Will a snake survive if bitten by another snake?

If a snake bites a person, even children know about the negative consequences of such an incident. But what will happen to a snake, if it is bitten by another snake, few people know. And to accurately answer this question, you need to have the knowledge of a scientist, as well as to know what kind of snakes we are talking about, the amount of venom they produce, etc.

Do snakes bite each other

Snakes attacking each other is an infrequent, but scientifically known, phenomenon

Based on scientific statistics, snakes usually do not attack each other. But there is an exception to this “rule” – those snakes that feed on individuals similar to themselves. It is believed that cannibalism in snakes is extremely rare. But, nevertheless, such a phenomenon as ophiophagy can be observed in all cobra species. This term means feeding on snakes.

Especially bloodthirsty towards its own congeners is the keib-cobra. Cases of its attacks on members of its own species are reliably known. This behavior in the cobra is usually observed during the mating season.

“We are not afraid of ourselves.”

If snakes were not immune to their own venoms, their lives would probably have turned out quite differently

Although the behavior of snakes, at times, can be called unpredictable, but nature apparently provided for this as well, giving them one interesting ability that contributes to their survival. The owners of such a formidable weapon as snake venom were “equipped” with an innate immunity to their own poisons.

The need for such a “function” is obvious – if it was not there, the vast majority of snakes could have died at a fairly young age, when developing the hunting skills, they could accidentally bite themselves. To that end, for example, vipers have a special substance in their blood that can resist external toxins.

“Not the teeth!”

Try getting into a fight without arms and legs, and if you can’t use your teeth either!

But not all reptiles are so lucky – rattlesnakes have managed to lose this wonderful feature over time. And now, conducting fights with their congeners, the “rattlesnakes” try to do it without using their teeth. But many snakes have no such protection even originally, so they are dangerous to each other. Thus, a rather tiny but extremely poisonous ephah snake can kill a viper with its venom, and a cobra, in turn, can use paralyzing venom against any of its enemies.

Scientists claim that snakes are not often killed by their own venom. For example, if one viper bites another, the victim is unlikely to die from the venom, but rather from his injuries. But if a viper is bitten by, say, a black mamba, then its venom is unlikely to resist the body of the viper.

By the way, one of the most important features of the snake and at the same time its formidable weapon is its poisonous teeth. But for all their danger, they are one of the most vulnerable places of the reptile. The fact is that snakes’ teeth can break quite easily. In addition, everyone knows about how the snake sheds its old skin every year. But not many people know that simultaneously with the old skin a snake gets rid of its teeth!