![]() It's not every day you find a snake in your garden shed! The member of the public who contacted us had quite a shock when they were looking in their wood shed and came across a snake slithering amongst the bin bags. Our Inspector, Caren Goodman-James, was recently called to a garden following a call from a member of the public who had stumbled across a stray snake in her shed. How to avoid your pet snake escaping and getting lost ![]() They are typically shades of grey or brown, and some males have blue spots. Slow-worms (Anguis fragilis) are actually legless lizards and not snakes! They can reach around 45cm and unlike snakes, they have eyelids. Sometimes other reptiles can be mistaken for snakes and so if you find a long visitor sneaking around your garden, perhaps they are actually a slow-worm. If you find a shed snake skin, you may be able to work out which species of snake they are by looking carefully at the scale patterns! Is it a snake or a slow-worm? The shed skin of a snake is known as a 'slough'. They're typically a greyish brown in colour, have a dark stripe down the side of their face, a heart-shaped pattern on their head and a pattern of spots and bars along their back! How to identify a snake from their shed skin They're the smallest species, growing to only around 55cm in length. ![]() The smooth snake is the least widespread, localised to the south of England and found in heath habitats. If you're lucky, this species might visit your garden (look out for soft leathery eggs in your compost heap!). They have a distinct collar behind their heads and are also the only native snake species to lay eggs. Grass snakes, in comparison, are usually an olive green colour, with large eyes and round pupils and can be over a meter long. They're the only venomous species of snake in the UK! The adder has a distinctive zig-zag pattern down his/her back, with red eyes and a vertical pupil, and can grow to around 70cm. They may also dine on venomous Indian cobras, kraits and even small king cobras.Īt the Smithsonian's National Zoo, king cobras eat mice and rats.In the UK, we're lucky enough to have three native species of snakes - the adder, the grass snake (pictured) and the smooth snake. The snakes eaten by the king cobra are mostly the larger harmless species, such as Asian rat snakes, dhamans and pythons up to about ten feet (3 meters) in length. Some specimens develop a rigid diet of a single species of snake and will refuse any other type. The king cobra normally restricts its diet to cold-blooded animals, particularly other snakes. In the United States, the study of cobra venom has yielded pain relievers such as Cobroxin, used to block nerve transmission and Nyloxin, used for severe arthritis pain. Other toxins start digesting the paralyzed victim. Within minutes, neurotoxins stun the prey's nervous system, especially the impulses for breathing. The flexing of a small muscle forces the venom through the hollow fangs into the victim. ![]() It will assume an upright posture without the hood extended in order to see over bushes or tall grasses.Ī bite delivers venom from glands attached to the fangs. The king cobra will also hiss and flatten its neck ribs into a hood. When in a threat display, these snakes can raise the anterior part of their body about three to four feet (1 to 1.2 meters) off the ground and are able to follow their enemy in this position over considerable distances. This behavior is not true of nesting females, which may attack without provocation. Throughout its entire range from India to Indonesia, the king cobra causes fewer than five human deaths a year, about one-fifth as many as caused by rattlers in North America. The cobra only attacks people when it is cornered, in self-defense or to protect its eggs. Despite its aggressive reputation, the king cobra is actually much more cautious than many smaller snakes. Although the king cobra is undoubtedly a very dangerous snake, it prefers to escape unless it is provoked.
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