For humans, snakes are a particularly terrifying animal. In ancient China, there was a saying that "once bitten by a snake, ten years afraid of the well rope". Humans have been afraid of snakes since ancient times, and even in myths and legends, they have portrayed it as a demon that can destroy the world and the earth.
The terrifying giant snake of Norse mythology , Yemengard
Although snakes are so terrible, there are still many animals on the earth that are not afraid of snakes, and these animals are not only not afraid of snakes, but some regard snakes as an important food source. What are these animals?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > animals that are not afraid of snakes (in no particular order).</h1>
(1) Hedgehogs
The hedgehog is a mammal that is widely distributed in Europe and northern Asia, and is short and fat, generally between 10 and 30 cm long. The hedgehog mainly relies on the thorns on its body to protect itself, and once the enemy appears, the hedgehog will form a ball of the body, and the thorns on the back will be erected.
When a hedgehog is found in a ball, the snake generally does not dare to mouth easily, and can only circle around the hedgehog weakly. When the snake was tired, the hedgehog jumped up again and struck a fatal blow at the snake. Hedgehogs will eat small snakes, and if the snake is too big to eat, the hedgehog will choose to leave.
(2) Porcupine
The porcupine is a mammal with a body length of 60-90 cm and a large number of hairs on its back that have evolved into hard spines. The porcupine's hard spines are particularly long, 7.5 cm long, and there are inverted hooks on the spines, which will not fall off when they penetrate the enemy's body. Because of the terrifying size of the porcupine plus the hard spines that are enough to kill, many small snakes do not dare to attack the porcupine at all, and only some large snakes do not know how to fear the hard spines of the porcupine. Yet they paid with their lives.
Pythons swallow their prey alive into their stomachs and use digestive juices from their stomachs to digest their prey, a process that takes hours to say the least. These hours are important for porcupines that are swallowed into their stomachs. The porcupine will protrude left and right inside the snake, prick the big snake's stomach with a thorn, find a way to make an opening and escape. When the porcupine successfully opened its mouth, the big snake that swallowed it was almost killed alive.
(3) Crocodiles
Crocodiles are amphibious reptiles widely distributed in the southern hemisphere. Crocodiles vary in size, with particularly large sizes reaching 4 meters and smaller sizes reaching only 1.25 meters. Crocodiles are ferocious carnivores, particularly intelligent, and know some predation techniques. Crocodiles will choose to lie still like a piece of wood when preying on snakes, and immediately launch a surprise attack when the snake approaches. Crocodiles usually bite the snake's neck in one bite and do not let go after biting. The snake's head that is bitten in the neck cannot be turned, and naturally it cannot hurt the crocodile. When the snake is bitten, the crocodile takes the captured prey to a safe place to eat a full meal.
Crocodiles that prey on snakes
(4) Large toad
You read that right, toads are also natural enemies of snakes, but large toads can only prey on some smaller snakes. The large toad is particularly widely distributed around the world, and the large toad has many poisonous glands on the surface of the skin, which can secrete many highly toxic venoms. Some small poisonous snakes therefore did not dare to go near the big toad at all, because even if they attacked first, they might die from the toad poison. And the big toad eats the small venomous snake as simple as eating a snack, one bite at a time.
When the big toad preys, it likes to swallow the prey in one bite, often eating it into the stomach while the prey is still alive.
(5) Snake carving
As the name suggests, snake carvings are eagles that feed on snakes. The snake eagle is a bird of prey distributed mainly in East, South and Southeast Asia. Snake eagles like to eat snakes, but also some mammals such as rats and rabbits. Snake eagles have particularly good eyesight and can find prey on the ground at high altitudes.
As soon as it spotted a snake crawling on the ground, the snake eagle launched a dive attack from high in the sky, grabbed its prey with its claws, and flew back into the sky. Because the snake that was caught was in the sky, it was already frightened, and naturally it was powerless to resist. When grabbing its prey and flying high into the air, the snake eagle will use its hard mouth to peck at the brain marrow of the snake, quickly killing the snake. If the prey is found struggling with fear, the snake eagle will let go and let the snake fall to its death. When the prey falls to its death, the snake eagle flies down to retrieve the prey.
(6) Snake vultures
The vulture is a bird that feeds on reptiles and small mammals, mainly in Sudan and South Africa. The vulture is 1.4 meters tall and has particularly long legs, much longer than any other bird. The long feet of the vulture are wrapped in a layer of scales, and whether the snake is venomous or not, it cannot bite through the legs of the vulture. At the same time, because of the height of the snake vulture, the snake's every move can also be seen clearly, and the snake's attack can be quickly defended.
Because there is no need to be afraid of snake venom, the snake vulture dares to boldly attack the snake. The vulture's body is particularly flexible, and it will jump around the snake and confuse the snake with its long legs. When the snake slackened, it suddenly exerted its strength, grabbed the head of the poisonous snake in one bite, and ate it into the stomach like a noodle.
Snake vultures eat snakes like noodles
(7) Honey Badger (huan)
Honey badger was nicknamed a particularly joyful nickname on domestic Internet forums - "flat-headed brother". The reason is that the honey badger is not afraid of this animal, dare to actively attack the animals at the top of the food chain, so the honey badger was rated by the Guinness Book of Records as "the world's most fearless animal". At the same time, the honey badger's head hair is very short, as if it has been cut flat. The nickname of "flat-headed brother" is based on these characteristics by netizens.
Flat-headed honey badger
Honey badgers mainly live in southern Africa, because Africa is a natural world of the weak and the strong, in order to survive, the honey badger evolved a bite of flesh, strong resistance to poison and terrifying bite ability. The honey badger's tough skin and strong resistance to poison make it immune to most snake venoms, and if bitten by a poisonous snake, it will only fall asleep like a drunk for a while. And the strong bite force allows it to bite many ferocious snakes alive in one bite. Venomous snakes are often preyed upon by honey badgers, and few venomous snakes dare to attack honey badgers on their own initiative.
Although there were no poisonous snakes attacking the honey badger anymore, the honey badger still felt that it was not too addictive. Honey badgers sometimes attack giant pythons alone, with particularly dismal results.
(8) Snake badger (meng)
The snake badger is also a poisonous snake killer, because of the cruel and decisive way of hunting and killing poisonous snakes, Chinese netizens jokingly called "badger brother". The snake badger is a mammal of the family Badger family, and its whole body and tail are 75 cm long. The snake badger is small but particularly agile, and the snake badger also has anti-venom substances in the body (more resistant to poison than honey badger). These make it the nemesis of snakes.
The snake badger is eating like a cat catching a mouse while hunting poisonous snakes. The snake's body is extremely flexible, and after finding the poisonous snake, it will jump left and right in front of the poisonous snake, consuming the poisonous snake's physical strength. When the poisonous snake was tired and panting, and collapsed on the ground, the snake badger pounced straight over, bit through the snake's brain, and bit the poisonous snake alive.
Another strange thing about the snake badger is that when it is full, it will choose to take the initiative to attack and kill the poisonous snake when it is full. Scientists have not yet had a definitive explanation for this, but personal speculation is that the snake once preyed on the cubs of the snake badger, and the two animals formed a deep hatred.
Badger cubs
Since there are animals in nature that are not afraid of snakes, is there anything that humans make snakes afraid?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="29" > something that snakes fear</h1>
If you don't take into account items that can kill snakes, such as hot and cold weapons, the answer is no. In ancient China, it was said that snakes were afraid of garlic and yellow, but a firefighter in Zhejiang used a cauliflower snake to conduct experiments and confirmed that the ancient legends were not credible.
The firefighter not only tested minced garlic and male yellow powder, but also tested the "snake busters" that are popular on the Internet, such as wind oil essence, snake repellent powder, and ultrasonic snake repellent instruments. He sprinkled the items equally on a square piece of plastic sheet for the snake to crawl over. Judge what the snake is afraid of by observing its reactions.
Snakes hate male yellow
The result was unexpected, the snake did not respond to the wind oil essence, minced garlic, and "ultrasonic snake repellent instrument" at all, and only male yellow powder and garlic powder could make the snake avoid the situation. Animal experts explain this even more depressingly, with snakes avoiding male yellow and repelling snake powder not because they are afraid, but simply because they hate the smell. The olfactory organs of snakes are particularly sensitive and can sense some very subtle odors, and snakes are therefore particularly sensitive to heavier-smelling substances such as male yellow powder.
There was once an experiment in the media: a snake was kept in a cage and starved for many days. Then put a rat stained with male yellow powder in front of it and see if it eats or not. Surprisingly, the snake immediately ate the rat clean, and there was no adverse reaction after that.
Male yellow powder
Since the snake is not afraid of male yellow powder, is there any way to protect itself?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="35" How to avoid snake bites in the wild >? </h1>
Snakes are mainly found in the wild, so people need to avoid areas where snakes may be active (mainly grass) when moving in the wild. There are several types of snakes that like to wrap around the branches to hunt prey or rest, and you have to be careful when passing by. Even if you want to walk through the grass, you have to prepare a long stick. When walking, it is necessary to frequently hit the ground with a stick, and the snake's hearing system is also very developed, and it is very sensitive to abnormal noises, and will be scared away by the vibration generated by the stick. This is how the ancient Chinese allusion to "striking grass and frightening snakes" came about. If you are camping in the wilderness, sprinkle a circle of snake repellent powder around the tent to keep the snake out.
Act rashly and alert the enemy
Snakes are afraid of people by nature and generally do not take the initiative to attack humans. Unless there is no need to kill the snake in self-defense, you only need to keep a safe distance from the snake and not be bitten.