Reptile Facts

1. The body and tail of a snake are supported by a backbone which may have more than 400 vertebrae.
2. A snake moves by pushing its body into loops, then pushing itself forward by pressing the back part of the loop against the ground. Moving across sand the snake may "side-wind" by throwing loops of its body sideways.
3. Different species of animal react differently to snake venom, a lizard may survive 100 times the amount of venom which would kill a small mouse of similar size.
4. Many of Australia's dangerous snakes have very short fangs but very toxic venom.
5. The fork at the end of a snakes tongue acts as a direction finder when the owner tracks down prey.
6. The longest Australian elapid snake is the Taipan, at around 3 metres. But the heaviest is probably the sturdy bodied Mulga ( King Brown ) Snake.
7. The Death Adder has a light coloured tail tip that they hold just in front of thier mouths and wiggle it to temp prey over to them, then they strike and inject venom.
8. Australia is home to 2 of the worlds 3 species of File Snakes.
9. The Woma python which lives in arid areas of Australia, often hunts in burrows or crevices. It pushes its prey up against a wall to suffocate it.
10. The Woma Python may lure prey by twitching the tip of its tail ,so does the Olive Python and Death Adder.
11. In the Pilbara of WA, the Olive Python may grow up to 6.5 metres in length and the Kimberley Olive Python grows to approx to 4.5 metres in length. During hot weather it may remain in a waterhole.
12. The Black Headed Python and the Woma Python are attractive snakes which feed mainly on reptiles.
13. The Water Python of Northern Australia has water repellent scales.
14. The Black Headed Python and Woma Python both lack heat sensitive pits unlike other Pythons, In winter the black headed warms rapidly when exposed to sunlight.
15. Using the heat sensitive pits on thier faces, most pythons can detect heat radiation differences of as little as 1/30 th of a degree centigrade. They can determine the whereabouts of a mammal or bird even in pitch blackness, the Woma and Black headed Python lack these pits.
16. Death adders give warning by flattening thier bodies and flicking from side to side.
17. Death Adders vary in colour to match the colour of the sand or leaf litter from the region they are from.
18. Australia has 75 of the worlds 210 or more species of elapids, or front fanged snakes. All elapids have sharp, hollow, recurved teeth at the front corners of the upper jaw. If the fang is damaged the next tooth takes over it function.
19. About 20 species of Australian elapids are potentially dangerous to humans. Most prefer to retreat rather than attack but will strike if harassed.
20. Seasnakes are thought to have common ancestors with elapid snakes.
21. 32 specimens of seasnakes are recorded in Australian coastal waters.
22. Some seasnakes can dive 100 metres and stay submerged for up to 80 min.