Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What are some defense mechanisms of snakes? I need some interesting topics for a presentation I am doing. I have 3 things so far: camoflague, rattling tail, and playing dead. Would use of venom and/or bluffing fall into defense as well?

I need 2 things:

1) interesting snake defense mechanisms
2) snakes which display these defense mechanisms very well, for use in the visual part of the presentation.

Please e-mail me at weiside1@hotmail.com for any ideas or suggestions. This presentation is on Thursday so respond as quickly as possible! Yes I have been procrastinating.
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Jerry Wei
WeiSide's Zoo

Hissing
Striking
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RicK Denmon

Ball Boutique,Inc.

Some snakes use immitation. Some variances of the king snake look very much like a coral snake so other animals leave it alone. Ball pythons curl into a ball protecting the head. Cobras and mambas and some other types of snakes stretch out the neck to make it look bigger. hope that helps

Rob Woods

Musk/defecation (garter, kings)

I even read today about a TX Longnose I think it was everting it's hemipenes and squirting blood. (see http://www.kingsnake.com/hudspeth/texas_long.htm not the one I found this morning so apparently happens a lot).

Then there are hog nosed snakes that will sometimes roll over and play dead. If you roll them upright, they will promptly roll back with their black belly up.

Also spitting cobra's spit venom. I got to think that one is defensive only and not used in hunting.

And the monocle cobra with the eye pattern on the back of the head, I figure that is to confuse would be predators.

One more, their ability to wedge them selves into a crevice or hole so they can’t be pulled out.

One particulartly interesting defense mechanism for a large number of snake species is to regurgitate food. they only do this after eating of course. The reason behind this is widely believed to be that if an animal of prey is attempting to eat a snake, and the food is regurgitated, the prey animal will eat the regurgitated food and allow the snake to escape.

Then you have the ever famous, watch me break my tail off and make it wiggle trick used by a wide variety of lizard species.

hope this helps.