50 Terrifying Facts About Snakes – Part 2

The Inland Taipan or "fierce snake" is the most venomous snake in the world. However, because of its shy nature and timid nature, there has never been a recorded death caused by its bite. The word "fierce" describes its venom, not its temperament.

2. Rattlesnakes can suddenly increase the frequency of their rattle from 40hz up to 100hz as a way to fool people into believing they are closer than they really are.

3. While most snakes hiss, king cobras let out a growling moan, which some say resembles a dog's growl.

4. The ‘Asian Tiger Snake’ can be venomous and poisonous if they live in a region where their possible diet contains poisonous toads, from which they can sequester the toxins.

5. Although cottonmouths are heavy-bodied snakes, they are also buoyant and swim with their whole body above the water.

Female anacondas can sometimes eat the smaller male after mating. Sexual cannibalism provides female anacondas with a lot of nutrients, useful for them because they fast for seven months while pregnant.

7. Despite popular belief, Boa Constrictors don't suffocate their prey to death, but rather squeeze their victims so hard that they collapse their cardiovascular system cutting off blood flow to the heart and brain minutes before an animal would die of suffocation.

8. When snakes slither, they're lifting parts of their body off the ground a tiny amount, and are effectively "walking" on their coils. Even accounting for this, mathematical models of snake movement can only account for ~90% of their top speed, the final ~10% being a mystery.

9. The reticulated python is a species of snake that can grow as wide as a human and grow up to 10 meters in length. It is capable of catching and swallowing a crocodile or deer whole.

10. Back in 2017, the body of an Indonesian man was found inside the belly of a reticulated python. Though there have been reported attacks before, this is the first fully confirmed case with video documentation of a python eating a fully grown, adult human.

The untreated bite of the pit viper can lead to necrosis of the tissue and may cause gangrene which often requires amputation.

12. One of Africa's most venomous arboreal snakes, Boomslangs, are one of the few snake species that exhibit sexual dimorphism, meaning their color varies according to their sex. The females are almost always brown, whereas males exhibit much more vibrant coloration, in multiple patterns.

13. Your muscles start to dissolve into your blood after a bite from Inland Taipan. The victim typically dies due to kidney failure as kidneys cannot handle processing all the dissolved muscle tissue.

14. Rattlesnakes hibernate for the winter in large communal dens. Sometimes, dens can contain over a thousand snakes.

15. Snakes have forked tongues to be able to smell in three dimensions. By picking up odors from slightly different locations they can tell the direction and source of the smell.

All species of snake in the genus chrysopelea are capable of performing gliding flight, with ranges as great as 100 meters. The snakes in this genus achieve this by leaping from branches, then sucking in their abdomen and flaring out their ribs, turning their body into a "pseudo concave wing."

17. Garter snakes are actually mildly venomous. Nevertheless, they are incapable of seriously harming a human though rarely, their bites have caused some swelling and bruising.

18. A rattlesnake’s rattler is made from the skin it sheds during molting. They start with one "button" (which is made of the same material as our fingernails) and adds one each time it molts.

19. The Echis a.k.a. Saw-Scaled Viper is responsible for more human-related deaths than any other snake and is arguably responsible for more deaths per year than all other snake species combined.

20. Puff adders are a species of snake which are capable of hiding their scent from predators and prey.

Common kingsnakes (Lampropeltis getula) are notorious ophiophages and will consume rattlesnakes as readily as they will garter snakes. Immune to the venom of native pit vipers and capable of consuming a snake nearly as long as they are, kingsnakes also consume frogs, lizards, turtles & rodents.

22. The lake taal snake is a species of marine snake that evolved to adapt to a freshwater environment. It is found in a single Philippine lake that was cut off from the sea less than 500 years ago. This means that the snake evolved into a new species in just a few centuries.

23. The rhinoceros viper is found in the forests of West and Central Africa. This colorful and nocturnal viper is considered to be one of the most venomous snakes in Africa, producing both a neurotoxic as well as hemotoxic venom, although very few cases of human envenomation have ever been reported.

24. The Arizona coral snake prefers aggressively farting at threats rather than using its powerful neurotoxic venom.

25. King cobras mainly eat other snakes, which requires more than killing rodents. This is why only one bite from a king cobra can kill an elephant.