Which would you rather get bit by?

Which would you rather get bit by a

Adult Rock Python (or any LARGE Python) http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/an...ck_python2.jpg

Adult Emerald Tree Boa
http://www.coralluscaninus.info/imag...inus_fangs.jpg

Adult Reticulate Hookjaw Moray (or Dragon Moray)
http://fishpix.kahaku.go.jp/photos/N...R0007814AF.jpg

the moray....

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Originally Posted by temec

the moray....

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I don't know those things can take a finger clean off. I feel like the one the would cause the least long term damage would be the python. Though it may hurt the most.

The Emerald Tree Boa would hurt like hell...but no chance of it taking a finger off or possibly killing you. Although a infection is always possible...

the moray has the most jaw strength by far. I'd imagine you'd regret getting bit by one of those.

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Originally Posted by jknudson

The Emerald Tree Boa would hurt like hell...but no chance of it taking a finger off or possibly killing you. Although a infection is always possible...

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If that hits an artery your in trouble.
Gooseman: By jaw strength do you mean PSI? I can't imagine them having a stronger bite then a large snake. Especially since they don't bite and hold on, they bite and rip/tear. O and if anyone has any good pics of large teeth post 'em, or any good stories of getting bit by a large snake.

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Originally Posted by Gooseman

the moray has the most jaw strength by far. I'd imagine you'd regret getting bit by one of those.

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Id regret getting bit by any of those

One of my friends was scuba diving and was bit by a moray on the leg. He had to swim back to the boat and kill the moray to even get it off of his leg. I don't know specifically what type of moray it was but that doesn't sounds pleasant to me.

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Originally Posted by AndrewGeibel

One of my friends was scuba diving and was bit by a moray on the leg. He had to swim back to the boat and kill the moray to even get it off of his leg. I don't know specifically what type of moray it was but that doesn't sounds pleasant to me.

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WOW, I guess he tasted pretty good. :8:

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Originally Posted by slither9192

WOW, I guess he tasted pretty good. :8:

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He must have!

None of the above :rolleyes:

I'll go full force and say give me a shot from a fer de lance, square in the face!

Yeah... that's how I get down!

Morays, however, do inflict a nasty bite, because, although not poisonous, their backward-pointing teeth are covered with bacteria which may infect the wound.

doesnt sound like something i would like to be biten by

the rock could well you know!

the etb would hurt like you wouldnt believe but its not live threatening.

either way im sure i would say some bad words if any happened

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Originally Posted by nixer

Morays, however, do inflict a nasty bite, because, although not poisonous, their backward-pointing teeth are covered with bacteria which may infect the wound.

doesnt sound like something i would like to be biten by

the rock could well you know!

the etb would hurt like you wouldnt believe but its not live threatening.

either way im sure i would say some bad words if any happened

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Backward pointing teeth? On a moray? You have any pics showing this? I have never seen any species of moray with backward pointing teeth. At least not like snakes are.

YouTube - Moray Eel eats Thumb

I'm going with the ETB. A moray bite would be just plain nasty with all the bacteria and ripping of the flesh and whatnot...and the sheer muscle power behind a big python's bite would probably mess you up pretty bad. I had a friend that got bitten in the face by a 7 foot red tail and had a black eye the next day. Can you imagine what a 15 foot retic could do? You'd probably need stitches to boot. Yea, the ETB would hurt but the damage wouldn't be nearly as bad.

actually, even big pythons have very little jaw strength. The power in snakes comes from the squeezing muscles, not the jaws. The dislocating mechanism makes having powerful jaws nearly impossible, because, if they were to chomp down hard, they'd pop their own jaws out of socket, which would then render the powerful muscles useless without a pivot point. Large pythons rely on recurved teeth to hold on to the prey just long enough for it to wrap it's coils around it. I believe discovery channel had a show on the bite force of wild animals and snakes came dead last. Something rediculously low like 30 psi of bite force. (dont quote me on that number, I just remember it being crazy low).

A moray on the other end, has incredibly stong jaw power, AND neck power. It bites down hard, and then twists and shakes to rip the meat clear from bone, or to shatter invertabrate shells. A large python bite would be dangerous because it would be like being stabbed, but not mangling like a moray bite.

I'll take the ETB out of those. At least it couldn't constrict me to death or rip meat from my bones.

Here's some shots of my snowflake moray. I should have cleaned the glass before taking pics.
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...Picture318.jpg

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...Picture322.jpg

I've been bitten by quite a few large species of boids, Emerald Trees, and GTP's. I've also been nipped/bitten by a few of the eels I used to keep when I had saltwater aquariums, including snowflakes, and Ribbons. Honestly the bite that hurt the most, and did the most damage was my largest female afrock. Multiple stitches, deep lacerations, and quite a bit of blood loss in my thigh. I believe Dave Barker was also hospitalized back in his prime for a similar bite with a Retic.

Although snakes do not have an incredibly high bite force, think of the tissue and nerve damage they can do. Especially the larger boids, such as Burmese Pythons, Retics, Barneck Scrubs, and AfRocks. You could wind up with serious nerve damage, bleed to death, lose a limb do to blood loss and tissue damage, or become disabled if such bite happened with an exceptional animal.

I've seen that episode gooseman, and the snakes bite force was done on the Burmese from what I understand, which wouldn't have that large a bite force. They're on the smaller end of the giant scale, and hunt smaller prey which would make sense for weak bite force. African Rocks catch/hunt prey upwards of 200% their body weight or more, and Retics actively hunt animals such as Primates and other large animals. Even so... Bite force wouldn't play too much into damage unless it was an exceptionally large animal such as a very large boid species, crocodilian, etc. The recurved teeth, and other components along with their body strength will do just as much.

As for the unhinging of their jaws...they don't unhinge them. They have elastic ligaments in their jaws that allow them to stretch their jaws to a very wide size/odd angle. They yawn, stretch to realign, and reposition their jaw after consuming meals.

I have never been bitten yet, notice I say yet because sooner or later its going to happen. Im sure more than once, although I have been bitten by snapping turtles, red eared sliders, and tortoises and believe me it did not feel good:( But if I had to pick from the three, I would say the emerald. Soon after I would go into shock and have a heart attack, lol.:D

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Originally Posted by mainbutter

YouTube - Moray Eel eats Thumb

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That is truly an oddity:puke:

Emerald-Hurt really bad
Moray-Bye bye finger
Large Python-REALLY HURT, possibly death if constriction
So, emerald

I think that if you are going to include large boids in the poll then the eel should be at least be a large species. Here in South Florida the green moray eel is the biggest and baddest eel around and they can inflict some VERY nasty bites. I catch wild burms here locally and have been bitten before by 11' and 12' animals and while not exactly huge snakes they did weigh in at about 35 and 40 pounds and they never really caused much damage because I fought the urge to pull back while they were "chewing" on me and the fact that they were not huge. I have never been bit by a etb or a gtp but I have been told that they can pack a punch for such a small snake.

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Originally Posted by CeraDigital

As for the unhinging of their jaws...they don't unhinge them. They have elastic ligaments in their jaws that allow them to stretch their jaws to a very wide size/odd angle. They yawn, stretch to realign, and reposition their jaw after consuming meals.

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I know they don't unhinge them... The lower jawbone is connected to a specialized bone called the quadrant bone, that acts as a double hinge held together by ligaments that allow over 150 degrees of movement. Ever try exerting large, single direction forces through a double hinged system? Maintaining proper alignment for optimum bite force is impossible. Even the weak jaw forces of a snake (I've read uncomfirmed reports of 37 psi in the afrock) lead to misalignment. In fact, they were designed for that purpose, so their jaws can "walk" down the prey while swallowing, and allow greater range of movement.

HOWEVER a jaw structure with very powerful muscles would require a rigid system to as not to break the joints during a crushing bite. But snakes have a very intricate/delicate/specialized jaw structure designed not for chomping, but swallowing whole foods. If you were to put those strong jaw muscles on a snake, the jaws would shatter when clinched tight.

I am not saying that a bite from a 20 ft retic isn't a horrid experience... but choosing that over a full grown green moray or tessalata eel eems rediculous. those are limb removing bite/twisting forces. After further research, it seems it was a National Geograghic episode, although I can't seem to find the results of their test.

whew... being a biomedical science major pays off for once!!! all that money was worth something right?

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Originally Posted by Gooseman

I know they don't unhinge them... The lower jawbone is connected to a specialized bone called the quadrant bone, that acts as a double hinge held together by ligaments that allow over 150 degrees of movement. Ever try exerting large, single direction forces through a double hinged system? Maintaining proper alignment for optimum bite force is impossible. Even the weak jaw forces of a snake (I've read uncomfirmed reports of 37 psi in the afrock) lead to misalignment. In fact, they were designed for that purpose, so their jaws can "walk" down the prey while swallowing, and allow greater range of movement.

HOWEVER a jaw structure with very powerful muscles would require a rigid system to as not to break the joints during a crushing bite. But snakes have a very intricate/delicate/specialized jaw structure designed not for chomping, but swallowing whole foods. If you were to put those strong jaw muscles on a snake, the jaws would shatter when clinched tight.

I am not saying that a bite from a 20 ft retic isn't a horrid experience... but choosing that over a full grown green moray or tessalata eel eems rediculous. those are limb removing bite/twisting forces. After further research, it seems it was a National Geograghic episode, although I can't seem to find the results of their test.

whew... being a biomedical science major pays off for once!!! all that money was worth something right?

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Its not exactly the "bite" that kills with the boids though ;) They may not remove digits such as a finger or a hand, but they will kill you in my opinion, faster than an eel would, and that grasping bite "is" what seals the deal.

True, but this thread is about the bite... not what happens after. ;)

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Originally Posted by Gooseman

True, but this thread is about the bite... not what happens after. ;)

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He speaks the truth.
I chose the Enchelycore species for the fact that they have the largest teeth but I guess the Gymnothorax species has the largest morays, so I don't know.

When i was scuba diving in Okinawa i was bit on the arm by a small eel. Not sure what kind it was only that it was black and blue. Really pretty eel. It was about 3 feet long and it grabbed my arm and shook the heck out of me. I have a new respect for eels now.
I voted for the emerald tree boa because i owned 3 of them a few years ago and my female bit me while i was trying to unwrap her from her favorite branch. The bite was more of a warning not an actual attack but she did leave a piece of her tooth in my hand. And it was dug out with a pair of tweezers by my wife.
The biggest snake ive ever been bitten by was my adult female redtailed boa.
It was an accedent. She dropped the rat and lost track of it and i stuck my hand in to help. Big mistake. She grabbed my hand while in feeding mode and proceded to coil. After a few minutes she let lose the death grip and began to swallow my hand. I saw this as an oppertunity to remove her. When i tried to peel back her upper jaw she would tighten her grip on my arm then just bite hard and freeze.
The whole ordeal took 30 minutes. I finally got ahold oh my weight lifting gloves and forced them in her mouth and she let go.
She is not aggressive at all and i even let my 3 year old hold her. But accedents happen and i i stuck my hand where i shouldn't have. But the damage she did far outweighed that of an emerald tree boa.
So in conclusion i prefere to get bitten by an emerald tree boa. In my experiance it was the least damaging.

The tree boa has some HUGE teeth!!!!!

how about...ummm ...none of the above!

i have only been bitten by a garter snake.

I choose:

D) I'd rather be careful and not get bit at all.

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Originally Posted by Sebrina

I choose:

D) I'd rather be careful and not get bit at all.

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Sometimes while pursuing your passions, it's impossible to be 100% bite-proof! If I was careful and wanted to make sure to avoid any possibility of bites, I wouldn't keep or handle herps and I wouldn't go herpin in the middle of the bayous of louisiana and texas.

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Originally Posted by mainbutter

Sometimes while pursuing your passions, it's impossible to be 100% bite-proof! If I was careful and wanted to make sure to avoid any possibility of bites, I wouldn't keep or handle herps and I wouldn't go herpin in the middle of the bayous of louisiana and texas.

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I agree to a point... It's one thing to get bit by a Ball Python, the chances of me being severely cut or have to have a finger removed are close to none and therefore I have 0 fear of handling them.

However for me to get bite by the snakes listed above I would either have to have the worst luck in the world and come across one that escaped in the zoo o/r be in their natural environments (I'm a city girl no chance of that) or I would have to go looking for trouble.

If you get bite by anything listed above your either the unluckiest sob I know or you went asking for trouble, I love herps I would handle mine all day long if I could, but you have to know when to say ok stop. It's one thing to love reptiles, and I love all reptiles but sometimes you just gotta be smart and say ok I'll just admire these from here and not put my finger near it's mouth.

I know I strafed a bit off topic and I still choose option D (which I made myself :)) I'll humor you the Dragon Moray would leave the most damage, or maybe just rip it off all together.

I've been diving with morays twice so the possibility of an attack was there, but we weren't feeding(that's just dumb) so risk was very low but still there.

I understand the city girl thing, I definitely get out in the wild around dangerous animals more than most city folk :D

Heck just this past summer I spent more hours in brown bear country along salmon streams than I can count.

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Originally Posted by mainbutter

I've been diving with morays twice so the possibility of an attack was there, but we weren't feeding(that's just dumb) so risk was very low but still there.

I understand the city girl thing, I definitely get out in the wild around dangerous animals more than most city folk :D

Heck just this past summer I spent more hours in brown bear country along salmon streams than I can count.

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Yes, I have also been diving with morays also. I think the people who feed them don't realize just how bad they're eye sight is. My moray will bite the tongs that I feed him with over and over. They rely (it seems) almost solely on smell.