88 Savage Facts About Snakes That’ll Give You Nightmares

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1Male garter snakes

Male garter snakes

Male garter snakes sometimes mimic female garter snakes in order to be cuddled by other males and steal their heat, a process called 'Kleptothermy.'


2. The venom of Russell's viper is commonly used in a diagnostic laboratory test because its blood clotting properties are extremely helpful in detecting an autoimmune disorder called antiphospholipid syndrome.


3. In 1996, when Valentin Grimaldo from Texas was bitten by a coral snake, he killed the snake by biting off the snake's head and using the decapitated body as a tourniquet.


4. There is a species of snake in South East Asia commonly known as the "Flying Snake." Not only does it climb trees, but it can then glide through the air from one tree to the next, slithering its body to create lift, achieving distances of 100m, more than any other gliding animal.


5. The company that used to make coral snake antivenom stopped producing it in 2003, finding that its production was unprofitable. USA’s stock of coral snake antivenom expired in 2008, but the FDA has extended its expiry date ever since to keep what is left available to the public.


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6Hannibal Barca

Hannibal Barca

A Roman military commander named Hannibal Barca filled jars of clay with poisonous snakes and had his soldiers throw them onto enemy ships during a naval battle to incite panic and he won.


7. Hog-nosed snakes will feign death by rolling on their back, and when rolled upright will roll back again as if to insist they're really dead.


8. Snake anti-venom is made from the neutralizing antibodies that a horse produces when it is injected with snake venom


9. Adult California ground squirrels have a protein in their blood that allows them to survive rattlesnake bites. The squirrels also heat up their tail and wave them to let the rattlesnake know they are aware of them since rattlesnakes have infrared vision. They don't do this with other snakes.


10. The venom of Southern Copperhead, one most poisonous snake, has been found to contain a protein that halts the growth of cancer cells and stops the migration of tumors.


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11Rattlesnakes evolution

Rattlesnakes evolution

Rattlesnakes are evolving not to rattle. Previously, they rattled to avoid being stepped on by hoofed animals. Now they have learned to remain hidden and quiet to avoid being hunted by humans.


12. Japan makes a particular type of booze that is made by drowning a Pit Viper in alcohol. The snake is put on ice until it passes out, at which point it is gutted and sewed up. When the viper is thawed, it awakens and quickly dies in an aggressive striking pose.


13. One bite from the snake called Boomslang can cause you to bleed from all openings in your body.


14. Australia is the only continent where venomous snakes actually outnumber the non-venomous ones.


15. An Ancient Roman punishment for the crime of parricide (the killing of a parent) was to severely scourge the criminal, sew them into a stout leather bag with a dog, a snake, a rooster, and a monkey, then throw the bag into the river.


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16Coolidge Winesett

Coolidge Winesett

In 2000, a partially paralyzed 75-year-old named Coolidge Winesett from Southwest Virginia was in his outhouse pit when the floor of it suddenly gave way. He fell through and was surrounded with excrement, urine, snakes, spiders, maggots and rats. He was stuck and it was over 3 days before the mailman found him alive in the pit.


17. The Boa Constrictor is the only living animal which is commonly known by its full Latin name, boa constrictor. The only other example is the extinct Tyrannosaurus Rex.


18. The pressure in an erect penis is over 100 torr, more than what a boa constrictor uses to suffocate its prey.


19. The largest snake fossil ever discovered is called a Titanoboa. This creature lived 60 million years ago and would have been 50 feet (15 meters) long.


20. The Russell viper's bite can, in certain situations, make the victim go through a sort of reverse puberty.


21Bounty on Cobras

Bounty on Cobras

When the English colonial government in Delhi, India put a bounty on cobras to eliminate them from the city, it resulted in a cobra population boom. The bounty was greater than the cost of breeding a cobra, and the citizens started breeding them to sell it to the government.


22. In Vietnam, it is possible to order a cobra blood wine from the restaurant menu. The waiter will take a live cobra, kill it on the spot, drain the blood into a shot glass of rice wine, and top it off with the cobra's still beating heart for you to gulp down.


23. In 2012, a Nepalese farmer named Mohammed Salmodin was bitten by a cobra and bit the cobra back. The cobra died and he went about his daily business with no symptoms as if nothing had happened. He finally agreed to go to the hospital after pressure from family, neighbors, and police.


24. The interior of spitting cobras' fangs have ridges like those inside a rifle's barrel that allow it to shoot venom further.


25. Before the invention of anti-venom, the black mamba had a 100% fatality rate and its victims would be dead in about 20 minutes.

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