odd questions - non-BP

ok so I'm watching tv the other day and saw something interesting. It was some show on discovery or similar, and they said something about the scales on a snakes head can tell you at a glance if the snake is venomous or not. (I think the "or not" part had something to do with being a colubrid).

basically you look at the head and if you see a single scale in front of the eye between the eye and nostrils, its venomous. if there is 2 scales between the head and nostril, its not venomous (or a colubrid. not quite for sure exactly about this part *grin*

anyone else heard something like this before?

also, anyone know of a black mamba that "hoods" like a cobra? I thought I saw it but it was small and not sure if I was seeing it correctly or in the wrong lighting or something.

yes, mambas do make hoods like cobras.

ive never heard the venomous thing though. whos gonna look close enough to see the scales on a snakes head to check if its venomous or not? lol. i think someone who can't tell if a snakes venomous or not by looking at its pattern, and headshape should leave the snake alone.

i never heard about that scale thing...

i read that black mambas were one of the fastest venemous snakes or something

I too, have never heard of that "single scale" thing....and at the moment, I'm not buying it. But I'm too tired to look for pictures of animals to check. Maybe tomorrow. Also...if I can't identify a snake, I'm sure not gonna get close enough to it to count the scales on its head! LOL


BTW....I moved this to the General Herp forum for ya. ;)

Oh yeah - With my eyesight, I take off my glasses and get close enough to count the scales on the head....I'm dead. :P

well now, I never thought about getting close enough to look at snake scales. LOL

I'm wondering if it came to me in a drug induced stupor

yeah the black mamba is the fastest snake in the world. it can cruise along at 24 mph for several minutes. its also, if I recall correctly, the longest venomous snake.

...wonder how I get back to that stupor?....

Actually they cruise more around and up to 16 miles an hour or at least that is what was said on the special I watched on Sunday night on Animal Planet about Black Mamba's. It was one of those Mutual of Omaha specials and was pretty good. Showed a clutch hatching, at birth they are about 2' long.

And they do hood. And they can get as long as 14' and rise up high enough to look a grown man in the eyes. Very nasty critters

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Originally Posted by jotay

Actually they cruise more around and up to 16 miles an hour or at least that is what was said on the special I watched on Sunday night on Animal Planet about Black Mamba's. It was one of those Mutual of Omaha specials and was pretty good. Showed a clutch hatching, at birth they are about 2' long.

And they do hood. And they can get as long as 14' and rise up high enough to look a grown man in the eyes. Very nasty critters

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yeah i remember seeing that sometime ago. i was like "wow".

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Originally Posted by Gurgie

yeah the black mamba is the fastest snake in the world. it can cruise along at 24 mph for several minutes. its also, if I recall correctly, the longest venomous snake.

....

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The King Cobra is the longest venomous snake. ;) Mambas are super-cool, though.