Snakes have often played a key role in many world religions. In European culture, the snake is a symbol of wisdom and knowledge and that is why it is served as a medical emblem for more than 2400 years. We would like to draw your attention to the interesting facts about snakes.
1. Snakes can be found almost all over the world, they certainly do not live in the North and South Poles, and they do not exist in New Zealand, Iceland, and Ireland.
2. According to legend, it was St. Patrick who drove all of the snakes from the island. But most scientists point out that, there are no snakes in Ireland for the simple reason they couldn’t get there because the climate wasn’t favorable for them to be there.
3. The warmer the body of the snake, the faster it digests its food. This process usually takes 3-4 days, but very large snakes, such as anacondas, can digest large prey for up to several weeks.
4. Snakes cannot chew their food, therefore they forced to swallow it completely. The upper jaw connects to the lower jaw by the quadrate bone, allowing the mouth to open as wide as 150 degrees, which allows the snake to swallow prey twice as large as itself.
5. There are more than three thousand species of snakes in the world, of which about 750 are venomous, and more than 250 can kill a person with just one bite.
6. There are eight species of venomous snakes in Europe, around ten times more in Africa, Australia and America, and about 160 species in Asia.
7. Snakes kill more than 80,000 people around the world. In Brazil, snakebites kill about ten thousand each year, and in India more than twenty thousand people.
8. Some species of harmless snakes look almost the same as venomous snakes, this helps to protect themselves from attack by predators.
9. Anaconda is the largest snake in the world, the length of an adult female can reach up to nine meters and weigh more than 250 kilograms. Due to its huge size, it can hunt even crocodiles and jaguars.
10. The largest species of snake in the European continent is the Caspian whipsnake (Dolichophis caspius). This is a non-venomous snake with a body length of up to two meters.
11. While humans have 33 vertebrae and 24 ribs, some species of snakes have at least 200 vertebrae and sometimes more than 400 ribs.
12. Snakes do not have eyelids, and their eyes are protected only by a thin clear membrane covering their corneas, called spectacles or brilles. Therefore, snakes have to sleep with their eyes open.
13. Most snake species, around 70% of them reproduce by laying eggs, and 30% give birth to live young, like rattlesnakes, vipers, boas, and most of the sea snake species.
14. Most snakes are not harmful to humans, they help regulate the population of mice and rats and helps balance the ecosystem. A person is nine times more likely to die from a lightning strike than to die from a snake bite.
