Tortoises are very, very slow moving animals indeed. The main reason for this is that their heavy shells weigh down on them, so that any movement is quite tiresome. The average tortoise will take one hour to cover half a kilometre, and even if it is very hungry, it will not move any faster.
The snapping turtle is a large tan, brown, or gray turtle with a big head and strong jaws. It has a very long tail with saw tooth-like scales along the top. It is nearly always in water, hiding in the muck in shallows or under stumps in deep pools.A snapping turtle's plastron- the shell covering the belly- is small and leaves much of their body exposed. This means that it cannot pull its head and legs into its shell for protection against predators, as most other turtles can. Snapping turtles make up for this lack of body armour with an aggressive temperament- they snap at whatever annoys them!
Snapping turtles have huge appetites. They eat insects, fish, frogs, snakes, and many kinds of plants. During the day, the snapping turtle usually lies quietly in the bottom of a dark body of water and opens its jaw to reveal a small pink worm-like lure in the back of its gray mouth. The lure attracts fish, and when the fish enter the jaws, the powerful jaws snap shut. In short, the snapping turtle snaps for two reasons- to catch its food, and for self protection.
Hawksbill sea turtles are among the smaller species of sea turtles. They grow to about one metre in length, and reach weights of about 81 kilogrammes. This turtle is usually found in the tropical regions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in waters less than 18 metres in depth.Unfortunately, for the hawksbill sea turtle, its beautifully marked carapace, marbled with yellow, amber, and brown markings, has made it the target of commercial hunting for its shell. When polished to a high shine, the mottled hues of browns and beiges on the shell come alive and lend a special allure to any crafted item, be it a brooch, comb, hairpin or spectacle frame.
Today, marine pollution, over fishing and loss of nesting grounds, as well as the netting of hawksbill turtles for their shells have all contributed to the fact that the hawksbill sea turtle is critically endangered and on the brink of extinction.
The South American matamata is a weird looking fish that lives at the bottom of rivers in South America. Its body is covered with protuberances and algae, and it looks like a pile of debris at the bottom of the river. Smaller fish are fooled by its appearance, and as they come to nibble at the protuberances, the matamata opens its huge mouth wide, and sucks in a flood of water along with the fish!The alligator snapper turtle too, lies in murky water, looking like a pile of mud. It lies with its jaws wide open, and there is a structure inside its mouth that looks like the two ends of an earthworm. Fish are fooled into thinking that this is a tasty morsel of food. As they approach the turtle, the turtle snaps its jaws shut, and captures its prey!
The stinkpot turtle does just that - stinks! It is one of the smallest of the turtle family. It gets its name from the foul odour it releases to put off its predator. So in addition to its shell, it has another way of defending itself which is very efficient indeed.
Harriet, a Galapagos tortoise, was believed to have been one of three tortoises taken from the Galapagos Islands by Charles Darwin, on his historic 1835 voyage aboard the HMS Beagle. The 176-year-old tortoise, believed to be one of the world's oldest living creatures, died in an Australian zoo in 2006. According to local legend, Harriet was just five years old, and probably no bigger than a dinner plate, when she was taken from the Galapagos to Britain. The tortoise spent a few years in Britain, before being moved to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, in Australia's tropical Queensland state in the mid-1800.
Although most snakes have teeth, not all snakes have fangs. Only the poisonous ones do. What are fangs?Fangs are sharp, long, hollow teeth that are hooked up to small sacs in the snake's head behind their eyes. These sacs produce poisonous liquid called venom. When a snake bites, venom is released and starts to work immediately to kill or paralyze the prey. For some snakes with really long fangs, the fangs will fold back into the mouth so that the snake doesn't bite itself? When a snake loses or breaks a fang it will grow another.
In many countries, venomous snakes are caught and their venom is 'milked' from their fangs by squeezing the venom sac and forcing the release of the poison. This venom is then used to create a medicine called antivenin that is used to save the lives of people bitten by snakes. Snakes will keep producing more venom for as long as they live.
Some snakes eat frogs, other snakes, fish, or snails. Many snakes eat rodents. They capture their prey by three methods. The first is the grab and swallow method, employed by a wide variety of snakes, including water snakes. Snakes using this technique often swallow their prey alive. Snakes also kill by constriction, which is the second method. The boa constrictor, the rat snake, and king snakes are some snakes that kill by constriction. These snakes strike at their prey and subdue it by wrapping their coils around it. The prey is not crushed, but suffocated to death. Once the prey is dead, the snake begins to swallow it. Venomous snakes use the third method. They kill their prey by injecting it with venom. The venom either kills the prey immediately, or paralyses it, so that the snake can move in for the kill.
Egg-eating snakes are a small group of snakes whose diet consists only of eggs. Some eat only bird's eggs, which they have to swallow whole, as the snake has no teeth. Instead, these snakes have spines that stick out from the backbone. The spines crack the egg open as it passes through the throat. Once the egg is punctured, muscles in the snake's body work in waves to squeeze out the contents, which then move down into the stomach. The snake then forces the shell back into its mouth by bending its body into an 'S' shape. The shell is now drained and flattened into a compact shape. Egg eating snakes sometimes have to go for a long time without any food. So, they eat as many eggs as they can when they get them!
Snakes don't have legs. So, they use their muscles and their scales to do the 'walking'. They generally move around in four different ways.In the concertina method, snakes bunch themselves up, and then throw themselves forward. In the serpentine method, snakes will push off of any bump or other surface like rocks or trees, to get going. They move in a wavy motion that most of us associate with snakes.
Side winding is a method similar to an inchworm's movement. The snake will lift the middle of its body up, and then push it down, forcing its head to move forward. It touches the ground only at two points, and rolls its coiled body sideways like a corkscrew rolling on a table. Finally, the caterpillar method is a slow, creeping, straight movement. The snake uses some of the wide scales on its belly to grip the ground, while pushing forward with the others. Large heavy snakes like constrictors use this method.
Snakes don't really fly. However, if you ever go to Southeast Asia, you might see a snake flying over your head! Snakes don't have wings, so how do they manage to fly?The answer is that these snakes are not really flying- they are merely gliding from one tree to another. A flying snake launches itself at high speed from a perch on a tree, raises its limbs and flattens its body to form a kind of parachute. It can't fly up-only downwards. It may even swish and contort itself while in flight so that it can control where it lands.
Flying snakes hunt their prey in the air, crushing small animals with their powerful jaws. Did you know that a flying snake can glide as much as 24 metres in the air?
The forked tongue of a snake may look dangerous, but it is perfectly harmless. Each and every time the snake flicks out its forked tongue, it snares chemical particles in the air, which latch onto, or dissolve in, the moisture of the snake's tongue. Once the snake reels in its tongue, it inserts the tips of the forked tongue into the two openings of a special organ called the Jacobson's organ. The particles, especially those of animal body odours, are identified and analyzed by the Jacobson's organ. Once the snake has identified the animal, person, or object, it slithers into action. The deep fork in the tongue serves a very useful purpose- it allows the snake to sample a wider area than an undivided tongue.
Two-headed snakes are very rare creatures, but not unheard of. Life is very difficult for such snakes. First, the two heads have to decide they're both hungry at the same time, and then they have to agree to pursue the same prey. Then they might fight over which head gets to swallow the prey. To make it even more complicated, sometimes one head will attack, and try to swallow its second head. This did happen at the San Diego Zoo some years back, and the snake died.
The world's smallest snake has been discovered on the Caribbean island of Barbados. It is only about 10 cms long, looks like an earthworm, and belongs to a group known as thread snakes. The world's heaviest snake is known to be the green anaconda. The heaviest green anaconda ever weighed was around 250 kilogrammes. The most poisonous snake in the world is the Inland Taipan of Australia. Just a single bite from this snake contains enough venom to kill 100 human adults, or an army of 250,000 mice.
Reticulated pythons are the world's longest snakes. This snake is relatively slender, and characterized by an attractive pattern on its body. The reticulated python can be found in variety of habitats, including open wood-lands, dense forest, rocky areas, lakes, rivers and swamps. This species is rarely found far away from fresh water. The snake can attain considerable bulk and size. Some specimens weigh over 136 kilogrammes and are ten metres long, making it the world's longest snake.
Reticulated pythons devour large variety of prey. Warm blooded creatures like waterfowl, nesting birds and small to medium sized animals as well as pigs, dogs, goats, large deer, and occasionally human being are included in its diet. The size of the prey depends on the size of the snake. Did you know that after a big meal, the python can go for a whole year before eating again.