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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
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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
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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 |
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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. |
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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
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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 Myanmar 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. 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 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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