Snake Facts

The largest snakes in the world are members of the family Boidae, which includes the boa and the python. Some members of this family never attain a length of more than 0.6 m (2 ft), but the largest may grow to more than 9 m (30 ft).

Sea snakes have no gills and must rise to the surface for air, but they can remain underwater for several hours, obtaining dissolved oxygen from water that they swallow and eject.

Approximately 2500 different species of snakes are known. Approximately 20 % of the total numbers of the snake species are poisonous.

In some species the skin is shed about every 20 days; in others, only once a year.

The big pythons can eat animals that weigh up to about 68 kg (150 lb), but swallowing such a meal is a difficult process.

The snake must bite to inject its venom; no snake has a stinger in its tail.

Three species of snake can spit or eject the venom in a fine spray, which is aimed at the eyes of an enemy and projected for distances up to 2.4 m (8 ft). If the venom gets into the eyes, it may cause blindness. The spitting is used only in defense and never to obtain food.

Vision is well developed in most snakes, but many burrowing snakes are virtually blind.

Snakes have a strong sense of smell, which is relied on to a large extent in hunting food.

Snakes are deaf to airborne sounds. The Cobra does not hear, as it is believed, the snake-charmer’s flute. They can, however, feel vibrations through the ground or whatever they are resting on.

Snakes move slower than an adult human can run; the fastest recorded speed achieved by any snake is about 13 km/hr (8 mph), but few can go that fast.

Depending on the species, snakes may be egg-layers or give birth to live young. They generally mate in the spring, shortly after leaving whatever hollow, burrow or rock crevice has sheltered them through winter hibernation.

Most snakes mature at one or two years of age, and individuals may live up to twenty years in the wild.

The greatest age known for any snake is just under 30 years, attained by both the anaconda and the black-lipped cobra.

Snakes do not leap or jump into the air. Instead, those that do strike out coil themselves enough to get a push or strong outward movement designed to snatch prey or inject venom.

Most snakes can only strike about one half their total body length.

They do not actually leave the ground. They are capable of striking upward or outward at approximate one half length level.