My fear of snakes stems largely from an incident when I was 6 and a 7ft black snake decided to drop out of a cedar tree and barely missed me. I hate snakes.
I would have run from the room screaming if that had been clinging to my wall, so kudos to her for beating it to death with a shoe.
Via the Telegraph.
I stayed up too late last night. Baking took A LOT longer than I thought. And that second largest zucchini, made 3 batches of zucchini bread. I ran out of time (and sugar) before I ran out of zucchini. Looks like I'll be making more tonight.
I had one of my zucchini muffins this morning for breakfast, it was delicious. I also made chocolate zucchini bread, which according to the crumbs I tasted is fantastic.
I'm also going to try my hand at some zucchini & spinach soup. And maybe some zucchini fritters. And I've got to pick more tonight. Perhaps 5 zucchini plants was too much to plant this year.
Also, there was a copperhead in the middle of the street. DOWNTOWN. The car in front of me ran over him, but just barely though and "he" kinda flew up in the air and some gook came out of him. Then I watched him in my side view mirror as I sat at the red light. Needless to say, I was a little freaked out walking the several blocks from my parking lot to my building.
Aug. 20, 2007 — Certain snakes can survive without food for two years at a time, but not without paying a physical price, according to a new study that found some snake species will actually digest their own hearts and grow bigger heads to broaden prey options during periods of famine.
The study, which will be published in next month's issue of Zoology, is the first ever to examine starvation physiology in snakes.
Author Marshall McCue, a researcher in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Arkansas, thinks intense snake hunger may even explain some of the more outrageous snake stories from recent years.
"Severe hunger might make snakes take greater risks than otherwise," said McCue, who then mentioned "last year's photos of the Everglades python eating the alligator and then lethally 'popping' open, or stories of escaped pet snakes eating unusual objects, like unused light bulbs."
For his study, McCue put 20 ball pythons, 22 ratsnakes and 20 western diamondback rattlesnakes through 168 days of starvation. Weight and other measurements were taken at regular intervals. After the 168 days, McCue chemically euthanized each snake and pureed it in a blender in order to better conduct chemical analysis.
At the 168th day, the snakes lost 9.3 to 24.4 percent of their initial body mass. They also reduced their energy expenditures by an average of 80 percent over the test period. McCue told Discovery News that the snakes usually were sedentary, wrapped up in provided "hide boxes," and only explored their environments when they thought a potential food source was around.Measurements revealed the snakes actually grew longer during the fast. Growth especially was noticed in the head.
"Larger head bones mean that they can choose from a wider range of potential prey items," he said, noting that snakes cannot chew and therefore must be able to swallow whole animals.
The chemical analysis determined the snakes break down saturated fatty acids into polyunsaturated fats by "picking off bits of hydrogen for energy."
Intestinal fat, which he likened to "belly fat" in humans, as well as fatty liver tissues were among the first to be targeted. As a byproduct, water formed in the snakes' bodies, causing them to "bloat" by around 7 percent.
Then the snakes would digest their own heart muscle.
The heart breakdown initially surprised McCue, but he said it is reasonable given that "the lower energy expenditure allows lower circulatory demands, and therefore permits the heart organ to shrink."
Immediately following a nutritious meal, the snake hearts can quickly rebuild themselves.
Aaron Rundus, a University of Nebraska researcher who has also studied snakes, said he was surprised to learn snakes can survive without eating for up to two years, but, "I completely believe it, and the physiological mechanisms make sense given how successful these reptiles are at surviving under the worst of conditions."
Rundus explained to Discovery News that snakes are "ambush hunters," as opposed to "strategists," so they must wait for incredibly long periods before an unsuspecting victim may cross their paths.
McCue hopes future studies on snake starvation will lead to treatments that can increase food deprivation tolerance in other animals, including humans.
Via discovery.comThere was a dead snake in the road. I work in a little historic district house right outside of downtown... in my head there should not be snakes, nor dead snakes in the road.
That is for the country. I don't work in the country.
I'm sure I looked like an idiot walking the block from my car to the office. I was looking for snakes.
Let me explain my irrational fear of snakes. When I was four we lived on a horse farm, my father found a 6.5 ft black snake while I was with him. We lived in Maryland for a while when I was 6-ish, in the country, and the woods surrounding the house were full of snakes. When I was 8, I was walking with my sister around a garden filled with Cypress Trees and a black snake came within a foot of falling on me.
So yeah, I keep looking under my desk. Don't laugh at me.
