Snakes Are Slippery to the Touch
Not at all. Like other reptiles, snakes are covered with smooth, dry scales. They’re not slippery at all.
This misconception arose because snakes are often confused with amphibians. Most frogs and toads indeed have moist, slippery skin coated with a special mucus that protects them from harmful bacteria. By the way, this mucus does not cause warts.
Snakes Are Completely Deaf
Since snakes lack eardrums, scientists long believed they couldn’t hear at all. However, recent studies refute this. Snakes have an inner ear that can detect vibrations through their skull and lower jaw. Figuratively speaking, a snake’s entire head serves as its ear.
By pressing their jaws against the ground, snakes can pick up ground vibrations.
They are quite capable of hearing what goes on around them—such as human footsteps, the rustling of small prey, and other sounds. Snakes use their hearing when hunting and are particularly attuned to low-frequency sounds, while they are less sensitive to high frequencies.
Snakes Love Milk
A common belief is that snakes sneak into barns at night, latch onto cows’ udders, and drink milk greedily. Additionally, it’s said that if you want to befriend a reptile, you can pour milk in a bowl, and the snake will drink it.
This is an old myth with no basis in fact. All snakes are predators, feeding exclusively on animals they catch, sometimes insects or even eggs, which they swallow whole. Like other reptiles, snakes cannot digest lactose.
During the Nagapanchami festival in India, people give cobras milk, which can make them ill or even kill them.
In reality, snakes prefer clean water and drink rather sparingly.
Snakes Can Hypnotize Their Prey
The wise Kaa hypnotized the Bandar-log with his mysterious gaze. But real snakes rely more on swift attacks, venom, or constricting embraces.
The myth of snakes mesmerizing their prey likely arose due to their hunting behavior. Snakes carefully time their strikes, preparing to pounce on unsuspecting prey. Their unblinking stare (due to the lack of eyelids) gives them a mystical, otherworldly look, which might give the impression of hypnosis.
Boas Squeeze Their Prey and Break Its Bones
It’s commonly thought that boas and pythons kill by depriving their prey of oxygen. If the constrictor is particularly large, it supposedly crushes the prey’s bones, causing a painful death.
The typical boa strategy, as imagined by non-specialists, might look like this: the reptile ambushes its prey, secures a leg hold, and then applies a choking grip…
In reality, snakes kill by disrupting the prey’s circulation. Herpetologist Scott Boback and his colleagues studied heart rate, iron levels, and blood pressure in rats fed to boas. They discovered that a snake wrapped around its prey can halt blood flow in seconds. Asphyxiation has nothing to do with it.
Moreover, boas do not try to break bones—though it can happen accidentally. The reason is that they swallow their prey whole, and a broken bone could injure the snake’s stomach.
Young Snakes Are More Dangerous Than Adults
There’s a belief that young snakes bite with more force than adults. Since they haven’t yet learned to control how much venom to inject, they bite with full intensity. Older snakes, in turn, are more experienced and conserve their venom.
In reality, there’s no data to support this theory. On the contrary, even a small bite from an adult snake injects more venom than a bite from a smaller juvenile, simply because the adult’s venom glands are more developed.
An interesting fact: the venom composition of young and adult snakes of the same species can differ.
For example, young brown snake venom differs from that of adults because juveniles hunt reptiles and amphibians, whereas adults shift to mammals. But it’s not only about age—the toxicity of snake venom can vary among individuals. Additionally, sensitivity to venom differs from person to person.
Snakes Dislocate Their Lower Jaw When Eating
Take a look at how this massive African rock python swallows a young antelope whole. Caution: these images may be shocking if you have a sensitive disposition or belong to the hoofed mammals.
How does it manage to do this? Many believe that snakes can intentionally dislocate their jaws when they eat and then put the joints back in place. However, this is not true.
Snakes simply don’t need to do this. Their lower jaw is divided into two halves. At rest, these parts touch each other, forming the snake’s equivalent of what we call a chin in humans. But when a snake needs to open its mouth really wide, the halves of the lower jaw separate, stretching the elastic skin. No dislocation — it’s all arranged much more elegantly.
The Most Deadly Snakes Live in Australia
Australia has a reputation as the world’s most dangerous continent due to its fauna.
Kangaroos, known for their love of kickboxing, can easily break your neck with a powerful kick from their hind legs. Australian spiders, the size of a plate, can sneak into the most inaccessible places and lie in wait for unsuspecting rural residents. Even harmless platypuses have venomous spurs on their hind legs.
But, as many believe, the greatest danger on this wild continent is snakes.
Indeed, the world’s most venomous land snake lives in Australia: the Inland Taipan, capable of delivering a single bite potent enough to kill 100 people.
However, the reputation of Australian snakes is worse than they deserve. Each year, 81,000 to 138,000 people worldwide die from snakebites. In Australia, about two deaths occur annually for this reason.
The most lethal reptiles are the Indian cobra (also known as the spectacled cobra), the blue krait, Russell’s viper, and the saw-scaled viper. They are referred to as the “Big Four” because they kill the most people. They live in India and some other parts of Asia. Moreover, medical care in these regions is often lacking, so bite victims may have no one to help them or even attempt to.
Non-Venomous Snakes Are Not Dangerous
There are about 3,900 species of snakes in the world, only a quarter of which are venomous. The rest do not use venom. Some people, not well-versed in herpetology, believe that all non-venomous snakes, such as grass snakes and racers, are completely safe, even suitable for children to play with. But this is a misconception.
Even non-venomous snakes can bite, and it can be very painful if they feel threatened. Their teeth cause extremely unpleasant damage to human tissues, and infection often enters the wound.
Thus, one should handle pet snakes with great care and avoid touching wild reptiles altogether.
Furthermore, sometimes non-venomous reptiles, like the long-toothed water snakes or garter snakes, deliberately eat venomous frogs, toads, and newts, accumulating toxins in their bodies.
This helps them defend themselves from predators like crows and foxes. Snakes somehow manage to gauge the potency of the poison in the creatures they intend to consume and stay away from those that are too dangerous.
Snakes Are Aggressive and Vengeful
Perhaps the most famous myth about snakes is the claim that they have a malicious nature. When we describe a vengeful and spiteful person, we often compare them to this reptile.
It is believed that if one snake in a pair is killed, the other will avenge its partner’s death.
Upon seeing its dead partner, a male snake is said to entwine around it, mourn and grieve, and then inevitably find and bite the culprit.
However, snakes are not inclined to form strong social bonds and do not create lasting pairs, remaining solitary outside of breeding seasons.
They cannot remember people’s faces or recognize those who have harmed them in the past and do not seek out or pursue offenders. Snakes are unlikely to attack humans—they only bite if they believe they are threatened. When unthreatened, a snake behaves rather passively.
Snakes Dance to the Music of a Fakir
The art of snake charming originated in Egypt but gained the most popularity in India. Today, this profession is banned there, at least officially. Yet snake charmers can still be found in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia.
Some believe that a snake hears the sound of the pungi flute and dances to it. Others claim that the reptile is deaf and is entranced by the charmer’s calculated movements.
In reality, both views are incorrect. Snakes, as mentioned, do not hear high sounds well, so the fakir’s music doesn’t interest them. However, the charmer not only plays the flute but also taps his feet, frightening the reptile—and it is these sounds that the snake hears.
The snake mistakes the pungi in the charmer’s hands for a predator and mimics its movements, standing in an aggressive posture to scare it away. These actions are mistaken for a dance.
Some charmers place the snake in a plastic bag before a performance to slightly suffocate and weaken it, so it doesn’t attack the charmer. Others sew the snake’s mouth shut with thread or simply remove its teeth. This vividly demonstrates how cruel this craft is and why it should be banned.
And yes, a snake cannot stand on the tip of its tail and balance like a ballerina during the “dance.”
If Bitten By a Snake, You Should Suck Out the Venom
In adventure films, we often see a survivalist hero bitten by a snake, promptly chopping off its head, quickly slashing the bite wound with a knife, and sucking out the venom from the affected area. Then, spitting it out with distaste, he continues on, unharmed.
However, this is a misconception—and a dangerous one.
Blood, along with the venom, moves through the body very, very quickly. It is impossible to extract a significant amount of venom to help the victim. Cutting the wound will likely do more harm, as it could easily introduce infection.
Applying a tourniquet is also a terrible idea because it forces the venom to concentrate in the isolated area, which can even lead to the loss of a limb.
The correct approach is to keep the affected limb immobile and positioned below chest level, remaining calm to avoid an accelerated heart rate. This will slow the spread of venom through the body. Clean the wound with soap and water. Do not take painkillers or, worse, alcohol. Seek medical attention immediately.
And yes, don’t try to grab or attack the snake. Even a decapitated snake head can reflexively bite. It’s better just to run away: snakes do not hunt people, so a snake won’t chase you.
