Amazing and Interesting Facts about Snakes

Here are some funny, interesting and amazing facts about snakes

• According to ancient Chinese wisdom, a snake in the house is a good omen because it means your family will not starve.
• In March 2006, a Malaysian set a world record by kissing a venomous snake 51 times in three minutes.
• In 2008, a man in Connecticut was arrested for ordering his pet python to attack two policemen.
• The island of Komodo, Indonesia, contains more poisonous snakes per square metre than any equivalent area on Earth.
• The mortality rate if bitten by a Black Mamba snake is over 95 per cent.
• Snake Alley in Burlington, Iowa, is reputed to be the most crooked road in the world.
• Since 1980, 45 people have died of snakebite in Australia.
• In 2008, a snake in Australia that swallowed four golf balls thinking they were chicken eggs was saved by emergency surgery.
• The longest pet in the UK is thought to be a 17ft albino python living in a house in Cambridgeshire.
• Rattlesnakes cause about 82 per cent of all snakebite deaths in North America. Rattlesnake is said to taste like chicken, only tough
• Snakes are carnivores (meat eaters).
• Snakes don’t have eyelids.
• Snakes can’t bite food so have to swallow it whole.
• Snakes have flexible jaws which allow them to eat prey bigger than their head!
• Snakes are found on every continent of the world except Antarctica.
• Snakes have internal ears but not external ones.
• Snakes used in snake charming performances respond to movement, not sound.
• There are around 3000 different species of snake.
• Snakes have a unique anatomy which allows them to swallow and digest large prey.
• Snakes are covered in scales.
• Snakeskin is smooth and dry.
• Snakes shed their skin a number of times a year in a process that usually lasts a few days.
• Some species of snake, such as cobras and black mambas, use venom to hunt and kill their prey. Read more venomous snake facts.
• Snakes smell with their tongue.
• Pythons kill their prey by tightly wrapping around it and suffocating it in a process called constriction.
• Some sea snakes can breathe partially through their skin, allowing for longer dives underwater.
• Anacondas are large, non-venomous snakes found in South America that can reach over 5 m (16 ft) in length.
• Python reticulates can grow over 8.7 m (28 ft) in length and are considered the longest snakes in the world.