December 9, 2020 • 64 mins
Today on the show, we’re talking about those tubular dudes, those little wiggle pipes, those cylindrical squamates, SNAAAAAKES! From the goofiest, to the cutest, to the most dazzling snakes, we’re going to find out how truly odd snakes can be with our guest, Maggie Mae Fish!
Footnotes:
- Arabian sand boa!
- Madagascar leaf-nosed snake
- Male and female leaf-nosed snakes
- Tentacled snake
- Elephant trunk snake
- Hognose snake
- Blunthead tree snake
- Big-eye green whip snake
- Sunbeam snakes
- Brazilian Rainbow boa
- Formosan odd-scaled snake
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Creature future production of I Heart Radio. I'm
your host of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology
and evolutionary biology, and today on the show, we're talking
about those tubular dudes, those little wiggle pipes snakes from
the goofy is to the cutest to the most dazzling snakes.
Were going to find out how truly odd snakes can
(00:28):
be discover the smore as we answer the angel question
is it a snake or is it spaghetti? Joining me
today is writer, actor, YouTube video essayist and snake mom
Maggie May fish hell Long. Welcome back, Welcome back my dad. Yeah.
(00:49):
Last last the podcast, I made so many dad puns
that I officially became Maggie's pun dad. So welcome back, daughter, um,
mother of snakes. Hows how's your snake snake baby doing?
Your little noodle boy? Oh, my little noodle boy is great. Uh.
I was just telling Katie, So it is two and
(01:09):
a half years old, um, which means it's basically full
grown at this point. He's like three feet long, three
and a half, maybe even four at this point. But yeah,
he's got he's basically done growing. And yeah, it's gonna
live for another eighteen issue year. Nice. Just he's going
(01:30):
to continue to eat lots of lots of mice, lots
of and and then sleep eating, sleep easily explore. We
got him the final tank because as they're growing, you know,
you don't you don't have to size up. Yeah, you
get a size up. So we we have upgraded to
the biggest tank that we can conceivably keep without you know, right,
(01:56):
without just your entire apartment being dreary. Um right? Which one?
You know? One day, if you know, I would love
to get like a giant terrarium, you know, really like
duck it out, And the one we have is a
pretty big so you know, the next step up we'll
walk in terrarium. Yes, a full zoo, a full zoo
room that you can just explore to your heart's desire.
(02:18):
To watch out for the snake. Does your little noodle
boy have a name? Yes, duck Duck the snake I
love it. Probably would eat a duck if he could too,
he you know, I So I take him out and
the cats don't really notice him because he's so slow moving.
Every once in a while they'll notice that something's there,
but he watches them, uh, you know, and like maybe
(02:41):
he thinks he could get away. He never would, he
just you know, sits on herman breathe. But yeah, part
of me is like wondering, is it you know, is
he scouting? Maybe? Yeah, just like just in case, Yeah,
just in case. I mean like probably has looked no offense,
but he's probably sized you up to like could I
(03:03):
probably not? Could I for sure? For sure? Yeah? Probably not,
Like he still loves you. But it's it's snake brain
where snake brain is like I love this person, but
could I eat them? Could I eat them? Right? Yeah?
Which you know that's you know, snake flattery, that's what
(03:23):
you know. I before I got my cats, people would
always ask me like, like, so your does your snake
like love you? It's like no, but that doesn't mean
that it's not like a meaningful relationship that like it's
not a great pet, right and in a lot of ways,
like having a pet that doesn't emotionally depend on you
(03:46):
is also very cool. It's liberating, right, Yeah, it's it's liberating.
And it's like, you know, I love the snake, but
I also don't need it to yeah, you know, and
depending snake Mom, you don't you don't need snake validation. Yeah,
I don't need to be hanging all little over although, yeah,
(04:07):
you know, clinging on squeezing really tight. Because all pythons
are constrictors. They are non venomous. Uh they I guess
they occasionally bite if they're really frustrated. He did, uh
when I very early on. Um, I think it was
one of his first sheds. I didn't have the humidity. Uh. Correct,
(04:29):
So he just wasn't humid enough. Um, and uh he
got a little and it was his first time shedding,
so yeah, he was. That's stressful. It's very stressful the
first time, first time shedding. Yeah, so he did streak.
That was the time he struck at me. But yeah,
I mean his teeth are just like not even almost
non existent. Um, it wasn't very just a little cute
(04:52):
little chump. Yeah yeah, yeah. I mean my dog's non venomous,
but she gives me cute little chomps sometimes wa um.
But yeah, I mean I remember when I was a kid,
I wanted a snake really bad, but I found out
then I found out you have to feed a frozen
mice and I or even a live mince, depending it's
(05:13):
not that I think it's wrong. I think it's you know,
it's the circle of life. But I'd want to keep
all of them. In fact, I like bought some feed
or mice just to keep his pets. They're so cute. Yeah,
I I did. When I first got the snake, I
I did think that that might be a problem because
I also love mice, um and rats. And when I
was deciding what pet to get, I was deciding between
(05:35):
a snake or a house, which is like a rigid dichotomy.
They're interesting. Um. But it ended up I was did
not end up being phased by it. Yeah, soever, I
think you'd get used to it. Yeah, I mean, yeah,
it's uh. But then I was ultimately vetoed by my
(05:58):
mom who's like, no, not yeah, it usually but all
to say, I mean that's like you know, someone thinking
abou getting a snake that is yeah, yeah, it's um.
They they're their emotional needs are very limited, but their
dietary needs are very involved in there's all sorts of
things you have to worry about, like you mentioned, like shedding,
(06:18):
keeping the humidity and the heat right, Providing them with
lots of places so they can thermoregulate because they are
cold blooded, not meaning that their blood is always cold,
but that they cannot internally thermoregulate. So they need to
sit in the sun or a lamp to get warm
and then hide under a rock or under a log
or something to cool back down. So you got to
(06:39):
provide all those things. And then you'll also, uh, I
think every pet snake you can get needs to eat um. Well,
maybe some snakes eat mostly insects, but I think most
of them you will need to feed them something meteor
like a mouse. And then you have to be careful
because you can't just throw a big live mouse in
there that you find, because then it can hurt the snake,
(07:00):
like the snake can get beaten up by a mouse,
which is crazy. I don't know. We um ours when
we got it, he was he was taught to eat frozen.
So yeah, so luckily and we only feed him frozen.
But yeah, what I found out that with people who
feed live snakes that yes, they could get hurt, which
is like the mouse doesn't. It's like you're on board
(07:21):
and the snakes on the board, but the mouse isn't
on board. It's like wait a minute, no, they can
like punch and scratch the snake, and it can actually
in the worst case scenarios like really hurt the snake
because you know, you're scratched, scratches it and the snake
can get an infection. So yeah, yeah, I would if
anyone think of getting a snake, I would say, get
one that can eat frozen because you know, and then
(07:41):
he never needs to stress about food. Yeah, he has
the easiest life any snake could ask for. And you
don't have to feed him like that often, do you,
because they actually eat. How often do you feed it?
Because like they can eat and then go quite a
while without another meal, because they basically are big noodles
who eat a thing and then digest it for days
(08:02):
and days and days and then they're like, alright, I
guess I'll have another thing. Yeah. Yeah, it's in that regard.
It's also that that makes it a pretty easy pet um.
We feed them about every other week, give or take. Sometimes,
like if he's in the middle of shedding, you kind
of know that he probably won't eat because, yeah, they're
kind of picky, so you know sometimes it will be
(08:24):
a little bit longer. But also they're also very telling,
like he'll just he'll come out of his cage and
start like smelling the top of the cage basically to say,
I'm I'm hungry. Sizing up the cats, Yeah, sizing up
the cats um and visually you can you can see,
you know, if like your snake is like losing a
little bit of weight, you can see it so clearly.
(08:46):
Because they're just a you can measure the diameter of
the tube pretty easily. So like in in those regards,
it's really easy to tell when they're hungry. It's easy
to feed them, and it's easy to uh, you know,
if you have to, I guess not in quarantine times,
but before that, if you were to go on a vacation, yeah,
(09:07):
you could just feed them before you leave. And yeah
and so yeah, yeah, low maintenance. But I think it's
all about educating yourself before you get one. And then
if everything sounds sounds good to you, you know. But
they're so fun, there's so visual they Yeah, they're cool. Yeah. Yeah,
I like I like the I like holding them like
(09:29):
the like you it's another thing like with them with
a lot of like um herbs, a lot of reptiles,
like you shouldn't handle them too much, but there are
some snakes that are actually very like, okay, chill with
being handled, so that's nice. Uh, it doesn't stress them
ount necessarily that much. So today we are going to
talk about some of the most amazing snakes in the world.
(09:53):
And this is actually I got like a listener question
about some like, you know, some of my favorite snakes,
and I wanted to go really in depth on it
because it's just there's so much ground to cover. There
are so many snakes that I find just adorable, really cool,
really silly, and some are just like absolutely mind blowing,
(10:13):
like gorgeous. So I've separated this into three sections. So
in the first sections, we're gonna talk about the absolute
goofiest snake in the world. Second section is going to
be the cutest snakes in the world, and the third
section is the most gorgeous snakes in the world. All
you know, in my opinion, so of course, you know,
(10:35):
it's subjective. Every snake has value. Every snake is wonderful
and lovely in its own way. But these are just
some highlights. Some are just better than others. So so
our first snake that we're going to talk about is
the dorkiest snake I love the snakes so much. It
(10:57):
is called the Arabian sand Boa and I talked about
a little bit in the Q and A episode, but
I feel like it just deserves another look, and I
wanted you to see it, Maggie, because it's so it's
It is a snake that's found in the Arabian Peninsula
and around. It lives in desert regions. It spends most
(11:17):
of its time buried under the sand. But most importantly, Maggie,
when you look at the snake, what are you seeing?
My my goodness. Uh, it's it's just a little like slogo,
like his face almost just kind of like decides to end.
And eyes that just say like it looks like someone
(11:40):
glued a pair of Google eyes too, Weenie. Yeah, yeah
it does. Uh. This is the when I was buying
my pet snake. This was one of the other options. Really, Yeah,
how did you pass this one up? I I these
uses for some reason, snake faces that don't have like
(12:03):
a defined like jaw and head for some reason wigged
me out for some And I love snakes, so I
don't know why the non neck when it just goes
from the tube, it's tube with googly eyes. Yeah, something
about it, um just is slightly more alien that you know.
(12:26):
I guess. Yeah. It's almost like a like a sock
come to life, which I guess is a little weird,
isn't it? A little? On Canny Valley uncanny although very cute,
very cute, very doofy. And what we cover last time
was that the reason they have their eyeballs on the
top of their heads is so they can periscope from
under the sand. So they will spend most of their
(12:47):
time under the sand and then just poke their heads
just enough above the sand so that there's like two
doofy little eyes can look up above the surface and
see prey and then it can ambush the prey from
under the sand. So yeah, that is the Arabian sandbou Again,
we covered it on the last Q and A, but
I just it had to be mentioned in the goofy snakes,
(13:09):
but on two snakes that we have not covered before
on the podcast. So first, another extremely goofy snake. This
is the Madagascar leaf nose snake. So I've never seen this, Katie,
I have never seen this. I've never seen this. That's amazing.
I'm proud of myself because I feel like Okay, Maggie
(13:30):
loves snakes, it's gonna be hard to surprise her on
this podcast. I am surprised. I I don't think I
have ever cute. They got snoots. The Madagascar leaf no
snake have long snoots. They're found in Madagascar, obviously, um
(13:51):
they grow up to be about a meter in length,
that's about three ft. Males and females are highly sexually dimorphic,
meaning that they are very different looking. So males have
this long, tapered snout and are more of an orangey
yellow and females are sort of a more ashy tan
(14:12):
color with a blunt or leaf shaped snout, and so
that's the sort of leaf leaf nosed snake Moniker comes from.
And biologists aren't exactly sure what the purpose of their
snoots are their pointy little snoots, but some of the
(14:33):
guesses would be that maybe it's sexual selection, like that's
why only males have the really long snoot and the
brighter colors for females. Maybe it's more for camouflage, so
it looks kind of like a leaf. And they do
like to pretend to be vines, so they will dangle
down from branches and kind of just sway in the
(14:53):
wind like vines and then yeah, exactly, and then ambush
their prey like little is or it's just like I'm
just divine flowing in the wind and then and then
that's it, and then I'm not. Uh, they are venomous,
(15:14):
and even though their bites are very painful, I don't
think they've ever recorded a fatality in humans. Um, so
I don't. I don't think they're like, yeah, they're not
They're not deadly, but they are. You don't really want
to get bitten by one because it's like very painful,
it's unpleasant. Um. I think that's like a general rule, right,
Like when I'm like this thing isn't deadly, it's like,
(15:35):
but still don't get bit doesn't suck. Also, that means
you've annoyed it. Right, let me you you did something wrong, right,
think about your choices about why you missed that snake.
You did a snake faux pap. Although I do really
want to like like boop it's little nose and be
like got your nose, you know, or just like yeah,
(15:55):
just like man, speaking of boops and snoots, next goofy
snake is the tentacled snake. So This is an aquatic
snake that lives in slow moving water in Thailand, Cambodia,
and Vietnam. They can stay underwater for up to thirty minutes,
(16:19):
and yeah, it's pretty impressive. They can grow to be
about one to three feet, which is like just under
a meter. From fifty centimeters to just under a meter
in length. They're a brownish color. Uh. Sometimes they have
dark vertical stripes or splotchy lateral bands. But the most
important part is that they got little face dongles, little
(16:42):
face tentacles. Yeah, like Maggie did, like the devil horns
to her forehead exactly. Yeah, it's like right next to
his nostrils. And so these are two fleshy prongs that
sprout out from near each nostril. And they use these
(17:02):
two since the movement of fish in the water and
they eat fish, so you know, having some a couple
of good old fish sensors. Another theory of what they
may be used for is actually to help them lure
and prey, because fish will see these little little dongles
and think they are a couple of worms and come
(17:23):
on in. Yeah, so he's a fisherman, exactly, he's a
fisher of fish. Yes, yes, you get a dad, you
get it. I simply study under your wing. Give a
give a snake a fish, it'll eat for a day.
Give a snake nose dongles, and it'll fish for a lifetime.
(17:48):
But I do love Jesus talked a lot about snakes.
Did Yeah, Um, I was gonna say, I I really
like aquatic snakes because you know, you always think of
snakes just like year around, especially in the desert. You
know they're done like that, dode do dode do lu.
But now these are their their water snakes, aquatic snakes.
(18:10):
I like to swim. So in terms of their venom level,
they may have some venom, but it's not it's not
really harmful to humans. It's mostly harmful to the fish
that they eat. And they have these rear things. They
don't really bite hard on humans at all, So yeah,
it doesn't it's they're not dangerous, right, But again, don't
(18:31):
annoy them. Never real snakes. Never pick up a snake
you don't know, first of all, because you didn't ask permission,
and it's rude. It's a real snake faux paw. And secondly,
it could bite you. And look if you make as
it's a pretty big mistake to make. You're like, oh,
I think this might be a harmless snake. So you
(18:52):
pick it up and you get bitten. You know, then
you're wondering black meats yellow hills a fellow or is
it black meets red? And you're dead Fred and by
and by the time you figured out the right I
let you figure out the newmonic device, you're already boaming
(19:12):
at the mouth. So our last goofy a snake is
the elephant trunk snake. And these are wrinkly, saggy baggy
snakes found in lagoons and rivers in Southeast Asia. They
can actually grow to be quite big, up to about
five to eight feet, which is two or three ms.
(19:34):
And I gotta say, between you and me, kind of
looks like a flaccid weener a little bit. I thought that, yeah,
it looks a little like a little winter esque, a
little weenesk. The wrinkle crinkles are both really cute. And
also the last picture you have is him underwater, and
(19:54):
he does like very spooky spooky. It's funny because like underwater,
I think it's sort of spooky and ethereal because they're
all their wrinkles and bags are sort of floating under
the water, so it looks sort of like a like
a mermaid ghost or something. It's yeah, like that's the
Lord of the Rings that ghosts. That's like, yeah, like
(20:14):
the Ring Wraiths. So it's like spooky. But then as
soon as you pull it out of the water, it's
like shot the water, No, droopy and mag let me back.
He wasn't supposed to wash me warm water. No, I've
(20:37):
all shriveled up. So but yeah, they spend most of
their time in the water. They can actually hold their
breath for up to forty minutes underwater, quite impressive. And
their skin is really no good for crawling on land.
It's specialized for swimming. So that's why they look look
(20:58):
like fierce predators underwater or than above water. It's like
it's like an Instagram filter, but it's the water, you know, Yeah, exactly, Yeah,
Instagram versus reality for these snakes. No, man, excuse me.
I feel like Santa Anna is coming because like I've
(21:20):
been sneezing a lot, and snakes are hyper allergenic. They're yeah,
so if that's good, if you're allergic, Yeah, it's like
you're allergic actually to dander and saliva. Pets that have
hypoallergenic fur, it's that they don't shed as much. In
the lack of shedding means there's less dander and saliva
(21:40):
shedding everywhere as well. And snake skin they don't really
have dan druff. They just shed all on um. And
and then besides that, they're they're pretty clean, boys, they're
pretty clean. You can be allergic to snake bites and
snake venom, and most people have a severe reaction to
like venomous snakes, like rattle snakes. That's you know, it's
(22:05):
even building up your immunity, which in that case, I
have so many more questions. But yeah, yeah, I cannot
recommend that. So that rough baggy skin actually helps them
grab onto fish and hold them under the water, uh
and eat them because these guys, these elephant trunk snakes
(22:28):
actually have no venom, so they are constrictors and that's
how they kill and eat their prey. And because I mean, hey,
fish are dang slippery, you know they are they get
out of there, especially for a snake. It's yeah, it's
like trying to tie down ah, like a piece of soap. Yeah,
So you know, the having that baggy skin and it's
(22:50):
rough as well. It will help. It's like sand paper,
and it grabs on and wraps around the fish and
holds them in place. And you look, you can see
these two different around aquatic snakes right with two strategies.
The tentacled snake uses motion detecting prongs that look like worms,
and he has a venom. And the elephant trunk snake
(23:13):
she has that saggy, baggy skin, no venom, but she
can constrict around her prey and hold it with that
rough skin. So to to aquatic snakes, two very different
predator strategies, both very goofy looking, and I love them.
Uh there, what a pair? What pair? What a pair?
(23:34):
Some snakes have things, as you may already be aware,
but there are a few types of finged snakes. There
are the front fings snakes and rear finged snakes. The
difference between the two is deeper than just where their
body parts are, so front thinged snakes both look more
frightening and present a more immediate danger to humans due
(23:56):
to their hollow, syringe like method of action of these
big fangs that are right in front of their mouths.
Cobra's mambas and coral snakes are all examples of fixed
front finged snakes, who have small, immovable front things which
inject venom like hypodermic needles as they chew on their prey.
(24:18):
Rattle snakes and copper heads have foldable front things and
use a stabbing method rather than a chewing method to
inject venom. Front things snakes in general are able to
inject a higher concentration of venom in a shorter amount
of time, and their venom tends to be more potent
than rear thinged snakes. Rear thinged snakes have things well
(24:42):
near the back of the mouth. These things tend not
to be hollow venom injectors like front things. Snakes, instead,
grooves in the fangs distribute venom to their prey from
glands located above the teeth. Typically, this means they inject
less venom, and this venom tends to be less potent.
(25:03):
Most rear finged snakes are harmless to humans, but there
are a couple of dangerous exceptions. There's the Boomsling of
sub Saharan Africa, who has potent venom large rear finged
jaws that can open a hundred seventy degrees and can
deliver deadly bites to humans. There's also the twig snake
(25:25):
of Africa, whose anti blood clotting venom can cause uncontrollable
internal bleeding. While on that note, our next section is
going to be about the cutest snakes in the world.
Don't feel bad if you're scared of snakes, you were
(25:46):
probably born that way. Researchers have studied babies reactions to
snakes and found that infants as young as six months
old react with enlarged pupils to snakes, even though they've
likely never had much variants or knowledge of snakes before.
But just because we come into the world with an
anti snake bias doesn't mean we have to stay that way.
(26:08):
Let's talk about some absolutely adorable noodle buddies, cute snakes,
cute snakes, snakes. I try to make a snake noise
and I was like, oh wait, they don't make noises,
but they can you guys hear that? Can you hear that?
Watch it? I could watch my snake like things all day.
(26:31):
It is. It is cute at the little time, be
a little exploratory tongue coming out and sniff in the air.
Very cute. I yeah, I find I know that. I
mean I find a lot of snakes cute, especially the
non viper snakes because like I can see, like I
understand the fear of like this sort of viper snakes,
(26:51):
like the rattlesnakes, the front finged snakes, they have a
bit of a sort of what would you call it,
like ghoulish look, because you know, yeah, they look like
they're out to get something. You know, it's probably just
like dinner, but you know, like or you um, which
I can respect, but you know, they're sort of they're
(27:12):
they're a little bit more aggressive, whereas the rear fame
snakes or the constrictor snakes tend to have a little
bit of a cuter, cuter snout situation I would say,
like a little bit of a puppy dog mouth and ye.
But yeah, so so here are some super cuteis so.
One of the cutest snakes, in my opinion, are the
(27:34):
hog nos snakes and mag you've probably seen these before
because they are actually hobbyists do keep some of these
as pets because of how cute they are. If I
got a second stake, it would probably be a hog nose.
Maybe maybe not, but it would be up there. Yeah,
(27:55):
the nose is like slightly upturned and you can almost
like see they're like little mouth underneath, just like yeah,
they have a little upturned snout and just like slightly
parted little mouth. Then it's just like eepep, you know,
it's like little roadrunner noises coming out of these guys.
They're very cute. I got these big ground eyes. Um.
(28:18):
So there are actually a few genuses of hog no
snake that are distantly related. So they're all called hogno
snakes because of their similar appearance, but they're actually not
like directly related. So there are the heterodonts of North
America and Mexico. Those are probably the ones most people
are familiar with living in North America. Uh, there is
(28:41):
Leo heterodons of Madagascar, which well lives in Um, there's
Les Tropus of South America. So three distinct genuses. I'm
mostly going to talk about the heterodons of North American Mexico,
but I did want to mention the Les Tropus of
South America, like to mimic the deadly coral snakes which
(29:03):
have red, white and black stripes, And there are a
lot of snakes that mimic the coral snake coloration because
it's a pi semitism. In the actual venomous snake, it's
signaling a very potent venom. And then there are a
variety of mimics. Some are less venomous but still rather venomous.
Some of them don't have nearly as powerful venom or
don't have venom at all, that are mimicking it to
(29:25):
get the benefit of that coloration. And it's this kind
of careful balance of sneakery but then honest signals. So
it's very interesting. But with these guys, the South American hognas,
they have that dangerous looking coloration, but then this little
snout that's just like to give away, like like you
(29:45):
go from the tail, it's like, oh what, oh no,
this looks like a dangerous snake. And then and then
it ends in the head is like getting It's like
when I do my makeup and the I put on
false eyelashes that start like falling off. It's like, Okay,
(30:06):
you got me. That's not so. Heterodonts are the ones
that live in North America and also Mexico, and they
are so cute to me. They're the cutest ones. They
have just a totally adorable little boops newt. They only
grew up to be about twenty inches long, which is
(30:28):
about fifty centimeters. They're relatively stout, so some snakes are
kind of long and skinny. Some are like sort of
stouter and thicker. They're on the thicker side and thick
boys thick gold noodles. What what are like the thick
noodles called like like linguini linguini Yeah, like yeah, I
don't sorry, I don't know pasta names that good, even
(30:48):
though I love pasta. But you know, some big old,
thick little yoki's yoki snakes. So they are they don't
want to really tangle with you. They are they they
don't want to fight you. They don't want to bite you.
They want you to leave them alone. And they are
scared of you, so they will try to ward you
(31:10):
off if they detect a threat by pretending to be cobras,
and they will hiss and flatten their necks. But they
know cobras. They're they're just sweet little babies, just we
little babies. They do not want to bite you. They
only bite if they are extremely distressed and there you know,
their venom is pretty weak and mostly effective against frogs,
(31:34):
so it's not really you know, too dangerous for a
human unless you have an allergy for an adult human,
right or you're an adult woman who turned into a frog.
That's true, like if you turned into a frog, like
if you drank the water that Alex Jones told you
not to drink and you turn into a frog, and
then then you're in trouble. But yeah, they really don't
(31:56):
like to bite unless it's prey, and you know that
if I'm not interest thing, I think they just really
want to avoid. It's both wanting to avoid confrontation and
wanting to save their venom for actual actual hunting, and
so they will use other techniques to try to ward
you off. And usually if they strike at you, it's
actually just a head butt because like it's just so
(32:22):
cute to me. It's just like, no, no, there's something
adorable to me about like an animal that's usually associated
with like being dangerous, and they just really really don't
want to fight with you. I think I LL. I
grew up in Michigan, so there were very many venomous
snakes as opposed to you know, like out here in California,
(32:43):
So growing up, I didn't really have an association with
snakes being venomous. Most of the snakes in our area,
you know, or just garden snakes. All to say, when
I got a snake, a lot of people were worried
and like, and you know, and people, a lot of
people are afraid of snakes, but for the spart snakes
are much more afraid of us. Exactly. There's a lot
(33:04):
of species of animals that it makes sense that we
have such a negative association with because when it comes
to our safety, it's like if you if you trust
every snake and you just like pick them up and
give them a kiss, like, that's not gonna work out
for you, because like some of them, some of them
truly are dangerous. So in terms of our our survival
as a species, it makes sense to be overly cautious
(33:27):
about animals than to be too to like, hey, give
me a big old hug, Mr. Rattlesnake, or even like
a giant Boa constrictor like, give me that's a little tight,
little tight. But yeah, I mean, like now that we
have the Internet and the magical power of Wikipedia, I
(33:48):
think we can definitely revised our views of snakes as
all being terrible and dangerous and mean because they're not
a lot of them are good little noodles widow noodles.
So so the little hog nose noodles have another trick
up their sleeves to get you to go away, and
it is to play dead by flipping over, lolling their
tongue out of their mouths, and going like I'm dead,
(34:11):
go away. Is that I don't I've never heard of
another snake doing that, and do other snakes or is
that just a hog nos thing? I think it's I mean,
I know that hognos are the most famous for it.
I don't know if they're the only snake that does
It's called thanatosis, where you like play dead. They're certainly
not the only animal that does it, but they I don't.
(34:33):
I don't think they're They're certainly not the only reptile
that does it, um, but I don't. I also don't
think they're the only snake that does it. But they
are the most famous ones for doing it. And they
also will excrete a foul odor out of their cloaca
to complete the the illusion of being dead. Wow, he's
(34:54):
like a Disney imagineer coming all the senses to really
pull you into the narrative of I'm dead right like
a fog machine, a fake burglary scene, all pig footprints,
a murder weapon nearby, and like a motive, like a
message scrawled out in fake blood. That's like like the
(35:17):
mongoose did it. So yeah, they they in fact, like
if they're in this stage where they're playing dead and
you try to like flip them back over, they will
flip right right back over to committed committed, so committed
like the Daniel day Lewis is of snakes, Wow, very cool.
(35:39):
In North America we have a few hognos species. There's
the Western hognose snakes, which tend to have sort of
a rougher tan and brown skin. They I think they
they're kind of like mimicking rattlesnakes a little bit. The
Eastern hognose snakes are a little bit smoother, but they're
also sort of brown, tan and splotchy. Sometimes they have
(35:59):
solid color patterns. And the ones that are grown in
captivity for um, you know, to be kept as pets,
they can actually like breed them to have like different colorations,
which is pretty cool. And the whole reason that they
have that adorable little upturned snoot that just looks so poopable,
Like it just looks like my my finger would fit
(36:21):
right on it. And then if I poked it, like
their little tongue would come out and be so cute.
The purpose for that is not for me to poop it,
but for them to dig in the dirt and sands. Oh,
it is like a shovel like a little exactly wow,
because they like to cover themselves in a blanket of
dirt sand leaf litter to help them thermoregulate and keep
(36:42):
warm or keep cool. So yeah, that is that they
got a little little shovel for a nose, and it's
so cute. It's so cute. So the next total cuteie
snake that is unbelievable unbelievable is the blunt head tree
snake of South America, Mexico and Central America. You know
(37:07):
earlier when I said I like snakes with heads. This
is that, Like, but the cursor goes all the way
like like if you haven't had a snake character creation
slider and you just like you slit all the sliders.
Have you ever watched a monster factory that like McElroy.
They do a series where they just go crazy with
(37:29):
character creation sliders. I love it because like nature also
does this. So like the character creation head like a
body zero percent. Yeah, so they have. They are a
little stringy spaghettis with big heads and tiny, skinny bodies.
They look unbelieved. It doesn't look like it should work.
It just it doesn't. It really looks like a ribbon
(37:51):
someone lost that got found a penny and like they're
just sitting there. Yeah, like it looks like, you know,
they wouldn't be able to move because their heads would
be too heavy. And of course they they are real.
They are tree dwelling snakes that live in moist and
wet I wrote down wet ass forests because I thought
it was clever last night. It's pretty clever. So they
(38:14):
are sort of a very, in my opinion, very pretty
like brown and cream color with a banded pattern. Sometimes
they're a little more orangey brown. Sometimes they're sort of
like brown and white. And they got big old eyes,
skinny little bodies and giant heads, and they can reach
up to about a meter in length. But it's all
(38:34):
like skinny noodle body like so so skinny noodle body.
I think like it. It gets a little bit thicker
in the middle, like they have a little more muscle
in the middle, but it is like mostly skinny noodle.
It kind of reminds me like they really gave me
the vibe of like Captain America before he goes in
the muscles machine. Yes, when he when he's still dinky, yeah, cut, yeah,
(38:57):
I thought it was cute before he went in the
muscles cheese cute. He's horrible, but I need to change.
But I don't think he needed to change. I mean
he needed to change for America to protect America from
like base Nazis. In my opinion, as as a nice
looking person, he didn't need no muscles machine. Like you
(39:19):
don't need no muscles machines, guys, And we look at this.
This snake should be a body positivity for anyone who
feels like they're not rough enough. No, no, no, you're
perfect and wonderful. This snake is beautiful and the reason
their heads are so big is that they have to
accommodate their big old eyes. They have some of the
(39:41):
best vision of any snake on the planet. Whoa a
lot of snakes. Actually, their vision isn't super great, Like
they mostly rely on smell, and like that's why they're
like always starting their tongue out. They have receptors on
their tongue that helps them like smell, taste the air,
and be able to locate things that way. But yeah,
(40:04):
their eyes aren't always that great. But for these guys,
they have giant eyes, big old peepers that are very
good at peeping. And so in order to house these
giant eyes that take up almost of their heads, like
they need they just need a big skull and they
need a big head. Wild, that's wild. I think that
the head is this big simply for the eyes. Yeah,
(40:27):
it's a vehicle for the big eyes. That's basically Timothy shellomy, right,
Like he's a vehicle for guys, you know, and then
there you go. So one of the reasons they need
such big eyes is that they are nocturnal and they
hunt for tiny critters like amphibians and little reptiles at night,
(40:47):
so they need much better vision and that those big
old cat eyes helped them see in the dark. And yeah,
just utterly like ridiculously cute. They look like a Jim
Hanson horrible. They do have a mild venom, but they're
not dangerous to humans. They I don't think there's ever
been a serious case of a snake bite for for people.
(41:10):
And they also just like don't tend to bite like
they're not they're not interested in it. They Um, can
I ask a question about how or what what did
it eat? I mean, because it's just its head and
its tiny body. Yeah, I mean does it just body stretchy? Yeah,
body stretchy. Um. It does have a venom to incapacitate
(41:34):
its prey, and it eats little things, so like little things.
But as you know, like with snakes, they can eat
things that seem like they shouldn't fit inside of the
snake because the snakes bodies are so stretchy. So yeah, yeah,
so so the answer is they eat small things and
their body stretchy. Just cut little chill, little sling beans,
(41:58):
little dud uh. And then our last contender for cutest
cutiest of snakes is the big eyed green whip snake,
which I like to call the kermit snake. I don't
think they're technically called that, but they look like, you know,
a little kermit snake, like, oh, normous, speggy, I'm a snake.
(42:22):
How are we going to do the show Miss Peggy.
So they are found in Malaysia. Not too much is
known about them, um so kind of scant info on
their behavior. But they really look like a long, tubular
Kermit the frog to me because they are a super
bright green. They've got these light cream colored bellies and
(42:44):
these huge Kermit eyes, so Kermit eyes trademark. Yeah, like
you know how like Kermit's pupils go side to side
with sort of like the it's like a big pupil
in the center and then it kind of tapers off.
You know, Kermit eyes. You get it, you get it.
You know. That's what these snakes got and they're very
(43:05):
cute and it's funny because their heads are pretty Their
heads are actually kind of long, so when you look
at its profile, it kind of makes more sense, like
it's like, okay, it's got kind of a longer, narrower head,
so the eyes kind of fit. But when it's looking
at you face on, it's so silly looking because it
just has these like two big beady eyes and then
it's like a little tiny mouth. It looks very grumpy. Yeah,
(43:27):
these puddles look because the either are slanted and his
little chin comes up. Yeah, it's like an old man
just kind of swamp yea retired and just got over
it really quickly. It's not easy having no limbs, so
(43:48):
cute verte. When did snakes lose their legs? Probably around
a hundred million years ago. Genetic researchers identified the gene
that controls for limb development, which they call the sonic
hedgehog gene because scientists are nerds. Basically, the sonic hedgehog
gene and snakes is dampened such that legs never developed
(44:11):
beyond a very basic cartilage blueprint during embryonic development. Sometimes
these underdeveloped legs are still present in adults, like in
pythons who have legs stubs near their pelvis that they
used to grip onto other snakes during mating, so they
do still have some of the original leg blueprints that
(44:31):
their lizard ancestors had. It just doesn't fully activate during
embryonic development. So why did snakes lose their legs? That's
a bit of a trickier question. It may be that
their ancestors were aquatic and became more streamlined for swimming,
or they were terrestrial and ditched their limbs in favor
(44:52):
of burrowing. And sneaking up on prey, or maybe they're
just forgetful and don't remember where they left those Dane legs.
When we return, we're going to find out that regardless
of legs, snakes can totally own the runway. Most of
the time you see a vibrant, colorful snake, it's a
(45:14):
case of APIs semitism or warning coloration. The beautiful red, yellow,
and black bands of a coral snake warns potential predators
of their deadly toxicity. But sometimes non venomous snakes come
in dazzling colors for a mysterious reason that has to
do with magical crystals. So now we are going to
(45:37):
look at some of the most beautiful instagrammable snakes in
the world. Just I mean, it's like you see these
snakes and you're like, what I want what she has.
I'll buy what she's selling, right, I'll take whatever supplement
she's taking, whatever exercise hit program she does. I will
(46:02):
follow her makeup videos and army pants and flip flops.
Army pants. Yea, these girls were mean to me in
high school, but now we're children. We've gotten over it. Yeah,
I mean, like they've gotten over it and I've pretended
to get over it. Yeah, that's what. Yeah, it's like no, no,
(46:23):
I'm over it. I'm over it. Yeah. So these are
sunbeam snakes and there they look as ethereal and pretty
as their names suggests. So they're also known as xeno peltus,
which is also sounds fantastical, like some kind of fairy
queen name. So these are a genus of snakes so different.
(46:46):
There are multiple species in this genus and they are
found in Southeast Asia. And they have beautiful, shiny, glistening, irridescent,
fairy magical scales. They shine like a beautiful rainbow. They
grow up to be a little over a meter, so
about fifty one long, so they're not that big. They
(47:09):
live underground for the most part. They are non venomous.
They are constrictors. They are a dark brownish color, but
who cares about all of that. All that we care
about is they are shiny, shiny and rainbow ee and iridescent,
iridescent like the best, like holographic eyeshadow, nail polish out.
(47:30):
It's beautiful. It's they have a just glossy rainbow shimmer.
Sometimes they have like this violet bluish undertone as well,
just absolutely gorgeous, shimmering and shining in the sun. So
a designer snake, Yes, yes you will, uh yeah if
I if in the future I get another, you know, reptile,
(47:52):
I tell myself, you know, I don't know what I
would get, but these snakes are beautiful, but they do
cost a lot of money. You. As soon as I
got my regular pet snake, my Instagram was filled with like,
oh but you didn't get like, okay, okay, They're all
beautiful in their own way. They're all beautiful. Yeah, I
(48:16):
mean it's what's on the inside of the snake, which
is like partially digested mice, the snakes pellets. So yeah,
these are the magical fairy princesses of the snake world.
The so the shin nous is actually caused by microscopic
(48:38):
structures on their scales that catch the light. These are
called ritophores and eritophores are these tiny crystal structures. So
it's a snake made out of tiny rainbow crystals, which
is just I can't anymore. Princess wouldn't want that. It's
the princess, and I mean I want to be snake princess.
(49:02):
You know, I would be a fairy snake princess. So
the purpose of these microscopic crystal structures is probably thermal regulations.
So by catching the sun and it helps like cool
off their skin, it like reflects the heat. And for
this reason, they and actually other snakes in the world
(49:24):
glimmer and shine like wonderful holographic rainbows. So we're going
to talk about two other snakes that have the same effect,
which blew my mind because like I had heard about
these sunbeam snakes. I was like, yeah, that's great, and
then it's like, this is the same mechanism that these
other snakes us. I'm like, what, there's more, but there
iss but wait, there's more. You call this number one snakes.
(49:50):
We'll give you a snake you can't tell what kind
and see a snake grab bag. So there is also
the brazil only in rainbow boa, rainbow boa, rainbow boa. Yeah,
and they are found in Central America in humid woods.
They have sort of the regular boa pattern, like this orange,
(50:14):
brown and black sort of splotchy skin pattern, and on
top of that though, they have this glowy rainbow sheen,
which I am just it's like it's it's amazing because
they have they're like, okay, regular snake pattern, but on
top of that, we just put a rainbow. Right, what
(50:35):
do you think about that? Right? Sell a million handbags.
Don't turn these snakes into handbags. I forgot that that's real,
Like my brain would snake skin, and then I was like,
oh yeah, but like people, Yeah, yeah, the Cruella developed snakes.
I would watch that like a hundred and one rainbow
bow snakes. It's just the Cruella de bill of snakes.
(51:00):
And then there's just like hundreds of snakes doing a
grand adventure that movie, and then like the what are
they called the Darling I don't remember what the humans
are in that movie, but yeah, it's not that darlings.
Is Peter Pan right? Oh wait, yeah, you're right. I
don't know humans. The humans that on the Dalmatians, but
(51:22):
this time they own snakes and then like their snakes,
you know, get kidnapped by Kriola de Ville, and then
the snakes come back with like a hundred other snakes
and then they're just like, well, I guess we gotta
now we have a hundred snakes, and I'll write a
song about it. And then it's gonna be really cute
and down. Yeah. So yeah, these these rainbow but Brazilian
(51:48):
rainbow boas are found in Central America in humid woods,
and um, yeah, they have it's like just normal Boa behavior,
normal normal boas, just just rainbow addsh like a holographic Pokemon.
They're like, you know, they're like the holographic Pokemon of
of BoA's. Yeah. So the other snake that has this
(52:12):
effect is just incredibly beautiful. It is called the foremost
an odd scaled snake. So these are non venomous, dark
blackish snakes found in Taiwan and the ryu Que Islands, Japan,
and they grow to be about thirty five inches long,
(52:33):
which is ninety you know, not too big. They are nocturnal.
They mostly eat earthworms, frogs and so on. Yeah, eating
worms in the dirt most important. I know, it's weird, right. Well,
what's gonna blow your mind is like some snakes even
eat what are called like they'll eat smaller snakes. Sometimes
(52:53):
they are these snakes called blind snakes. And just for
the sake of time, I didn't get into them in
the cute snake section, but these there are little little
blind snakes that there are these tiny, tiny snakes and
they look like worms. Um. And they like you can't
even really see their eyes um, and like some of
them like they have barely functional if if at all
(53:15):
having eyes, and like these little tiny meals and they
just like look like little worms, but they're actually snakes.
So you know, a bigger snake could probably eat them
like a plate of spaghetti. Uh them up. But they
also eat the Arabian sandbo which we talked at the
top of the show, I think also eats legless lizards
(53:36):
that look like snakes. Oh yeah, those things look they
look they look like worms or snakes, but they're actually
a lizard, which is I mean, you might be like, well,
but all snakes are like okay, true enough, but slightly
different evolutionary paths. So um, but these guys, the foremost
(53:57):
and odd scaled snakes um, are also beautiful, shiny and glimmery.
They are beautiful snake mertmaids who glisten and shine and
they actually have like bumpier scales so it catches the
light slightly different. So to me, it looks like these
snakes are not only rainbow but also slightly gilded, like
(54:18):
they're partially made out of gold partially made out of rainbows.
When you have the light, it's all about the lighting. Like,
if you don't have these snakes in the right lighting,
they're not going to shine, just like me, like when
I'm not When I'm in the right lighting, it's great,
but like nine of the time I'm not in the
right lighting. And you know, yeah, yeah, it's like you
(54:43):
know why my chin looks like it's above my nose
and like one eyeball is like, you know, beneath my mouth,
Like it's the lighting, right. So remember that next time
Gussie Katie was with a Picasso face. Yeah, so my
mind is blown by these snakes. I can't get over
these shiny rainbowie snakes. They're beautiful, absolutely beautiful utiful. Yeah, man,
(55:10):
I do really want one, I know, I want like,
I want to like be them if that makes sense
in a non in like a non furry way. Well,
I guess they wouldn't be furries, right, they'd be like
scally that would be oh yeah, I don't know what
the terminology is there. If any listeners know, feel free
(55:31):
to tell Katie tell me. But all to say, I
would love to see a free costume of this time
you're descent snake skin. It's beautiful. This is my snake sona. Yes, yes,
I also like I want like, um, I guess, like
an eyeshadow in this color, not made out of the snakes.
(55:52):
Let me make it clear, I'm not the cruel devill
of these snakes. These they are perfect and they must
be defended at all costs. But you know, because like
I feel like I have a blue undertone in my skin,
and I feel like these would go well with my
skin tone. You know, I'm a winter not a summer,
and these snakes are sort of a winter. So you
(56:14):
see what I'm saying. I see what we're saying. It's
also the especially on the sunbeam snake, it's kind of
like oil slick color where it just like, ah, I
need a nail polish that is in snake color, you know,
snake color. Yeah. Really, Yeah, I'm shiny, but they're not
Oh yeah those are nice. Yeah, but they're not they're
(56:35):
not quite like they're not sunbeams snake you know. But yeah,
I also would like to just like Beauty Gurus channel,
but it's just these snakes flopping around. Snake. Yeah, you'll
never be sorry. I'm sorry if it offends you that
I was just born beautiful. I'm sorry, like I'm sorry
(57:01):
glisten in the rainbow. Same sorry, it looks like I'm
made out of a hundred golden rainbows. It's not my fault.
A wonderful well. We have covered from the goofiest to
the cutest to the most Instagram influencer snakes, in my opinion,
(57:23):
in the world. I'm there's so many snakes, though, we'll
probably have to do this all over again. Get more
snakes in here. I would love to talk snakes anytime, anytime.
We will bring you back for snakes too, snakes reloaded,
Snakes in a recording booth. Yeah, snakes on a podcast, No,
(57:45):
snakes on a pod. Snakes on a pod? Yeah, okay,
all right, sure, okay, But thank you so much for
joining me today, Maggie. This was incredible. It's so fun
to talk to someone who is as in the mesiastic
about snakes and loves them and cherishes them and wants
to kiss them as much as I do. I do.
(58:06):
I love them. And if anyone is curious about owning
a snake, there's a lot of resources, but do make
sure you do your research. Um they are you know,
the one I have is a beginner snake, but that also,
you know, matters. There's easier snakes to take care of.
There's more involved there. There there's a varrieta. Yeah, but
they are great pets. So if you're thinking about it, yeah,
(58:29):
I encourage you to check it out. Yeah. I've actually
spent a lot of time on snake forms, not because
I don't I've never owned a snake, so I only
know about it in theory on paper, but like I'm
just fascinated by these like snake forms where they're like,
you know, my snake has not even a mouse in
like in five weeks, and like what can I do?
And like all this advice about like try heating up
(58:50):
the mouse sometimes they like warm and you know, really
change the temperature or yeah, it's like have you tried seasoning?
It's but a little bit. It's a little salt and
pepper on it. You know. It feels like people appreciate snakes,
you know, more of these days. Yeah, there's a great
like like snake community where yeah, there's anyone who owns
(59:13):
a snake has usually been online asking all their snakes, right,
snakes making this weird noise? What does it mean? Um?
Because also the other thing is that veterinarians oftentimes don't
have that much experience with snakes. So I didn't go
to I didn't go to veterinary school to treat this hose.
(59:33):
Give me it's a tube. Um, And they have a point,
but I'll to say that it's also you know, there's
a there's a fun community of you know, just sneake
owners who love their animals and are happy to help.
It is. It is like nuts to be a veterinarian though,
because they're like, you just know all it's all animals now,
(59:53):
it's like any animal because like human doctors is like humans. Okay, humans,
you can get a handle on humans, it's like, but
with veterinarians, it's like birds, cats, dogs, snakesh turkeys, hedgehog,
just any of it. It's like, but these are different.
They have different organs. Some of them don't have legs,
and they should have leg some of them shouldn't have legs.
(01:00:14):
So what snake looks like a rainbow? And I oh,
there was this, I think a few years ago, this
viral video of a veterinarian pulling an entire bath towel
out of us out of it. I think it was
a it was a python, right, and and it was
just like this poor python had eaten an entire bath towel.
(01:00:36):
Had a very bad tommy because the poor thing was
like at this point, it was like nine bath towel,
just like a snake tube filled with bath towel. And
they pulled out this whole thing and everyone cheered at
the end. It was amazing. Yeah, and it came out
so smoothly. He clearly he might have figured out that
(01:00:56):
it should come out the snakes like all right, I
gave my best shop started right about this. Yeah, incredible, incredible.
Also also when you do your research, just make sure
that you're getting snakes that are ethically sourced, like you
don't you know, like and that's also yes, And try
(01:01:17):
not to shop at, you know, any of the name
brand pet stores if you can avoid them, because they
usually go with um mass breeders who you know, just
breed and toss the puppy the puppy mills of snakes, yes,
the puppy mills snakes and little puppies, so you know, yeah, um,
you know, you can look at you know, your local
(01:01:38):
pet stores, um or there are pet stores that just
deal with reptiles, um, and you can ask if you
know where the snakes have been sourced, right, um. Something
actually to consider when you own a snake or other
reptile is actually finding a vet who can spay or
neuter your pet to prevent it from becoming an invasive
(01:01:58):
species if it escape, because you never know where your
snake is gonna find love, make a bunch of babies,
and start eating all the local birds. Also, make sure
your snake isn't sourced from the illegal pet trade. I
totally get the desire to have cool pet snakes, but
you gotta do your research to make sure that their
(01:02:21):
wild counterparts and your local wildlife will not be harmed.
With all pets, you want to keep them indoors. Don't,
don't really some because then you know if they can
become invasive and you don't want that. So but there
are all sorts of ways to be a responsible snake owner.
So snakes are amazing. And if you're scared of snakes,
just look at the Arabian sand abou and I promise
(01:02:43):
you you will no longer be well. Thank you so
much again, Maggie, you got anything to plug? Uh? Yeah,
you guys, can hop over to my YouTube channel. Um,
I do fun videos where I break down movie um,
and we have some fun ones. Comment snakes on a plane,
(01:03:05):
that's not snakes on a plane. But many of the
films I cover have animals involved. Yeah, you did a
cats one, right, I did. I did a cat's one. Um,
we have a Lord of the Ring one nighteming not so.
If you like all the fuls, then holiphants, lazy J
k Rowling just inventing an animal that's like two words
(01:03:27):
away from Elephanta. So you can find us on the
internet at Creature Feature Pod on Instagram, at Creature feet
Pot on Twitter. That's f E T not et. That
is something erent. If you have any questions about snakes
or otherwise, if you've got pictures of your pets, if
(01:03:47):
you want to ask me, wait, am I a snake?
You can email me at Creature Feature Pod at gmail
dot com. And yeah, thank you guys so much for listening.
If you're enjoying this show, if you leave me a review,
I will read it. I cherish them all. It like
makes my day when someone has a nice review. I'm
just like floating all daylong. Like they like it. They
(01:04:09):
liked the podcast, Thank You So Yeah, I appreciate all that,
and I just like you know, I appreciate everyone for
listening to Thank you so much. Uh and thank you
to the Space Classics for their super awesome song excel
Alumina Creature Feature is a production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts like the one you just heard, visit
(01:04:31):
the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or Hey, guess what?
Why have you listen to your favorite shows? Nick's Thanks
Dad a good one.
Welcome to Creature future production of I Heart Radio. I'm
your host of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology
and evolutionary biology, and today on the show, we're talking
about those tubular dudes, those little wiggle pipes snakes from
the goofy is to the cutest to the most dazzling snakes.
Were going to find out how truly odd snakes can
(00:28):
be discover the smore as we answer the angel question
is it a snake or is it spaghetti? Joining me
today is writer, actor, YouTube video essayist and snake mom
Maggie May fish hell Long. Welcome back, Welcome back my dad. Yeah.
(00:49):
Last last the podcast, I made so many dad puns
that I officially became Maggie's pun dad. So welcome back, daughter, um,
mother of snakes. Hows how's your snake snake baby doing?
Your little noodle boy? Oh, my little noodle boy is great. Uh.
I was just telling Katie, So it is two and
(01:09):
a half years old, um, which means it's basically full
grown at this point. He's like three feet long, three
and a half, maybe even four at this point. But yeah,
he's got he's basically done growing. And yeah, it's gonna
live for another eighteen issue year. Nice. Just he's going
(01:30):
to continue to eat lots of lots of mice, lots
of and and then sleep eating, sleep easily explore. We
got him the final tank because as they're growing, you know,
you don't you don't have to size up. Yeah, you
get a size up. So we we have upgraded to
the biggest tank that we can conceivably keep without you know, right,
(01:56):
without just your entire apartment being dreary. Um right? Which one?
You know? One day, if you know, I would love
to get like a giant terrarium, you know, really like
duck it out, And the one we have is a
pretty big so you know, the next step up we'll
walk in terrarium. Yes, a full zoo, a full zoo
room that you can just explore to your heart's desire.
(02:18):
To watch out for the snake. Does your little noodle
boy have a name? Yes, duck Duck the snake I
love it. Probably would eat a duck if he could too,
he you know, I So I take him out and
the cats don't really notice him because he's so slow moving.
Every once in a while they'll notice that something's there,
but he watches them, uh, you know, and like maybe
(02:41):
he thinks he could get away. He never would, he
just you know, sits on herman breathe. But yeah, part
of me is like wondering, is it you know, is
he scouting? Maybe? Yeah, just like just in case, Yeah,
just in case. I mean like probably has looked no offense,
but he's probably sized you up to like could I
(03:03):
probably not? Could I for sure? For sure? Yeah? Probably not,
Like he still loves you. But it's it's snake brain
where snake brain is like I love this person, but
could I eat them? Could I eat them? Right? Yeah?
Which you know that's you know, snake flattery, that's what
(03:23):
you know. I before I got my cats, people would
always ask me like, like, so your does your snake
like love you? It's like no, but that doesn't mean
that it's not like a meaningful relationship that like it's
not a great pet, right and in a lot of ways,
like having a pet that doesn't emotionally depend on you
(03:46):
is also very cool. It's liberating, right, Yeah, it's it's liberating.
And it's like, you know, I love the snake, but
I also don't need it to yeah, you know, and
depending snake Mom, you don't you don't need snake validation. Yeah,
I don't need to be hanging all little over although, yeah,
(04:07):
you know, clinging on squeezing really tight. Because all pythons
are constrictors. They are non venomous. Uh they I guess
they occasionally bite if they're really frustrated. He did, uh
when I very early on. Um, I think it was
one of his first sheds. I didn't have the humidity. Uh. Correct,
(04:29):
So he just wasn't humid enough. Um, and uh he
got a little and it was his first time shedding,
so yeah, he was. That's stressful. It's very stressful the
first time, first time shedding. Yeah, so he did streak.
That was the time he struck at me. But yeah,
I mean his teeth are just like not even almost
non existent. Um, it wasn't very just a little cute
(04:52):
little chump. Yeah yeah, yeah. I mean my dog's non venomous,
but she gives me cute little chomps sometimes wa um.
But yeah, I mean I remember when I was a kid,
I wanted a snake really bad, but I found out
then I found out you have to feed a frozen
mice and I or even a live mince, depending it's
(05:13):
not that I think it's wrong. I think it's you know,
it's the circle of life. But I'd want to keep
all of them. In fact, I like bought some feed
or mice just to keep his pets. They're so cute. Yeah,
I I did. When I first got the snake, I
I did think that that might be a problem because
I also love mice, um and rats. And when I
was deciding what pet to get, I was deciding between
(05:35):
a snake or a house, which is like a rigid dichotomy.
They're interesting. Um. But it ended up I was did
not end up being phased by it. Yeah, soever, I
think you'd get used to it. Yeah, I mean, yeah,
it's uh. But then I was ultimately vetoed by my
(05:58):
mom who's like, no, not yeah, it usually but all
to say, I mean that's like you know, someone thinking
abou getting a snake that is yeah, yeah, it's um.
They they're their emotional needs are very limited, but their
dietary needs are very involved in there's all sorts of
things you have to worry about, like you mentioned, like shedding,
(06:18):
keeping the humidity and the heat right, Providing them with
lots of places so they can thermoregulate because they are
cold blooded, not meaning that their blood is always cold,
but that they cannot internally thermoregulate. So they need to
sit in the sun or a lamp to get warm
and then hide under a rock or under a log
or something to cool back down. So you got to
(06:39):
provide all those things. And then you'll also, uh, I
think every pet snake you can get needs to eat um. Well,
maybe some snakes eat mostly insects, but I think most
of them you will need to feed them something meteor
like a mouse. And then you have to be careful
because you can't just throw a big live mouse in
there that you find, because then it can hurt the snake,
(07:00):
like the snake can get beaten up by a mouse,
which is crazy. I don't know. We um ours when
we got it, he was he was taught to eat frozen.
So yeah, so luckily and we only feed him frozen.
But yeah, what I found out that with people who
feed live snakes that yes, they could get hurt, which
is like the mouse doesn't. It's like you're on board
(07:21):
and the snakes on the board, but the mouse isn't
on board. It's like wait a minute, no, they can
like punch and scratch the snake, and it can actually
in the worst case scenarios like really hurt the snake
because you know, you're scratched, scratches it and the snake
can get an infection. So yeah, yeah, I would if
anyone think of getting a snake, I would say, get
one that can eat frozen because you know, and then
(07:41):
he never needs to stress about food. Yeah, he has
the easiest life any snake could ask for. And you
don't have to feed him like that often, do you,
because they actually eat. How often do you feed it?
Because like they can eat and then go quite a
while without another meal, because they basically are big noodles
who eat a thing and then digest it for days
(08:02):
and days and days and then they're like, alright, I
guess I'll have another thing. Yeah. Yeah, it's in that regard.
It's also that that makes it a pretty easy pet um.
We feed them about every other week, give or take. Sometimes,
like if he's in the middle of shedding, you kind
of know that he probably won't eat because, yeah, they're
kind of picky, so you know sometimes it will be
(08:24):
a little bit longer. But also they're also very telling,
like he'll just he'll come out of his cage and
start like smelling the top of the cage basically to say,
I'm I'm hungry. Sizing up the cats, Yeah, sizing up
the cats um and visually you can you can see,
you know, if like your snake is like losing a
little bit of weight, you can see it so clearly.
(08:46):
Because they're just a you can measure the diameter of
the tube pretty easily. So like in in those regards,
it's really easy to tell when they're hungry. It's easy
to feed them, and it's easy to uh, you know,
if you have to, I guess not in quarantine times,
but before that, if you were to go on a vacation, yeah,
(09:07):
you could just feed them before you leave. And yeah
and so yeah, yeah, low maintenance. But I think it's
all about educating yourself before you get one. And then
if everything sounds sounds good to you, you know. But
they're so fun, there's so visual they Yeah, they're cool. Yeah. Yeah,
I like I like the I like holding them like
(09:29):
the like you it's another thing like with them with
a lot of like um herbs, a lot of reptiles,
like you shouldn't handle them too much, but there are
some snakes that are actually very like, okay, chill with
being handled, so that's nice. Uh, it doesn't stress them
ount necessarily that much. So today we are going to
talk about some of the most amazing snakes in the world.
(09:53):
And this is actually I got like a listener question
about some like, you know, some of my favorite snakes,
and I wanted to go really in depth on it
because it's just there's so much ground to cover. There
are so many snakes that I find just adorable, really cool,
really silly, and some are just like absolutely mind blowing,
(10:13):
like gorgeous. So I've separated this into three sections. So
in the first sections, we're gonna talk about the absolute
goofiest snake in the world. Second section is going to
be the cutest snakes in the world, and the third
section is the most gorgeous snakes in the world. All
you know, in my opinion, so of course, you know,
(10:35):
it's subjective. Every snake has value. Every snake is wonderful
and lovely in its own way. But these are just
some highlights. Some are just better than others. So so
our first snake that we're going to talk about is
the dorkiest snake I love the snakes so much. It
(10:57):
is called the Arabian sand Boa and I talked about
a little bit in the Q and A episode, but
I feel like it just deserves another look, and I
wanted you to see it, Maggie, because it's so it's
It is a snake that's found in the Arabian Peninsula
and around. It lives in desert regions. It spends most
(11:17):
of its time buried under the sand. But most importantly, Maggie,
when you look at the snake, what are you seeing?
My my goodness. Uh, it's it's just a little like slogo,
like his face almost just kind of like decides to end.
And eyes that just say like it looks like someone
(11:40):
glued a pair of Google eyes too, Weenie. Yeah, yeah
it does. Uh. This is the when I was buying
my pet snake. This was one of the other options. Really, Yeah,
how did you pass this one up? I I these
uses for some reason, snake faces that don't have like
(12:03):
a defined like jaw and head for some reason wigged
me out for some And I love snakes, so I
don't know why the non neck when it just goes
from the tube, it's tube with googly eyes. Yeah, something
about it, um just is slightly more alien that you know.
(12:26):
I guess. Yeah. It's almost like a like a sock
come to life, which I guess is a little weird,
isn't it? A little? On Canny Valley uncanny although very cute,
very cute, very doofy. And what we cover last time
was that the reason they have their eyeballs on the
top of their heads is so they can periscope from
under the sand. So they will spend most of their
(12:47):
time under the sand and then just poke their heads
just enough above the sand so that there's like two
doofy little eyes can look up above the surface and
see prey and then it can ambush the prey from
under the sand. So yeah, that is the Arabian sandbou Again,
we covered it on the last Q and A, but
I just it had to be mentioned in the goofy snakes,
(13:09):
but on two snakes that we have not covered before
on the podcast. So first, another extremely goofy snake. This
is the Madagascar leaf nose snake. So I've never seen this, Katie,
I have never seen this. I've never seen this. That's amazing.
I'm proud of myself because I feel like Okay, Maggie
(13:30):
loves snakes, it's gonna be hard to surprise her on
this podcast. I am surprised. I I don't think I
have ever cute. They got snoots. The Madagascar leaf no
snake have long snoots. They're found in Madagascar, obviously, um
(13:51):
they grow up to be about a meter in length,
that's about three ft. Males and females are highly sexually dimorphic,
meaning that they are very different looking. So males have
this long, tapered snout and are more of an orangey
yellow and females are sort of a more ashy tan
(14:12):
color with a blunt or leaf shaped snout, and so
that's the sort of leaf leaf nosed snake Moniker comes from.
And biologists aren't exactly sure what the purpose of their
snoots are their pointy little snoots, but some of the
(14:33):
guesses would be that maybe it's sexual selection, like that's
why only males have the really long snoot and the
brighter colors for females. Maybe it's more for camouflage, so
it looks kind of like a leaf. And they do
like to pretend to be vines, so they will dangle
down from branches and kind of just sway in the
(14:53):
wind like vines and then yeah, exactly, and then ambush
their prey like little is or it's just like I'm
just divine flowing in the wind and then and then
that's it, and then I'm not. Uh, they are venomous,
(15:14):
and even though their bites are very painful, I don't
think they've ever recorded a fatality in humans. Um, so
I don't. I don't think they're like, yeah, they're not
They're not deadly, but they are. You don't really want
to get bitten by one because it's like very painful,
it's unpleasant. Um. I think that's like a general rule, right,
Like when I'm like this thing isn't deadly, it's like,
(15:35):
but still don't get bit doesn't suck. Also, that means
you've annoyed it. Right, let me you you did something wrong, right,
think about your choices about why you missed that snake.
You did a snake faux pap. Although I do really
want to like like boop it's little nose and be
like got your nose, you know, or just like yeah,
(15:55):
just like man, speaking of boops and snoots, next goofy
snake is the tentacled snake. So This is an aquatic
snake that lives in slow moving water in Thailand, Cambodia,
and Vietnam. They can stay underwater for up to thirty minutes,
(16:19):
and yeah, it's pretty impressive. They can grow to be
about one to three feet, which is like just under
a meter. From fifty centimeters to just under a meter
in length. They're a brownish color. Uh. Sometimes they have
dark vertical stripes or splotchy lateral bands. But the most
important part is that they got little face dongles, little
(16:42):
face tentacles. Yeah, like Maggie did, like the devil horns
to her forehead exactly. Yeah, it's like right next to
his nostrils. And so these are two fleshy prongs that
sprout out from near each nostril. And they use these
(17:02):
two since the movement of fish in the water and
they eat fish, so you know, having some a couple
of good old fish sensors. Another theory of what they
may be used for is actually to help them lure
and prey, because fish will see these little little dongles
and think they are a couple of worms and come
(17:23):
on in. Yeah, so he's a fisherman, exactly, he's a
fisher of fish. Yes, yes, you get a dad, you
get it. I simply study under your wing. Give a
give a snake a fish, it'll eat for a day.
Give a snake nose dongles, and it'll fish for a lifetime.
(17:48):
But I do love Jesus talked a lot about snakes.
Did Yeah, Um, I was gonna say, I I really
like aquatic snakes because you know, you always think of
snakes just like year around, especially in the desert. You
know they're done like that, dode do dode do lu.
But now these are their their water snakes, aquatic snakes.
(18:10):
I like to swim. So in terms of their venom level,
they may have some venom, but it's not it's not
really harmful to humans. It's mostly harmful to the fish
that they eat. And they have these rear things. They
don't really bite hard on humans at all, So yeah,
it doesn't it's they're not dangerous, right, But again, don't
(18:31):
annoy them. Never real snakes. Never pick up a snake
you don't know, first of all, because you didn't ask permission,
and it's rude. It's a real snake faux paw. And secondly,
it could bite you. And look if you make as
it's a pretty big mistake to make. You're like, oh,
I think this might be a harmless snake. So you
(18:52):
pick it up and you get bitten. You know, then
you're wondering black meats yellow hills a fellow or is
it black meets red? And you're dead Fred and by
and by the time you figured out the right I
let you figure out the newmonic device, you're already boaming
(19:12):
at the mouth. So our last goofy a snake is
the elephant trunk snake. And these are wrinkly, saggy baggy
snakes found in lagoons and rivers in Southeast Asia. They
can actually grow to be quite big, up to about
five to eight feet, which is two or three ms.
(19:34):
And I gotta say, between you and me, kind of
looks like a flaccid weener a little bit. I thought that, yeah,
it looks a little like a little winter esque, a
little weenesk. The wrinkle crinkles are both really cute. And
also the last picture you have is him underwater, and
(19:54):
he does like very spooky spooky. It's funny because like underwater,
I think it's sort of spooky and ethereal because they're
all their wrinkles and bags are sort of floating under
the water, so it looks sort of like a like
a mermaid ghost or something. It's yeah, like that's the
Lord of the Rings that ghosts. That's like, yeah, like
(20:14):
the Ring Wraiths. So it's like spooky. But then as
soon as you pull it out of the water, it's
like shot the water, No, droopy and mag let me back.
He wasn't supposed to wash me warm water. No, I've
(20:37):
all shriveled up. So but yeah, they spend most of
their time in the water. They can actually hold their
breath for up to forty minutes underwater, quite impressive. And
their skin is really no good for crawling on land.
It's specialized for swimming. So that's why they look look
(20:58):
like fierce predators underwater or than above water. It's like
it's like an Instagram filter, but it's the water, you know, Yeah, exactly, Yeah,
Instagram versus reality for these snakes. No, man, excuse me.
I feel like Santa Anna is coming because like I've
(21:20):
been sneezing a lot, and snakes are hyper allergenic. They're yeah,
so if that's good, if you're allergic, Yeah, it's like
you're allergic actually to dander and saliva. Pets that have
hypoallergenic fur, it's that they don't shed as much. In
the lack of shedding means there's less dander and saliva
(21:40):
shedding everywhere as well. And snake skin they don't really
have dan druff. They just shed all on um. And
and then besides that, they're they're pretty clean, boys, they're
pretty clean. You can be allergic to snake bites and
snake venom, and most people have a severe reaction to
like venomous snakes, like rattle snakes. That's you know, it's
(22:05):
even building up your immunity, which in that case, I
have so many more questions. But yeah, yeah, I cannot
recommend that. So that rough baggy skin actually helps them
grab onto fish and hold them under the water, uh
and eat them because these guys, these elephant trunk snakes
(22:28):
actually have no venom, so they are constrictors and that's
how they kill and eat their prey. And because I mean, hey,
fish are dang slippery, you know they are they get
out of there, especially for a snake. It's yeah, it's
like trying to tie down ah, like a piece of soap. Yeah,
So you know, the having that baggy skin and it's
(22:50):
rough as well. It will help. It's like sand paper,
and it grabs on and wraps around the fish and
holds them in place. And you look, you can see
these two different around aquatic snakes right with two strategies.
The tentacled snake uses motion detecting prongs that look like worms,
and he has a venom. And the elephant trunk snake
(23:13):
she has that saggy, baggy skin, no venom, but she
can constrict around her prey and hold it with that
rough skin. So to to aquatic snakes, two very different
predator strategies, both very goofy looking, and I love them.
Uh there, what a pair? What pair? What a pair?
(23:34):
Some snakes have things, as you may already be aware,
but there are a few types of finged snakes. There
are the front fings snakes and rear finged snakes. The
difference between the two is deeper than just where their
body parts are, so front thinged snakes both look more
frightening and present a more immediate danger to humans due
(23:56):
to their hollow, syringe like method of action of these
big fangs that are right in front of their mouths.
Cobra's mambas and coral snakes are all examples of fixed
front finged snakes, who have small, immovable front things which
inject venom like hypodermic needles as they chew on their prey.
(24:18):
Rattle snakes and copper heads have foldable front things and
use a stabbing method rather than a chewing method to
inject venom. Front things snakes in general are able to
inject a higher concentration of venom in a shorter amount
of time, and their venom tends to be more potent
than rear thinged snakes. Rear thinged snakes have things well
(24:42):
near the back of the mouth. These things tend not
to be hollow venom injectors like front things. Snakes, instead,
grooves in the fangs distribute venom to their prey from
glands located above the teeth. Typically, this means they inject
less venom, and this venom tends to be less potent.
(25:03):
Most rear finged snakes are harmless to humans, but there
are a couple of dangerous exceptions. There's the Boomsling of
sub Saharan Africa, who has potent venom large rear finged
jaws that can open a hundred seventy degrees and can
deliver deadly bites to humans. There's also the twig snake
(25:25):
of Africa, whose anti blood clotting venom can cause uncontrollable
internal bleeding. While on that note, our next section is
going to be about the cutest snakes in the world.
Don't feel bad if you're scared of snakes, you were
(25:46):
probably born that way. Researchers have studied babies reactions to
snakes and found that infants as young as six months
old react with enlarged pupils to snakes, even though they've
likely never had much variants or knowledge of snakes before.
But just because we come into the world with an
anti snake bias doesn't mean we have to stay that way.
(26:08):
Let's talk about some absolutely adorable noodle buddies, cute snakes,
cute snakes, snakes. I try to make a snake noise
and I was like, oh wait, they don't make noises,
but they can you guys hear that? Can you hear that?
Watch it? I could watch my snake like things all day.
(26:31):
It is. It is cute at the little time, be
a little exploratory tongue coming out and sniff in the air.
Very cute. I yeah, I find I know that. I
mean I find a lot of snakes cute, especially the
non viper snakes because like I can see, like I
understand the fear of like this sort of viper snakes,
(26:51):
like the rattlesnakes, the front finged snakes, they have a
bit of a sort of what would you call it,
like ghoulish look, because you know, yeah, they look like
they're out to get something. You know, it's probably just
like dinner, but you know, like or you um, which
I can respect, but you know, they're sort of they're
(27:12):
they're a little bit more aggressive, whereas the rear fame
snakes or the constrictor snakes tend to have a little
bit of a cuter, cuter snout situation I would say,
like a little bit of a puppy dog mouth and ye.
But yeah, so so here are some super cuteis so.
One of the cutest snakes, in my opinion, are the
(27:34):
hog nos snakes and mag you've probably seen these before
because they are actually hobbyists do keep some of these
as pets because of how cute they are. If I
got a second stake, it would probably be a hog nose.
Maybe maybe not, but it would be up there. Yeah,
(27:55):
the nose is like slightly upturned and you can almost
like see they're like little mouth underneath, just like yeah,
they have a little upturned snout and just like slightly
parted little mouth. Then it's just like eepep, you know,
it's like little roadrunner noises coming out of these guys.
They're very cute. I got these big ground eyes. Um.
(28:18):
So there are actually a few genuses of hog no
snake that are distantly related. So they're all called hogno
snakes because of their similar appearance, but they're actually not
like directly related. So there are the heterodonts of North
America and Mexico. Those are probably the ones most people
are familiar with living in North America. Uh, there is
(28:41):
Leo heterodons of Madagascar, which well lives in Um, there's
Les Tropus of South America. So three distinct genuses. I'm
mostly going to talk about the heterodons of North American Mexico,
but I did want to mention the Les Tropus of
South America, like to mimic the deadly coral snakes which
(29:03):
have red, white and black stripes, And there are a
lot of snakes that mimic the coral snake coloration because
it's a pi semitism. In the actual venomous snake, it's
signaling a very potent venom. And then there are a
variety of mimics. Some are less venomous but still rather venomous.
Some of them don't have nearly as powerful venom or
don't have venom at all, that are mimicking it to
(29:25):
get the benefit of that coloration. And it's this kind
of careful balance of sneakery but then honest signals. So
it's very interesting. But with these guys, the South American hognas,
they have that dangerous looking coloration, but then this little
snout that's just like to give away, like like you
(29:45):
go from the tail, it's like, oh what, oh no,
this looks like a dangerous snake. And then and then
it ends in the head is like getting It's like
when I do my makeup and the I put on
false eyelashes that start like falling off. It's like, Okay,
(30:06):
you got me. That's not so. Heterodonts are the ones
that live in North America and also Mexico, and they
are so cute to me. They're the cutest ones. They
have just a totally adorable little boops newt. They only
grew up to be about twenty inches long, which is
(30:28):
about fifty centimeters. They're relatively stout, so some snakes are
kind of long and skinny. Some are like sort of
stouter and thicker. They're on the thicker side and thick
boys thick gold noodles. What what are like the thick
noodles called like like linguini linguini Yeah, like yeah, I
don't sorry, I don't know pasta names that good, even
(30:48):
though I love pasta. But you know, some big old,
thick little yoki's yoki snakes. So they are they don't
want to really tangle with you. They are they they
don't want to fight you. They don't want to bite you.
They want you to leave them alone. And they are
scared of you, so they will try to ward you
(31:10):
off if they detect a threat by pretending to be cobras,
and they will hiss and flatten their necks. But they
know cobras. They're they're just sweet little babies, just we
little babies. They do not want to bite you. They
only bite if they are extremely distressed and there you know,
their venom is pretty weak and mostly effective against frogs,
(31:34):
so it's not really you know, too dangerous for a
human unless you have an allergy for an adult human,
right or you're an adult woman who turned into a frog.
That's true, like if you turned into a frog, like
if you drank the water that Alex Jones told you
not to drink and you turn into a frog, and
then then you're in trouble. But yeah, they really don't
(31:56):
like to bite unless it's prey, and you know that
if I'm not interest thing, I think they just really
want to avoid. It's both wanting to avoid confrontation and
wanting to save their venom for actual actual hunting, and
so they will use other techniques to try to ward
you off. And usually if they strike at you, it's
actually just a head butt because like it's just so
(32:22):
cute to me. It's just like, no, no, there's something
adorable to me about like an animal that's usually associated
with like being dangerous, and they just really really don't
want to fight with you. I think I LL. I
grew up in Michigan, so there were very many venomous
snakes as opposed to you know, like out here in California,
(32:43):
So growing up, I didn't really have an association with
snakes being venomous. Most of the snakes in our area,
you know, or just garden snakes. All to say, when
I got a snake, a lot of people were worried
and like, and you know, and people, a lot of
people are afraid of snakes, but for the spart snakes
are much more afraid of us. Exactly. There's a lot
(33:04):
of species of animals that it makes sense that we
have such a negative association with because when it comes
to our safety, it's like if you if you trust
every snake and you just like pick them up and
give them a kiss, like, that's not gonna work out
for you, because like some of them, some of them
truly are dangerous. So in terms of our our survival
as a species, it makes sense to be overly cautious
(33:27):
about animals than to be too to like, hey, give
me a big old hug, Mr. Rattlesnake, or even like
a giant Boa constrictor like, give me that's a little tight,
little tight. But yeah, I mean, like now that we
have the Internet and the magical power of Wikipedia, I
(33:48):
think we can definitely revised our views of snakes as
all being terrible and dangerous and mean because they're not
a lot of them are good little noodles widow noodles.
So so the little hog nose noodles have another trick
up their sleeves to get you to go away, and
it is to play dead by flipping over, lolling their
tongue out of their mouths, and going like I'm dead,
(34:11):
go away. Is that I don't I've never heard of
another snake doing that, and do other snakes or is
that just a hog nos thing? I think it's I mean,
I know that hognos are the most famous for it.
I don't know if they're the only snake that does
It's called thanatosis, where you like play dead. They're certainly
not the only animal that does it, but they I don't.
(34:33):
I don't think they're They're certainly not the only reptile
that does it, um, but I don't. I also don't
think they're the only snake that does it. But they
are the most famous ones for doing it. And they
also will excrete a foul odor out of their cloaca
to complete the the illusion of being dead. Wow, he's
(34:54):
like a Disney imagineer coming all the senses to really
pull you into the narrative of I'm dead right like
a fog machine, a fake burglary scene, all pig footprints,
a murder weapon nearby, and like a motive, like a
message scrawled out in fake blood. That's like like the
(35:17):
mongoose did it. So yeah, they they in fact, like
if they're in this stage where they're playing dead and
you try to like flip them back over, they will
flip right right back over to committed committed, so committed
like the Daniel day Lewis is of snakes, Wow, very cool.
(35:39):
In North America we have a few hognos species. There's
the Western hognose snakes, which tend to have sort of
a rougher tan and brown skin. They I think they
they're kind of like mimicking rattlesnakes a little bit. The
Eastern hognose snakes are a little bit smoother, but they're
also sort of brown, tan and splotchy. Sometimes they have
(35:59):
solid color patterns. And the ones that are grown in
captivity for um, you know, to be kept as pets,
they can actually like breed them to have like different colorations,
which is pretty cool. And the whole reason that they
have that adorable little upturned snoot that just looks so poopable,
Like it just looks like my my finger would fit
(36:21):
right on it. And then if I poked it, like
their little tongue would come out and be so cute.
The purpose for that is not for me to poop it,
but for them to dig in the dirt and sands. Oh,
it is like a shovel like a little exactly wow,
because they like to cover themselves in a blanket of
dirt sand leaf litter to help them thermoregulate and keep
(36:42):
warm or keep cool. So yeah, that is that they
got a little little shovel for a nose, and it's
so cute. It's so cute. So the next total cuteie
snake that is unbelievable unbelievable is the blunt head tree
snake of South America, Mexico and Central America. You know
(37:07):
earlier when I said I like snakes with heads. This
is that, Like, but the cursor goes all the way
like like if you haven't had a snake character creation
slider and you just like you slit all the sliders.
Have you ever watched a monster factory that like McElroy.
They do a series where they just go crazy with
(37:29):
character creation sliders. I love it because like nature also
does this. So like the character creation head like a
body zero percent. Yeah, so they have. They are a
little stringy spaghettis with big heads and tiny, skinny bodies.
They look unbelieved. It doesn't look like it should work.
It just it doesn't. It really looks like a ribbon
(37:51):
someone lost that got found a penny and like they're
just sitting there. Yeah, like it looks like, you know,
they wouldn't be able to move because their heads would
be too heavy. And of course they they are real.
They are tree dwelling snakes that live in moist and
wet I wrote down wet ass forests because I thought
it was clever last night. It's pretty clever. So they
(38:14):
are sort of a very, in my opinion, very pretty
like brown and cream color with a banded pattern. Sometimes
they're a little more orangey brown. Sometimes they're sort of
like brown and white. And they got big old eyes,
skinny little bodies and giant heads, and they can reach
up to about a meter in length. But it's all
(38:34):
like skinny noodle body like so so skinny noodle body.
I think like it. It gets a little bit thicker
in the middle, like they have a little more muscle
in the middle, but it is like mostly skinny noodle.
It kind of reminds me like they really gave me
the vibe of like Captain America before he goes in
the muscles machine. Yes, when he when he's still dinky, yeah, cut, yeah,
(38:57):
I thought it was cute before he went in the
muscles cheese cute. He's horrible, but I need to change.
But I don't think he needed to change. I mean
he needed to change for America to protect America from
like base Nazis. In my opinion, as as a nice
looking person, he didn't need no muscles machine. Like you
(39:19):
don't need no muscles machines, guys, And we look at this.
This snake should be a body positivity for anyone who
feels like they're not rough enough. No, no, no, you're
perfect and wonderful. This snake is beautiful and the reason
their heads are so big is that they have to
accommodate their big old eyes. They have some of the
(39:41):
best vision of any snake on the planet. Whoa a
lot of snakes. Actually, their vision isn't super great, Like
they mostly rely on smell, and like that's why they're
like always starting their tongue out. They have receptors on
their tongue that helps them like smell, taste the air,
and be able to locate things that way. But yeah,
(40:04):
their eyes aren't always that great. But for these guys,
they have giant eyes, big old peepers that are very
good at peeping. And so in order to house these
giant eyes that take up almost of their heads, like
they need they just need a big skull and they
need a big head. Wild, that's wild. I think that
the head is this big simply for the eyes. Yeah,
(40:27):
it's a vehicle for the big eyes. That's basically Timothy shellomy, right,
Like he's a vehicle for guys, you know, and then
there you go. So one of the reasons they need
such big eyes is that they are nocturnal and they
hunt for tiny critters like amphibians and little reptiles at night,
(40:47):
so they need much better vision and that those big
old cat eyes helped them see in the dark. And yeah,
just utterly like ridiculously cute. They look like a Jim
Hanson horrible. They do have a mild venom, but they're
not dangerous to humans. They I don't think there's ever
been a serious case of a snake bite for for people.
(41:10):
And they also just like don't tend to bite like
they're not they're not interested in it. They Um, can
I ask a question about how or what what did
it eat? I mean, because it's just its head and
its tiny body. Yeah, I mean does it just body stretchy? Yeah,
body stretchy. Um. It does have a venom to incapacitate
(41:34):
its prey, and it eats little things, so like little things.
But as you know, like with snakes, they can eat
things that seem like they shouldn't fit inside of the
snake because the snakes bodies are so stretchy. So yeah, yeah,
so so the answer is they eat small things and
their body stretchy. Just cut little chill, little sling beans,
(41:58):
little dud uh. And then our last contender for cutest
cutiest of snakes is the big eyed green whip snake,
which I like to call the kermit snake. I don't
think they're technically called that, but they look like, you know,
a little kermit snake, like, oh, normous, speggy, I'm a snake.
(42:22):
How are we going to do the show Miss Peggy.
So they are found in Malaysia. Not too much is
known about them, um so kind of scant info on
their behavior. But they really look like a long, tubular
Kermit the frog to me because they are a super
bright green. They've got these light cream colored bellies and
(42:44):
these huge Kermit eyes, so Kermit eyes trademark. Yeah, like
you know how like Kermit's pupils go side to side
with sort of like the it's like a big pupil
in the center and then it kind of tapers off.
You know, Kermit eyes. You get it, you get it.
You know. That's what these snakes got and they're very
(43:05):
cute and it's funny because their heads are pretty Their
heads are actually kind of long, so when you look
at its profile, it kind of makes more sense, like
it's like, okay, it's got kind of a longer, narrower head,
so the eyes kind of fit. But when it's looking
at you face on, it's so silly looking because it
just has these like two big beady eyes and then
it's like a little tiny mouth. It looks very grumpy. Yeah,
(43:27):
these puddles look because the either are slanted and his
little chin comes up. Yeah, it's like an old man
just kind of swamp yea retired and just got over
it really quickly. It's not easy having no limbs, so
(43:48):
cute verte. When did snakes lose their legs? Probably around
a hundred million years ago. Genetic researchers identified the gene
that controls for limb development, which they call the sonic
hedgehog gene because scientists are nerds. Basically, the sonic hedgehog
gene and snakes is dampened such that legs never developed
(44:11):
beyond a very basic cartilage blueprint during embryonic development. Sometimes
these underdeveloped legs are still present in adults, like in
pythons who have legs stubs near their pelvis that they
used to grip onto other snakes during mating, so they
do still have some of the original leg blueprints that
(44:31):
their lizard ancestors had. It just doesn't fully activate during
embryonic development. So why did snakes lose their legs? That's
a bit of a trickier question. It may be that
their ancestors were aquatic and became more streamlined for swimming,
or they were terrestrial and ditched their limbs in favor
(44:52):
of burrowing. And sneaking up on prey, or maybe they're
just forgetful and don't remember where they left those Dane legs.
When we return, we're going to find out that regardless
of legs, snakes can totally own the runway. Most of
the time you see a vibrant, colorful snake, it's a
(45:14):
case of APIs semitism or warning coloration. The beautiful red, yellow,
and black bands of a coral snake warns potential predators
of their deadly toxicity. But sometimes non venomous snakes come
in dazzling colors for a mysterious reason that has to
do with magical crystals. So now we are going to
(45:37):
look at some of the most beautiful instagrammable snakes in
the world. Just I mean, it's like you see these
snakes and you're like, what I want what she has.
I'll buy what she's selling, right, I'll take whatever supplement
she's taking, whatever exercise hit program she does. I will
(46:02):
follow her makeup videos and army pants and flip flops.
Army pants. Yea, these girls were mean to me in
high school, but now we're children. We've gotten over it. Yeah,
I mean, like they've gotten over it and I've pretended
to get over it. Yeah, that's what. Yeah, it's like no, no,
(46:23):
I'm over it. I'm over it. Yeah. So these are
sunbeam snakes and there they look as ethereal and pretty
as their names suggests. So they're also known as xeno peltus,
which is also sounds fantastical, like some kind of fairy
queen name. So these are a genus of snakes so different.
(46:46):
There are multiple species in this genus and they are
found in Southeast Asia. And they have beautiful, shiny, glistening, irridescent,
fairy magical scales. They shine like a beautiful rainbow. They
grow up to be a little over a meter, so
about fifty one long, so they're not that big. They
(47:09):
live underground for the most part. They are non venomous.
They are constrictors. They are a dark brownish color, but
who cares about all of that. All that we care
about is they are shiny, shiny and rainbow ee and iridescent,
iridescent like the best, like holographic eyeshadow, nail polish out.
(47:30):
It's beautiful. It's they have a just glossy rainbow shimmer.
Sometimes they have like this violet bluish undertone as well,
just absolutely gorgeous, shimmering and shining in the sun. So
a designer snake, Yes, yes you will, uh yeah if
I if in the future I get another, you know, reptile,
(47:52):
I tell myself, you know, I don't know what I
would get, but these snakes are beautiful, but they do
cost a lot of money. You. As soon as I
got my regular pet snake, my Instagram was filled with like,
oh but you didn't get like, okay, okay, They're all
beautiful in their own way. They're all beautiful. Yeah, I
(48:16):
mean it's what's on the inside of the snake, which
is like partially digested mice, the snakes pellets. So yeah,
these are the magical fairy princesses of the snake world.
The so the shin nous is actually caused by microscopic
(48:38):
structures on their scales that catch the light. These are
called ritophores and eritophores are these tiny crystal structures. So
it's a snake made out of tiny rainbow crystals, which
is just I can't anymore. Princess wouldn't want that. It's
the princess, and I mean I want to be snake princess.
(49:02):
You know, I would be a fairy snake princess. So
the purpose of these microscopic crystal structures is probably thermal regulations.
So by catching the sun and it helps like cool
off their skin, it like reflects the heat. And for
this reason, they and actually other snakes in the world
(49:24):
glimmer and shine like wonderful holographic rainbows. So we're going
to talk about two other snakes that have the same effect,
which blew my mind because like I had heard about
these sunbeam snakes. I was like, yeah, that's great, and
then it's like, this is the same mechanism that these
other snakes us. I'm like, what, there's more, but there
iss but wait, there's more. You call this number one snakes.
(49:50):
We'll give you a snake you can't tell what kind
and see a snake grab bag. So there is also
the brazil only in rainbow boa, rainbow boa, rainbow boa. Yeah,
and they are found in Central America in humid woods.
They have sort of the regular boa pattern, like this orange,
(50:14):
brown and black sort of splotchy skin pattern, and on
top of that though, they have this glowy rainbow sheen,
which I am just it's like it's it's amazing because
they have they're like, okay, regular snake pattern, but on
top of that, we just put a rainbow. Right, what
(50:35):
do you think about that? Right? Sell a million handbags.
Don't turn these snakes into handbags. I forgot that that's real,
Like my brain would snake skin, and then I was like,
oh yeah, but like people, Yeah, yeah, the Cruella developed snakes.
I would watch that like a hundred and one rainbow
bow snakes. It's just the Cruella de bill of snakes.
(51:00):
And then there's just like hundreds of snakes doing a
grand adventure that movie, and then like the what are
they called the Darling I don't remember what the humans
are in that movie, but yeah, it's not that darlings.
Is Peter Pan right? Oh wait, yeah, you're right. I
don't know humans. The humans that on the Dalmatians, but
(51:22):
this time they own snakes and then like their snakes,
you know, get kidnapped by Kriola de Ville, and then
the snakes come back with like a hundred other snakes
and then they're just like, well, I guess we gotta
now we have a hundred snakes, and I'll write a
song about it. And then it's gonna be really cute
and down. Yeah. So yeah, these these rainbow but Brazilian
(51:48):
rainbow boas are found in Central America in humid woods,
and um, yeah, they have it's like just normal Boa behavior,
normal normal boas, just just rainbow addsh like a holographic Pokemon.
They're like, you know, they're like the holographic Pokemon of
of BoA's. Yeah. So the other snake that has this
(52:12):
effect is just incredibly beautiful. It is called the foremost
an odd scaled snake. So these are non venomous, dark
blackish snakes found in Taiwan and the ryu Que Islands, Japan,
and they grow to be about thirty five inches long,
(52:33):
which is ninety you know, not too big. They are nocturnal.
They mostly eat earthworms, frogs and so on. Yeah, eating
worms in the dirt most important. I know, it's weird, right. Well,
what's gonna blow your mind is like some snakes even
eat what are called like they'll eat smaller snakes. Sometimes
(52:53):
they are these snakes called blind snakes. And just for
the sake of time, I didn't get into them in
the cute snake section, but these there are little little
blind snakes that there are these tiny, tiny snakes and
they look like worms. Um. And they like you can't
even really see their eyes um, and like some of
them like they have barely functional if if at all
(53:15):
having eyes, and like these little tiny meals and they
just like look like little worms, but they're actually snakes.
So you know, a bigger snake could probably eat them
like a plate of spaghetti. Uh them up. But they
also eat the Arabian sandbo which we talked at the
top of the show, I think also eats legless lizards
(53:36):
that look like snakes. Oh yeah, those things look they
look they look like worms or snakes, but they're actually
a lizard, which is I mean, you might be like, well,
but all snakes are like okay, true enough, but slightly
different evolutionary paths. So um, but these guys, the foremost
(53:57):
and odd scaled snakes um, are also beautiful, shiny and glimmery.
They are beautiful snake mertmaids who glisten and shine and
they actually have like bumpier scales so it catches the
light slightly different. So to me, it looks like these
snakes are not only rainbow but also slightly gilded, like
(54:18):
they're partially made out of gold partially made out of rainbows.
When you have the light, it's all about the lighting. Like,
if you don't have these snakes in the right lighting,
they're not going to shine, just like me, like when
I'm not When I'm in the right lighting, it's great,
but like nine of the time I'm not in the
right lighting. And you know, yeah, yeah, it's like you
(54:43):
know why my chin looks like it's above my nose
and like one eyeball is like, you know, beneath my mouth,
Like it's the lighting, right. So remember that next time
Gussie Katie was with a Picasso face. Yeah, so my
mind is blown by these snakes. I can't get over
these shiny rainbowie snakes. They're beautiful, absolutely beautiful utiful. Yeah, man,
(55:10):
I do really want one, I know, I want like,
I want to like be them if that makes sense
in a non in like a non furry way. Well,
I guess they wouldn't be furries, right, they'd be like
scally that would be oh yeah, I don't know what
the terminology is there. If any listeners know, feel free
(55:31):
to tell Katie tell me. But all to say, I
would love to see a free costume of this time
you're descent snake skin. It's beautiful. This is my snake sona. Yes, yes,
I also like I want like, um, I guess, like
an eyeshadow in this color, not made out of the snakes.
(55:52):
Let me make it clear, I'm not the cruel devill
of these snakes. These they are perfect and they must
be defended at all costs. But you know, because like
I feel like I have a blue undertone in my skin,
and I feel like these would go well with my
skin tone. You know, I'm a winter not a summer,
and these snakes are sort of a winter. So you
(56:14):
see what I'm saying. I see what we're saying. It's
also the especially on the sunbeam snake, it's kind of
like oil slick color where it just like, ah, I
need a nail polish that is in snake color, you know,
snake color. Yeah. Really, Yeah, I'm shiny, but they're not
Oh yeah those are nice. Yeah, but they're not they're
(56:35):
not quite like they're not sunbeams snake you know. But yeah,
I also would like to just like Beauty Gurus channel,
but it's just these snakes flopping around. Snake. Yeah, you'll
never be sorry. I'm sorry if it offends you that
I was just born beautiful. I'm sorry, like I'm sorry
(57:01):
glisten in the rainbow. Same sorry, it looks like I'm
made out of a hundred golden rainbows. It's not my fault.
A wonderful well. We have covered from the goofiest to
the cutest to the most Instagram influencer snakes, in my opinion,
(57:23):
in the world. I'm there's so many snakes, though, we'll
probably have to do this all over again. Get more
snakes in here. I would love to talk snakes anytime, anytime.
We will bring you back for snakes too, snakes reloaded,
Snakes in a recording booth. Yeah, snakes on a podcast, No,
(57:45):
snakes on a pod. Snakes on a pod? Yeah, okay,
all right, sure, okay, But thank you so much for
joining me today, Maggie. This was incredible. It's so fun
to talk to someone who is as in the mesiastic
about snakes and loves them and cherishes them and wants
to kiss them as much as I do. I do.
(58:06):
I love them. And if anyone is curious about owning
a snake, there's a lot of resources, but do make
sure you do your research. Um they are you know,
the one I have is a beginner snake, but that also,
you know, matters. There's easier snakes to take care of.
There's more involved there. There there's a varrieta. Yeah, but
they are great pets. So if you're thinking about it, yeah,
(58:29):
I encourage you to check it out. Yeah. I've actually
spent a lot of time on snake forms, not because
I don't I've never owned a snake, so I only
know about it in theory on paper, but like I'm
just fascinated by these like snake forms where they're like,
you know, my snake has not even a mouse in
like in five weeks, and like what can I do?
And like all this advice about like try heating up
(58:50):
the mouse sometimes they like warm and you know, really
change the temperature or yeah, it's like have you tried seasoning?
It's but a little bit. It's a little salt and
pepper on it. You know. It feels like people appreciate snakes,
you know, more of these days. Yeah, there's a great
like like snake community where yeah, there's anyone who owns
(59:13):
a snake has usually been online asking all their snakes, right,
snakes making this weird noise? What does it mean? Um?
Because also the other thing is that veterinarians oftentimes don't
have that much experience with snakes. So I didn't go
to I didn't go to veterinary school to treat this hose.
(59:33):
Give me it's a tube. Um, And they have a point,
but I'll to say that it's also you know, there's
a there's a fun community of you know, just sneake
owners who love their animals and are happy to help.
It is. It is like nuts to be a veterinarian though,
because they're like, you just know all it's all animals now,
(59:53):
it's like any animal because like human doctors is like humans. Okay, humans,
you can get a handle on humans, it's like, but
with veterinarians, it's like birds, cats, dogs, snakesh turkeys, hedgehog,
just any of it. It's like, but these are different.
They have different organs. Some of them don't have legs,
and they should have leg some of them shouldn't have legs.
(01:00:14):
So what snake looks like a rainbow? And I oh,
there was this, I think a few years ago, this
viral video of a veterinarian pulling an entire bath towel
out of us out of it. I think it was
a it was a python, right, and and it was
just like this poor python had eaten an entire bath towel.
(01:00:36):
Had a very bad tommy because the poor thing was
like at this point, it was like nine bath towel,
just like a snake tube filled with bath towel. And
they pulled out this whole thing and everyone cheered at
the end. It was amazing. Yeah, and it came out
so smoothly. He clearly he might have figured out that
(01:00:56):
it should come out the snakes like all right, I
gave my best shop started right about this. Yeah, incredible, incredible.
Also also when you do your research, just make sure
that you're getting snakes that are ethically sourced, like you
don't you know, like and that's also yes, And try
(01:01:17):
not to shop at, you know, any of the name
brand pet stores if you can avoid them, because they
usually go with um mass breeders who you know, just
breed and toss the puppy the puppy mills of snakes, yes,
the puppy mills snakes and little puppies, so you know, yeah, um,
you know, you can look at you know, your local
(01:01:38):
pet stores, um or there are pet stores that just
deal with reptiles, um, and you can ask if you
know where the snakes have been sourced, right, um. Something
actually to consider when you own a snake or other
reptile is actually finding a vet who can spay or
neuter your pet to prevent it from becoming an invasive
(01:01:58):
species if it escape, because you never know where your
snake is gonna find love, make a bunch of babies,
and start eating all the local birds. Also, make sure
your snake isn't sourced from the illegal pet trade. I
totally get the desire to have cool pet snakes, but
you gotta do your research to make sure that their
(01:02:21):
wild counterparts and your local wildlife will not be harmed.
With all pets, you want to keep them indoors. Don't,
don't really some because then you know if they can
become invasive and you don't want that. So but there
are all sorts of ways to be a responsible snake owner.
So snakes are amazing. And if you're scared of snakes,
just look at the Arabian sand abou and I promise
(01:02:43):
you you will no longer be well. Thank you so
much again, Maggie, you got anything to plug? Uh? Yeah,
you guys, can hop over to my YouTube channel. Um,
I do fun videos where I break down movie um,
and we have some fun ones. Comment snakes on a plane,
(01:03:05):
that's not snakes on a plane. But many of the
films I cover have animals involved. Yeah, you did a
cats one, right, I did. I did a cat's one. Um,
we have a Lord of the Ring one nighteming not so.
If you like all the fuls, then holiphants, lazy J
k Rowling just inventing an animal that's like two words
(01:03:27):
away from Elephanta. So you can find us on the
internet at Creature Feature Pod on Instagram, at Creature feet
Pot on Twitter. That's f E T not et. That
is something erent. If you have any questions about snakes
or otherwise, if you've got pictures of your pets, if
(01:03:47):
you want to ask me, wait, am I a snake?
You can email me at Creature Feature Pod at gmail
dot com. And yeah, thank you guys so much for listening.
If you're enjoying this show, if you leave me a review,
I will read it. I cherish them all. It like
makes my day when someone has a nice review. I'm
just like floating all daylong. Like they like it. They
(01:04:09):
liked the podcast, Thank You So Yeah, I appreciate all that,
and I just like you know, I appreciate everyone for
listening to Thank you so much. Uh and thank you
to the Space Classics for their super awesome song excel
Alumina Creature Feature is a production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts like the one you just heard, visit
(01:04:31):
the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or Hey, guess what?
Why have you listen to your favorite shows? Nick's Thanks
Dad a good one.
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