.
There are only two snakes that are considered poisonous. Poisonous and venomous snakes are completely different. Poison means it is ingested and venomous means it is injected into the bloodstream. The Rhabdoophis keelback and some garter snakes acquire and store poisons from amphibians they eat in their diet and will spit the toxin at predators or prey.
A snake in Tokyo Zoo became best friends with its meal. The zookeepers gave the rat snake a live hamster for dinner and instead of eating the cute little feller, the snake kept him as his friend and pet. Gohan the hamster and Aochan the rat snake made an odd couple to say the least, as the furry critter loved the snake back. So this is also a happy-ending story.
Naturalist Paul Rosolie attempted to be the first person to survive being swallowed by an anaconda in 2014. Though he was wearing a specially designed carbon fiber suit equipped with a breathing system, cameras, and a communication system, he ultimately called off his stunt when he felt like the anaconda was breaking his arm as it tightened its grip around his body.
Bill Haast, also known as the “Snake Man” injected himself daily with snake venom for over 60 years in an experiment to test if he could build immunity to the toxins. During his career, he was bitten at least 173 times by some of the most dangerous snakes known to man. His blood was used to save countless lives from the effects of snake venom, and he lived to the age of 100.
The black mamba (and we don’t mean Uma Thurman’s Beatrix Kiddo) is one of the deadliest snakes on the planet. An untreated bite has a 100% mortality rate. It only takes two drops of the venom to kill a full-grown adult human in twenty minutes. When it comes to general facts about snakes, this one wins you trivia night and maybe save your life, depending on where you like to spend your vacations…
The black mamba is the world’s fastest snake and the world’s second-longest venomous snake in the world, after the king cobra. Found in East Africa, it can reach speeds of up to 12 mph (19kph). It’s named not from the color of its scales, which is olive green, but from the inside of its mouth, which is inky black. Its venom is highly toxic, and without anti-venom, death in humans usually occurs within 7–15 hours.
Hannibal Barca has gone down in history as one of the greatest strategic minds and military commanders of all time. He led his army across the Alps and to many victories, but one triumph in particular shows his tactical genius. Whilst in the middle of a naval battle, he filled clay pots with venomous snakes and commanded his men to throw them aboard enemy ships. This distracted and panicked the enemy and allowed Hannibal to claim the victory.
Are you in for more cool facts about snakes? This one is not related to snakes per se, but with an event that will endure like a burnt scar in many peoples’ memories. On April fool’s day 2007 Google emailed the employees of their New York office that there was a python loose in the building. They weren’t joking! The ball python – by the name of Kaiser – was the pet of an engineer and has escaped. The story has a happy ending, in case you were wondering.
An Idaho family thought they had the deal of a lifetime when they found a 5-bedroom house cheap. They were told the previous family stopped paying, making ridiculous claims of snakes in the house. There were no snakes, and so they signed the papers. Not long after moving in, they began to find snakes everywhere. In the kitchen cupboards, slithering through the walls and carpeting the back garden. It turned out that the house was built on top of a hibernaculum, a congregational spot for snakes to hibernate together. I guess this isn’t one of those facts about snakes you’d like to experience first hand.

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