Snakes eating other snakes may seem shocking, but it actually occurs more often than you might think. If you’ve ever wondered why snakes resort to cannibalism, you’re not alone. Many people find it unsettling when apex predators turn on their own kind.
If you’re short on time, here’s a quick answer to your question: Snakes sometimes eat other snakes when food is scarce, to eliminate competition, or by mistake while hunting prey that happens to be similar looking or scenting snakes of the same or different species.
In this comprehensive article, we’ll explore the reasons why snakes eat other snakes, looking at the evolutionary biology, environmental factors, and hunting behaviors that lead to this unusual phenomenon.
With insights from herpetologists and wildlife experts, we’ll uncover the truth behind snake cannibalism.
Snakes Eat Other Snakes When Food is Scarce
Prey Shortages Lead to Alternative Food Sources
Snakes are primarily carnivorous and depend on other animals for sustenance. When their normal prey becomes scarce due to habitat loss, climate fluctuations or other factors, snakes will expand their diet to include less conventional food sources – even other snakes.
This adaptation allows them to survive periods of famine. Expert herpetologists have observed increased cases of ophiophagy (snakes eating other snakes) during droughts, cold spells and after wildfires when mammals, birds and amphibians are harder to find.
Snakes Have High Metabolisms and Need Frequent Meals
With their ectothermic physiology, snakes have slower metabolisms than warm-blooded animals. Still, they need to eat regularly to meet their energy needs. Small snakes may eat every 5-7 days while large constrictors can go 2 weeks between meals.
When prey is scarce, snakes become desperate to avoid starvation. Their instinct for survival kicks in and they resort to cannibalism and eating competitors. Though not ideal, ingesting other snakes provides much-needed sustenance during lean times.
Young Snakes Are Especially Vulnerable to Starvation
Baby snakes have accelerated metabolisms and less fat reserves than adults. They require frequent feedings, sometimes eating every 4-5 days. When resources are limited, juvenile mortality rates increase dramatically. Larger snakes will prey on younger ones for nourishment.
Even snakes of the same brood may turn on each other. For example, king cobra hatchlings often cannibalize eggs that haven’t hatched yet. Ophiophagy gives them their best chance at making it to adulthood when prey is scarce.
Snakes View Other Snakes as Competition
Snakes Are Territorial and Feel Threatened by Rivals
Snakes are largely solitary creatures that establish home ranges or territories. They become familiar with these areas and want to protect the resources within them like food, water, basking sites, and shelter. When another snake encroaches on their space, they may feel threatened by the rival.
Snakes are not social animals, so they gain nothing from having other snakes around. In fact, the newcomer represents direct competition for limited resources. This can prompt aggressive behavior like biting, coiling around, or trying to eat the intruder.
Some snakes like rattlesnakes and copperheads are venomous. They can inflict serious or even fatal bites on snakes that get too close. Nonvenomous snakes may constrict or bite intruders when threatened. Ultimately, snakes want to be the dominant reptile controlling their home range.
Seeing another snake in their territory triggers territorial behavior and the desire to remove the threat.
Eating Other Snakes Removes Competition for Resources
By eating other snakes, the predator eliminates a direct competitor for resources like food and shelter. This frees up more territory and prey items for the victorious snake. Species like king snakes and indigo snakes frequently cannibalize other snakes for this purpose.
The defeated snake is turned into a meal for the winner.
Some key examples of snakes eating competitors:
- Rattlesnakes may eat other rattlesnakes that encroach on their domain.
- Kingsnakes readily eat venomous snakes like copperheads and rattlesnakes.
- Massasauga rattlesnakes eat smaller snakes including newborn rattlesnakes.
- Garter snakes sometimes cannibalize garter snakes of smaller size.
Eating the competitor can secure more food and other limited resources for the victor.
Snake cannibalism helps control population sizes and prevents overcrowding. When snakes eat other snakes, it limits how many can occupy the same habitat. This balancing act helps stabilize snake populations and snake communities in the wild.
Larger Snakes May View Smaller Ones as Easy Prey
Snakes have to opportunistically take whatever prey they can capture. Many snakes will eat other snakes if given the chance, viewing them as just another potential food source. The size difference between snakes plays a big role here.
Larger adult snakes may readily eat much smaller juvenile snakes of the same or different species. Consuming a tiny snake takes little effort for a giant predator.
Some examples of larger snakes eating smaller snakes:
- Burmese pythons sometimes eat young pythons.
- Reticulated pythons eat all sorts of smaller snakes.
- Rat snakes readily eat little garter and grass snakes.
- King cobras eat smaller snakes including venomous kraits.
For big snakes, these smaller snakes represent bite-sized, energy-rich meals. They will exploit the size advantage and opportunistically eat the little guys. An adult snake eating a juvenile snack reminds us of the brutality and competitiveness of nature.
However, not all cannibalism is size-based. In some cases, mature female snakes may eat adult male snakes after mating. The males are food rewards for the taxing breeding process! 😲
Mistaken Identity Causes Accidental Cannibalism
Snakes are skilled hunters that rely primarily on their senses of smell and movement detection to locate prey. However, these hunting techniques can sometimes lead to accidental cannibalism when one snake mistakenly identifies another snake as potential food.
Snakes Rely on Scent and Movement to Find Prey
A snake’s forked tongue collects odor molecules from the environment and delivers them to special sensory cells called the Jacobson’s organ. This allows snakes to essentially “smell” the world around them and detect prey animals.
Snakes also detect motion very well due to sensitive nerve endings along their body and underside of their jaw. Even the slightest vibration can alert a snake to the presence of potential food.
While these adaptations help snakes effectively locate prey, they can also be fooled. Scent and movement cues alone do not always allow snakes to accurately identify the specific species they are hunting. This can lead to cases of mistaken identity between similar snake species or genders.
Similar Species Can Be Confused During Hunting
In some habitats, multiple snake species may occupy the same ecological niche. For example, certain regions are home to rat snakes, king snakes, and milk snakes – all of which prey predominantly on small rodents.
To a hungry snake, an individual from one of these similar species may smell and move enough like a typical prey item to become targeted.
Additionally, male and female snakes emit different pheromones. A male snake searching for food may pick up the scent of a female and mistakenly strike, thinking he has located a tasty rodent or lizard. This can lead to attempted cannibalization within the same snake species.
Stress and Hunger Lower a Snake’s Discrimination
A snake’s ability to discriminate between prey items relies heavily on concentration and focus. However, stressors can disrupt this process. For example, a stressed, dehydrated, or malnourished snake may strike at a fellow snake that it would normally recognize and avoid.
Hunger and competition for resources can also lead snakes to act more aggressively towards any potential food source.
In captivity, overcrowding stresses snakes and raises risk of accidental cannibalism. Snakes strikes based on scent and movement alone, so crowded conditions prevent proper species and gender recognition.
Providing ample habitat space, nutrition, and reducing conflict over resources can help minimize mistaken identity. In the wild, snakes usually avoid cannibalism when possible, but factors like starvation may lead them to resort to unconventional sources of food.
Understanding Snake Senses and Hunting Methods
How a Snake’s Unique Senses Guide Its Hunting
Snakes have specialized senses that allow them to be effective hunters (National Geographic). Their forked tongues pick up chemical particles in the air and ground, helping them track prey. Snakes also have heat-sensitive pits on their faces to detect infrared radiation from warm bodies up to a foot away.
Their wide-angle vision allows them to monitor prey movements peripherally. These senses work together to guide snakes toward prey animals.
Constrictors like pythons and boas primarily use their chemical sensing abilities to find prey like birds, mammals, and other snakes. Their heat pits also help them aim their strike. Venomous snakes like vipers rely more heavily on vision to hunt, in addition to chemical sensing.
Their venom allows them to disable prey from a distance.
Constrictors vs. Venomous Snakes: Different Hunting Approaches
Constrictors and venomous snakes have evolved different hunting strategies (Scientific American). Constrictors like boas and pythons grab and coil their bodies around prey. Each time the prey exhales, the constrictor squeezes tighter to suffocate it.
Constrictors have easier hunting when prey is warm-blooded, as heat pits easily detect the warmth of mammals and birds.
In contrast, venomous snakes like cobras ambush prey and inject venom through hollow fangs. Neurotoxic venom paralyzes nerves, often rapidly killing prey. Cytotoxic venom breaks down tissue, more slowly disabling prey.
With their strike-and-release approach, venomous snakes don’t rely on heat sensing as much as constrictors do.
Why Snakes Sometimes Strike Even Non-Prey Objects
When startled or threatened, snakes may instinctively strike out even at non-prey animals or objects. Their natural defensiveness allows them to protect themselves from perceived predators.
For example, venomous rattlesnakes may interpret a hiking boot as a threat and strike the boot (Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum). They only have moments to decide if something is a predator, and their venomous bite can disable attackers. So they occasionally strike objects that seem menacing.
Understanding this instinct can help hikers remain calm and back away if encountered by a rattlesnake.
Environmental Factors and Snake Behavior
Climate Change and Habitat Loss Impact Snake Populations
As the climate warms, snake habitats like wetlands and forests are shrinking. With less space to roam and fewer prey animals, snakes become concentrated together, leading to increased competition and conflicts.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, climate change has already caused habitat loss for one-third of snake species globally.
Deforestation also plays a huge role. When trees are cleared for agriculture or development, snakes lose their homes and hunting grounds. A 2021 study published in Biological Conservation found that habitat loss from deforestation was the biggest threat to snakes in Southeast Asia, putting 64% of species there at risk of extinction.
Crowded Living Conditions Increase Aggression
With climate change and habitat loss pushing snakes into smaller living areas, they are forced into closer quarters with other snakes. This crowding and lack of resources breeds aggression and conflict.
Studies have shown that male snakes become much more combative when competing for territory and mates in crowded habitats. The stress of cramped conditions also makes snakes more likely to strike out defensively at any perceived threat.
So as competition for limited space and food increases, snakes are more apt to view other snakes as rivals instead ofneighbors.
Seasonal Shifts Lead to More Frequent Encounters
Erratic seasonal shifts due to climate change also throw off natural snake behaviors and lead to more snake-on-snake encounters at unusual times. For example, warmer winters may bring snakes out of brumation too early, before prey animals have emerged.
This leads to hungry snakes crossing paths more often.
Climate change can also lengthen summers, giving snakes extra time to hunt and expand ranges. Per a 2022 study in Science Advances, just a few extra weeks of summer could increase the amount of land traveled by garter snakes by over 30%.
All this additional roaming and foraging again ups the likelihood of snakes bumping into one another.
Conclusion
While humans may find the idea of snakes eating each other unsettling, cannibalism is simply part of the natural order for these fascinating reptiles. By understanding the evolutionary drivers, environmental factors, and snake senses and instincts involved, we can better comprehend this unusual phenomenon.
The next time you stumble upon grisly evidence of snake-on-snake predation, remember that these creatures are simply following their natural impulses to find food, eliminate rivals, and survive. Nature can be brutal, but it all serves a purpose in maintaining balanced ecosystems.
Hopefully this article has shed some light on the mystery of why snakes sometimes resort to eating their own kind when resources are scarce and competition is high.
