Snakes in Myanmar

Snake, biggest snake ever recorded, Burmese snake, cobra snakes,
copperhead snake, coral snake

The Myanmar's have a somehow different approach to the snake, they do it like the Chinese, they eat them !

What is it about snakes that mesmerize us? For thousands of years, these slithery creatures have inspired religious myths, fanatical fear, and endless curiosity. Streamlined to the bare essentials--mouth, belly, brain, spine--snakes manage to slink over desert sands and rocky slopes as well as swim in rivers and glide through the rainforest canopy.

In more than 100 million years on Earth, they've evolved to elegant perfection. "The way a snake moves, through sleek body curves, light shining off its scales, is one of the most impressive sights nature has to offer," says cobra expert Wolfgang

Myanmar snakes snake whisky made from snakes lizards and alcohol

Wuster at the University of Wales, who collaborated with 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. Cruising roads at nightfall is one way Slowinski sleuths cobras, 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 snakes are cold-blooded, or ectothermic, external sources--sunlight, air, water, or warm blacktop roads--heat their bodies. When snakes need to conserve heat, they coil into a compact mass. Some scientists think snakes bask on warm blacktops after they've eaten to heat their bodies and speed up the digestiveprocess. For many people snakes have some spiritual aura, as you can see in the snake temple in Penang, they have mainly Burmese python and some smaller poisonous snakes around the altar.    Deadly Venom One night in rural Myanmar, Slowinski came upon a spitting

cobra lying on a road. As he moved to bag the snake, the cobra reared, hissed, and spit at him. Wearing protective glasses, Slowinski didn't back off. With his grab stick he snatched the snake 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!"

Myanmar skinned snake innards and snake blood

This are the skinned snakes to be fried or put into the soup. See the snake 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 Myanmar has the highest rate of killings due to snakebite, they try to get read of them in this elegant way through the stomach. 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 is produced by special cells 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--often called the cobra family. Cobra 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.

Myanmar catch the snake

Myanmar cook the snake

Snake Snacks Small animals--frogs, birds, rodents, and snakes (even other cobras!)--whet a hungry cobra's appetite. Cobras track prey using senses of smell, sight, and hearing. As the snake 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 its tongue is forked, a snake detects the direction of an odor--left or right; the snake also sniffs through its nostrils. With this double-barreled sense of smell, a cobra 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 snake's inner ear.

Myanmar cobra snakes in a box

In a flash the cobra lunges, sinking its fangs into the prey and quickly releasing it. 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 snakes swallow food whole. "That's what snakes are best at--swallowing enormous objects," Slowinski says. "A three-foot cobra can easily swallow a rabbit that outweighs it." Even wilder--these jaws continue to work even when the snake 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. Why? 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 cobras."
The mystical shimmy between snake charmer and cobra isn't a dance at all. Snake charmers in countries like 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 the snake, waving the flute in front of it. The snake 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. Watch out, J. Lo!

TRY THIS: Feel how a snake 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. History: 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 Myanmar.

National Science Education Standards

Grades 5-8: form and function * structure and function in living systems * diversity and adaptations of organisms

Grades 9-12: form and function * biological evolution * interdependence of organisms * behavior of organisms

Resources

Snakes by David Badger, Voyager Press, 1999

The Singapore Zoological Gardens Web site www.szgdocent.org/cc/c-main.htm

"Snake Struck," by Joe Slowinski, San Francisco Examiner Magazine
 

Check for Understanding

Deadly Snake Hunt

Directions: Write answers to these questions. Use complete sentences.

1. What is venom? How do cobras use it?

2. Why don't cobras respond to music? How does a snake charmer make one "dance"?

ANSWERS

Answers should include these points:

1. Venom is poisonous saliva that cobras use to kill prey. Neurotoxins in cobra venom cause paralysis and suffocation.
2. Snakes lack external ears and can't hear airborne sounds. To make a cobra "dance," a snake charmer startles one with light, and then teases it to follow the motion of a waving flute.

Author Kim Masibay COPYRIGHT Scholastic, Inc. COPYRIGHT Gale Group

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