Snake Myth Debunked Thanks to New High-Speed Video

Here's an interesting article from National Geographic about our amazing little scale friends:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160418-snakes-videos-animals-reptiles-science/

Rufus is pretty fast with the mice, but fortunately he's calm and laid back otherwise.

And check out those fangs! Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark.

Rufus definitely knows his way around a dead mouse!

That's cool .

One of my snakes debunks that myth every week :rofl:

Nice video

daddio207 said:

One of my snakes debunks that myth every week :rofl:

Nice video

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Thanks. I agree :rofl: My motto with Clyde-- tongs are not optional.

Would have been interesting had they timed the strike of the Gaboon viper. I've heard people say it's the fastest striking snake they have ever seen. The snake looks sluggish, which is highly deceiving, and dangerous to believe.

I've seen cottonmouths strike, and they didn't seem especially quick to me.

Rich Z said:

Would have been interesting had they timed the strike of the Gaboon viper. I've heard people say it's the fastest striking snake they have ever seen. The snake looks sluggish, which is highly deceiving, and dangerous to believe.

I've seen cottonmouths strike, and they didn't seem especially quick to me.

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No doubt, more research involving more species would be great. I believe that the surface has only been scratched on snake research overall.

As to cottonmouths:

http://youtu.be/314N7xIeRR8

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

And Rich - I just watched some videos of the Gaboon Viper - that is super fast! And they are some pretty cool looking snakes.

Thanks jagodzinski. My son emailed the link to me and I thought it was worth sharing.

Gaboon vipers are very cool snakes. I'm very content to leave them to the professionals

Yeah, I can remember my very first trip as a kid to the Miami Serpentarium and watched Bill Haast milking the venomous snakes. Of course I had to be right there up front. He then pulled out this gorgeously colored but sluggish looking creature and said it was called a Gaboon Viper. I was awe stricken....

So being the showman that he was, he started talking about the snake before doing the actual venom extraction, and his monologue ended with his saying (with the flourish of the mouth of the Gaboon opening up right on cue), "When someone gets bitten by one of these creatures, they are really never sure whether they die from the venom or the *STAB* wounds from the fangs!" Of course I felt like I was only inches away from those HUGE fangs, and involuntarily leaped backwards.



Photo courtesy of: http://snakesarelong.blogspot.com/2013/09/basics-of-snake-fangs.html

Wonderful story!

That is an amazing photo, Rich. Beautiful snake with awesome fangs. Thanks!

Thanks for sharing that video. I sure never want to get on the wrong side of a rattler.