Rhode Island Wildlife and Animal Removal

How Do Rhode Island Snakes Kill Their Prey?

You might be aware of the fact that there are more than 2700 snake species around the world. But the more interesting news is that there are only three basic methods that all these snakes use to kill their prey. However, different types of snakes can choose different method as per their eating preferences and type of prey they hunt.

The very first and strange technique of killing prey is to eat the prey alive. It might sound scary and unbelievable, but it is true that there are few snake species such as eastern hognose snake, eastern indigo snake and a garter snake that make use of this technique to kill their prey. Note that these snakes have numbers of teeth curved around their body with the backward direction and they do not allow preys to escape. These snakes can swallow entire body of the prey at once and will take several days or weeks to digest it inside.

Another popular method that is used by many big Rhode Island snakes is constricting the prey and let it die by applying extreme force. Once the prey dies, the snake can eat it easily. There are many snakes that simply seize their prey inside their moth and start coiling around it to constrict it. The tight coiling does not allow prey to breathe inside, and it eventually dies. This method is commonly used by boa constrictor snake that first makes hard efforts to stop heartbeat of the victim and then consume it as its meal. Some people say that this snake is capable enough to break the bones of the prey by simply crushing it but in actual the snake kills the prey by reducing the supply of oxygen so that breathing process can be stopped. The prey ultimately has an unconscious death when its oxygen and blood supply gets completely broken. The time when the pressure of arteries stop, the vein pressure gets naturally increased, and the blood vessels start closing instantly. With this action, the heart stops its pumping action and the victim dies.

The venomous Rhode Island snakes can kill their prey by simply injecting their venom into the body of the victim through a bite on the skin. The venom is injected in the form of saliva that causes a sudden deadly reaction inside body and prey will die soon. However, the time that snake takes to kill the victim depends upon the toxicity level of the venom. Some venoms are neurotoxic in nature, and they have a direct reaction on the nervous system inside leading to nerve seizing action. It eventually leads to disruption in breathing process; the prey/victim dies and it can be snake can consume it with ease. The Cardiotoxins start deteriorating heart of the victim, and the heartbeat gets stopped within very less time. On the other side, the hemotoxins rupture the blood vessels directly leading to excessive internal bleeding. Snakes have different types of venoms, and their effectiveness also varies with the type of snake species.

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