Cannibalism Among Snakes Is Far More Widespread Than befo...

What’s Happening

So get this: Scientists undertook the first comprehensive assessment of how often snakes eat their own, uncovering reports of the behavior in more than 200 species Cannibalism Among Snakes Is Far More Widespread Than before Thought Scientists undertook the first comprehensive assessment of how often snakes eat their own, uncovering reports of the behavior in more than 200 species Joshua Rapp Learn - Contributing Writer Get our !

A Brazilian keelback ( Helicops infrataeniatus ) cannibalizes another in 2015. Omar Entiauspe-Neto Snakes can inspire fear, fascination and revulsion. (let that sink in)

Some carry deadly venom while others could squeeze the life out of an adult human and swallow them whole.

The Details

But new research has uncovered another reason to make people with a snake phobia squirm: widespread evidence of a penchant for cannibalism. Many snakes will prey on snakes of other species—but cannibalism specifically refers to when an animal eats one of its own.

While people have seen the reptiles cannibalize each other on occasion, researchers had never taken stock of how often this happens. “Going from a few scattered reports to compiling more than 500 documented events was honestly astonishing,” says Bruna Falcão , a master’s student at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, who conducted the research as an undergraduate at the University of São Carlos.

Why This Matters

“Each new record reinforced the idea that cannibalism in snakes is not an anomaly or a rare curiosity, but a widespread and ecologically relevant behavior that we had been systematically underestimating. ” During a summer internship in 2022, Falcão came across a preserved Brazilian lancehead viper with a juvenile of the same species in its stomach in a zoological collection. Intrigued, she began combing through literature for reported incidences of cannibalism in snakes.

The scientific community tends to find developments like this significant.

The Bottom Line

She examined everything from peer-reviewed studies to excerpts of books and magazines; the oldest record dated back to 1892, when a common kingsnake in the United States was described cannibalizing another. The comprehensive review took more than two years.

What’s your take on this whole situation?