21 July 2008

Dangerous snakes


Read this before watching the video.

Lots of interesting things to learn about deadly snakes at THIS LINK. Things I learned:

A rattlesnakes rattle may not work if it has been soaked by water, so be extra cautious hiking after rainstorms in endemic areas.

Diamondback rattlesnakes can climb trees and have been found as high as 32 feet above the ground.

The threat display of cottonmouths (water moccasins) includes not only opening the mouth, shaking their tail, and ... emitting a scent from their anal glands, reportedly similar to the smell of a billy goat.

The black mamba is not black. Its name derives from the color of the inside of its mouth. The reason they are so feared is that unlike most other venomous snakes, these readily attack and attack multiple times.

The video above is brief (17 seconds) and does not feature a venomous snake. It's a huge snake - probably an anaconda. Try to remain calm while watching it; for full enjoyment I recommend enlarging the video to full screen and placing your face close to the computer monitor...

1 comment:

  1. You rat! I think I catapulted backwards faster than one of those trap-jaw ants!
    LOL ... :-)

    ReplyDelete