Snakes are one of the most important reptiles out of all of them. Snakes are one of my favorite animals. They have a very important job in both of our lives. I know what you are probably thinking, oh my, snakes are scary no one likes snakes. People now days are so proud of killing snakes, that is because people do not have respect for them. There is always a question that pops in to my head when someone says that snakes are scary and bad... It makes me so mad, because would you rather have a rat running through your basement and getting into your food or would you rather see a harmless snake sitting in your woods. It turns out that these scaly creatures do more than half of your pest control when it comes to rats and bugs. A snakes main diet consist of lizards and nasty rats that no one wants to see or come in contact with.
Once that I come in defense for snakes most people say well so your are saying that you have never killed a snake before? There is a big difference between seeing a snake minding its own business in the woods that is not bothering you or being a threat to you and you decide to go get your gun and shoot it just so you can tell someone just because you are proud of it. I am admitting to you right now that I have killed snakes before. We have a pond that we are trying to grow bass in and different fish and we do not want something that is going to ruin our plan, so sometimes we have to shoot snapping turtles because you cannot just pick them up and go walk them down to the lake like they are not going to hurt you because they might when it comes to an animal trying to make a home and reproduce to keep it going, they can get pretty protective over their young and their next generation. This can happen with the same thing when it comes to snakes, I do not like to shoot them but I cannot just pick up a poisonous water snake and bring it to a new spot. If they do not eat the fish in our pond and try to chase and bite me when I was fishing and stuff then we would not have a problem. I am not saying that it is ok to kill snakes, but what I am saying is that if the snake is not bothering you or hurting you, why kill it... just to get a couple laughs off of it and thats it, really? Now that I have given you some life experiences of snakes, lets now get talking about facts.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Clade: Ophidia Suborder: Serpentes Linnaeus, 1758
There are many snakes in the world, there are over 3,400 different species of snakes roaming on each and ever continent except Antartica and only 375 are venomous. Snakes are a cold blooded animal that has over lapping scales and internal ears that are not visible. Sense these snakes can live in such different places they can get warm and keep warm by two different body positions, if a snake is curled up in a tight coil then you can tell that they are trying to conserve body heat, which means that it is cold. When a snake is stretched out and laying in the sun that means that it is trying to warm up quickly. Snakes also have something that lizards don't have, eye lids to blink. One very neat thing about snakes is that over the years they have developed more joints in their head so that they can swallow bigger prey than they used to. You have seen a snakes face in a picture before regular, and when they are eating it is very big and wide.
Once that I come in defense for snakes most people say well so your are saying that you have never killed a snake before? There is a big difference between seeing a snake minding its own business in the woods that is not bothering you or being a threat to you and you decide to go get your gun and shoot it just so you can tell someone just because you are proud of it. I am admitting to you right now that I have killed snakes before. We have a pond that we are trying to grow bass in and different fish and we do not want something that is going to ruin our plan, so sometimes we have to shoot snapping turtles because you cannot just pick them up and go walk them down to the lake like they are not going to hurt you because they might when it comes to an animal trying to make a home and reproduce to keep it going, they can get pretty protective over their young and their next generation. This can happen with the same thing when it comes to snakes, I do not like to shoot them but I cannot just pick up a poisonous water snake and bring it to a new spot. If they do not eat the fish in our pond and try to chase and bite me when I was fishing and stuff then we would not have a problem. I am not saying that it is ok to kill snakes, but what I am saying is that if the snake is not bothering you or hurting you, why kill it... just to get a couple laughs off of it and thats it, really? Now that I have given you some life experiences of snakes, lets now get talking about facts.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Clade: Ophidia Suborder: Serpentes Linnaeus, 1758
There are many snakes in the world, there are over 3,400 different species of snakes roaming on each and ever continent except Antartica and only 375 are venomous. Snakes are a cold blooded animal that has over lapping scales and internal ears that are not visible. Sense these snakes can live in such different places they can get warm and keep warm by two different body positions, if a snake is curled up in a tight coil then you can tell that they are trying to conserve body heat, which means that it is cold. When a snake is stretched out and laying in the sun that means that it is trying to warm up quickly. Snakes also have something that lizards don't have, eye lids to blink. One very neat thing about snakes is that over the years they have developed more joints in their head so that they can swallow bigger prey than they used to. You have seen a snakes face in a picture before regular, and when they are eating it is very big and wide.
You might be confused how a small snake head can get so big where it can swallow something two times the size of its own head! Just for a comparison, this little snake to your right, he is eating an egg, which is like us eating a German Shepard. There are secrets of how these amazing snakes do it. The little yellow bone on this snakes skull hold his top and bottom jaw together. This little bone is like a rubber band that allows the jaw to come father apart. This does not mean that they come unattached, they are still hooked together but they can separate to help expand the size of the snakes mouth. This also can happen in the front of the mouth, but it is a little different. There is a little elastic band that connects the two bones that keeps them together, but also is stretchable so that it can expand to help it fit think things in its mouth. They both serve the same purpose, to keep to bones together but they are not the thing that makes them move. The muscle is the thing that makes the jaw move, these two bones are just there to help the bones to stick together.
Many snakes only hunt at night for their prey and can survive up to 100 days without food, so this means that they do not have to eat everyday. Snakes consume a variety of items including termites, rodents, birds, frogs, small deer, and other reptiles. Snakes mostly like to live in temperate forests and rain forests but there are some desert snakes and water snakes.
You might be wondering why a snake sticks its tongue out a lot, this is because they use their tongue to smell things. They stick out their tongue so they can get air particles on it and then they will rub it on the roof, inside their mouth where sensing cells are that will tell the snake where they are and what is around them. (In their environment) When it comes to male and female snakes the females get a little bit bigger than the male, this leads me to the fact that snakes keep growing their whole life if there is food available. Many people argue whether snakes give birth to live young or eggs, and the answer to that question is both. Some species of snakes have live young but most of the time snakes have eggs like other reptiles do.
Know that I have taught you about snakes it is time to learn when it is ok to kill a snake. I am going to give you clues to help you identify whether a snake is poisonous or not. I am sure that you have heard that some animals have bright colors that warn predators that they are poisonous. This is the same with snakes, you have heard this saying before, red on yellow, kill a fellow, red on black friend of jack. This saying helps identify a milk snake from a coral snake.
The cool thing about is this is that we do not have to worry about coral snakes because they do not live in northern Georgia. They do live in southern Georgia but not near where we live. The next clue is the shape of their head, if it is in a triangle shape, than it is poisonous but if it is not then it can not kill you. Also one of my favorite clues is the shape of their pupil. If it is round then it is not poisonous but if it is like a line then it is.
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This chart shows that you are more likely to die from a spider bite, dog attack, wasp sting, lightning strike, vehicle crash, lung cancer than from a snake bite. this should tell you something. You are scared of a snake that you think is going to come up to you and bite you for no reason and kill you so you are going to shoot it. When you look at this chart and think, there is a low chance I may not even find one. To clarify some of people's true "stories" about how a snake was trying to chase them down and bite them, that is not true. The only reason that a snake will bite you on purpose is to defend something like its home or young.
Snake Facts -Some water snakes can breathe through their skin -Smallest snake is 10cm long -Longest snake is python getting over 28ft long -Largest snake fossil discovered was a Titanoboa ranging 50ft long and was alive 60 million years ago -Snakes scales are made up of the same thing as your finger nails How Snakes Move
Snakes have 3 different ways of moving around. One is to push off the rocks and roots and bumps on their way. They can also act as an inchworm but instead of coiling up toward the sky they coil up toward each side of their body, then pushing and straitening then coiling pushing and straitening and again. Also when they slither they are using the scales on their underside when they push against the dirt or sand, their scales poke out and stick in the dirt/sand giving them something to push off to. |
Food Chain
Works Cited
"Snake." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 05 May 2015.
"Basic Facts About Snakes." Defenders of Wildlife. 03 Apr. 2012. Web. 05 May 2015.
"Reptiles | Snake." Snake. Web. 05 May 2015.
Venomous Snake FAQs. Web. 05 May 2015.
"Getting+snake+bite+percentage+per+year - Google Search."Getting+snake+bite+percentage+per+year - Google Search. Web. 05 May 2015.
"DID YOU KNOW..." Snake Facts. Web. 05 May 2015.
"Snake." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 05 May 2015.
"Basic Facts About Snakes." Defenders of Wildlife. 03 Apr. 2012. Web. 05 May 2015.
"Reptiles | Snake." Snake. Web. 05 May 2015.
Venomous Snake FAQs. Web. 05 May 2015.
"Getting+snake+bite+percentage+per+year - Google Search."Getting+snake+bite+percentage+per+year - Google Search. Web. 05 May 2015.
"DID YOU KNOW..." Snake Facts. Web. 05 May 2015.