WORLD OF SCIENCE
Snaky facts
DR. T. V. PADMA
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The internal organs in snakes are arranged differently…
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Photo: M. Karunakaran
Hisssssss... : Stretch and grow.
The arrangement of internal organs in snakes is different from that in other vertebrates.
Survival
The heart and liver are long and narrow. The kidneys are placed one behind the other. Perhaps most interesting of all, many snakes have only one lung! Fat is stored in the body of the snake.
Some snakes can survive for many months without eating. However they normally feed once every few days.The prey of land snakes is mainly mice, rats and frogs and that of sea snakes is fish and eels. Some snakes, however, such as kraits and king cobras, feed on their own kind in that they gobble up other snakes.
Snakes generally mate once a year but there are some specially in South India, which have two mating seasons. Eggs are usually laid about 60-89 days after mating. Eggs are laid in ratholes, termite mounds, the hollows in trees or under rotting leaves. The female usually leaves after laying eggs. There are exceptions. The krait python and king cobra stay with the eggs for part of the incubation period.
When the eggs hatch, the tiny snakes, some of which are no bigger than large earthworms, stay together for about a week. They have to survive the attacks of predators such as birds, mongoose, monitor lizards and frogs. They generally protect themselves by camouflage and mimicry of dangerous species.
When they are older they use other strategies. They hiss or expand their necks and bodies. This is typical of the cobra but this strategy is also used by the watersnake. In their turn the young snakes prey on tadpoles. Their rate of growth is fast and they double their size in two or three months.
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