Myanmar Snake Burmese Snakes Poisonous Cobra Bite, Venom.

Stealthily, the he approaches the creature. With a few awkward thrusts of a "grab stick"--an aluminum pole with two 6-inch fingers or tongs--he grasps at the lightning-fast, poisonous animal, and snags it. Elated villagers crowd around to shake the hand of herpetologist (snake and reptile scientist) Joe Slowinski.

Now the cobra hunter

has good reason to be excited. The snake he's nabbed turns out to be a spitting cobra that only inhabits the arid terrain of the central region. Named the "Burmese spitting cobra" (Naja mandalayensis), it's the first new cobra species to be discovered since 1922. Surprisingly, they are usually shy and nonaggressive--deadly only when threatened or hunting prey. "Ever since I was a kid, I've loved snakes," Slowinski says. "I got bit by a rattlesnake when I was 15, and that didn't stop me."

Slowinski in naming the new cobra.Apes climb with powerful anus and hands; frogs swim with webbed feet; falcons seize prey with sharp talons. Snakes--merely with a backbone--do all these things. Sheathed in smooth or rough scales, a snake's limbless body contains a long string of 100 to 600 vertebrae (backbones), which provide spectacular flexibility without sacrificing strength.

Each vertebra features a pair of ribs that curve and attach to the inner surface of a broad scale on a snake's under-belly. Essential for snaky locomotion, these belly-side scales run crosswise like bulldozer tread; a snake's skeleton and belly scales are linked by muscles in complex overlapping layers, letting snakes crawl, climb, zigzag, caterpillar creep, coil, and crush.

Myanmar snakes snake whisky made from
snakes, lizards and alcohol, coral snake.

Slowinski sleuths cobras,

by cruising roads at nightfall is one way since the species he's after tend to be nocturnal, or active at night. Cobras are nocturnal because the rodents they love to eat scurry around at night; also, cobras can overheat and die in intense tropical sunlight. Since

 Slowinski didn't back off. With his grab stick he snatched it behind its head and wrangled it into his cloth sack, trying to avoid a vicious bite. But he miscalculated: "Suddenly it bit me right through the bag!" The fang sank into his finger, and Slowinski sat down and waited for the pain--which never came. "I got lucky. The bite was dry." In other words, the snake released no venom, a poisonous saliva used to kill prey. If the cobra had injected venom, Slowinski's finger would have swelled within minutes. His muscles would have weakened and his eyelids drooped; he would have drooled and slurred his speech. Breathing would have become laborious--then impossible. In 12 to 24 hours, he could have died. "But the last thing cobras want to do is waste venom on animals they can't swallow whole, like people," Slowinski says.

Snake venom

Cruising roads at nightfall is one way in two large venom glands on each side of the head. Out of 3,000 known species of snakes more than 500 are venomous. The 10 most lethal snakes in the world belong to the elapids family, their venom kills via neurotoxins, proteins that paralyze an animal's nervous system and diaphragm, abdominal muscles used to breathe. The snake metes out the exact amount of venom needed to suffocate the prey, then swallows its catch, headfirst.

Left are the skinned ones ready to be fried or boil into the soup. See the blood in the glass left, it is mixed with with wine and jup..... we go. Mainly Chinese and Russian -yes you heard right- like this, does this need any more explanation. Actually the country has the highest rate of killings due to snakebite, they try to get read of them in this elegant way through the stomach.

They like small animals--frogs, birds, rodents, and snakes (even other cobras!)--wet a hungry' appetite. They track prey using senses of smell, sight, and hearing. As the animal hunts, its forked tongue flicks in and out through a notch in the upper lip; odor particles from the air and ground stick to the extended tongue. Inside the mouth, the tongue transfers scent particles to the Jacobson's organ, two pits on the mouth roof; the organ sends complex signals to the brain, which analyzes the scent chemicals.

Because the tongue is forked, a snake detects the direction of an odor--left or right; it also sniffs through its nostrils. With this double-barreled sense of smell, the aminal can easily pursue the trail of a rat, for example. If the rat wanders close by, the snake might see the rat. And the cobra's body, stretched along the earth, feels vibrations of the rat's paws on the ground; the vibrations also resonate in the inner ear.

In a flash the it is sinking its fangs into the prey and quickly releasing it's deadly venom. If the prey is large, the snake bites down several times to inject a lethal dose of venom. A snake's eight teeth-bearing jaw bones are connected by a stretchy ligament (a band of tissue that connects bones).

This ligament lets them swallow food whole. "That's what they are best at --swallowing enormous objects," Slowinski says. "A three-foot animal can easily swallow a rabbit that outweighs it."

Even wilder, these jaws continue to work even when it is dead! A freshly decapitated rattlesnake will try to attack objects--like human hands waved in front of it--for up to an hour after death. Certain snakes (rattlesnakes, for instance) "see" with heat-sensing pit organs, located between the eyes and nose or around the mouth.

Pit organs can detect heat even after a snake dies.

Although cobras don't have pit organs, Slowinski says he's not taking any chances: "Dead or alive, we take a lot of caution with them." The mystical shimmy between snake charmer and cobra isn't a dance at all. In Myanmar, India, and Pakistan catch a healthy cobra (usually in rat holes) and keep it cool under a lid in a basket or clay pot. The "dance" begins when the charmer lifts the lid, letting bright light stream into the container. Startled, the shy cobra rises through the opening to defend itself. The charmer teases it, waving the flute in front of it and follows the motion, but not the music. Snakes can't hear airborne sounds well, since they lack external ears. Is it dancing' not really, but it sure is smooth.

TRY THIS: Feel how it hears. Strike a tuning fork on a hard surface and press the fork's stern to your chin. What happens' Snakes lack external ears, but sound waves travel through a snake's jaw and vibrate bones in its inner ear.

Cross-Curricular Connection Geography: Research and report on Myanmar's geological features. golden Myanmar: Research the snake myths and legends of several cultures.

Did You Know?

* Worldwide, venomous snakes kill an estimated 10,000 to 50,000 people a year. Of those deaths, fewer than five occur in the U.S.
* Snakes breathe with one lung: they have an elongated right lung, but the left one is a useless nub.
* The small-sealed taipan, an Australian elapid, has the most toxic venom of any snake. The most aggressive snake is Russell's viper, which is prevalent in the country.