Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature future production of I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: your host of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology
Speaker 1: and evolutionary biology, and today on the show, we're talking
Speaker 1: about those tubular dudes, those little wiggle pipes snakes from
Speaker 1: the goofy is to the cutest to the most dazzling snakes.
Speaker 1: Were going to find out how truly odd snakes can
Speaker 1: be discover the smore as we answer the angel question
Speaker 1: is it a snake or is it spaghetti? Joining me
Speaker 1: today is writer, actor, YouTube video essayist and snake mom
Speaker 1: Maggie May fish hell Long. Welcome back, Welcome back my dad. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Last last the podcast, I made so many dad puns
Speaker 1: that I officially became Maggie's pun dad. So welcome back, daughter, um,
Speaker 1: mother of snakes. Hows how's your snake snake baby doing?
Speaker 1: Your little noodle boy? Oh, my little noodle boy is great. Uh.
Speaker 1: I was just telling Katie, So it is two and
Speaker 1: a half years old, um, which means it's basically full
Speaker 1: grown at this point. He's like three feet long, three
Speaker 1: and a half, maybe even four at this point. But yeah,
Speaker 1: he's got he's basically done growing. And yeah, it's gonna
Speaker 1: live for another eighteen issue year. Nice. Just he's going
Speaker 1: to continue to eat lots of lots of mice, lots
Speaker 1: of and and then sleep eating, sleep easily explore. We
Speaker 1: got him the final tank because as they're growing, you know,
Speaker 1: you don't you don't have to size up. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: get a size up. So we we have upgraded to
Speaker 1: the biggest tank that we can conceivably keep without you know, right,
Speaker 1: without just your entire apartment being dreary. Um right? Which one?
Speaker 1: You know? One day, if you know, I would love
Speaker 1: to get like a giant terrarium, you know, really like
Speaker 1: duck it out, And the one we have is a
Speaker 1: pretty big so you know, the next step up we'll
Speaker 1: walk in terrarium. Yes, a full zoo, a full zoo
Speaker 1: room that you can just explore to your heart's desire.
Speaker 1: To watch out for the snake. Does your little noodle
Speaker 1: boy have a name? Yes, duck Duck the snake I
Speaker 1: love it. Probably would eat a duck if he could too,
Speaker 1: he you know, I So I take him out and
Speaker 1: the cats don't really notice him because he's so slow moving.
Speaker 1: Every once in a while they'll notice that something's there,
Speaker 1: but he watches them, uh, you know, and like maybe
Speaker 1: he thinks he could get away. He never would, he
Speaker 1: just you know, sits on herman breathe. But yeah, part
Speaker 1: of me is like wondering, is it you know, is
Speaker 1: he scouting? Maybe? Yeah, just like just in case, Yeah,
Speaker 1: just in case. I mean like probably has looked no offense,
Speaker 1: but he's probably sized you up to like could I
Speaker 1: probably not? Could I for sure? For sure? Yeah? Probably not,
Speaker 1: Like he still loves you. But it's it's snake brain
Speaker 1: where snake brain is like I love this person, but
Speaker 1: could I eat them? Could I eat them? Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Which you know that's you know, snake flattery, that's what
Speaker 1: you know. I before I got my cats, people would
Speaker 1: always ask me like, like, so your does your snake
Speaker 1: like love you? It's like no, but that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that it's not like a meaningful relationship that like it's
Speaker 1: not a great pet, right and in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: like having a pet that doesn't emotionally depend on you
Speaker 1: is also very cool. It's liberating, right, Yeah, it's it's liberating.
Speaker 1: And it's like, you know, I love the snake, but
Speaker 1: I also don't need it to yeah, you know, and
Speaker 1: depending snake Mom, you don't you don't need snake validation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't need to be hanging all little over although, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, clinging on squeezing really tight. Because all pythons
Speaker 1: are constrictors. They are non venomous. Uh they I guess
Speaker 1: they occasionally bite if they're really frustrated. He did, uh
Speaker 1: when I very early on. Um, I think it was
Speaker 1: one of his first sheds. I didn't have the humidity. Uh. Correct,
Speaker 1: So he just wasn't humid enough. Um, and uh he
Speaker 1: got a little and it was his first time shedding,
Speaker 1: so yeah, he was. That's stressful. It's very stressful the
Speaker 1: first time, first time shedding. Yeah, so he did streak.
Speaker 1: That was the time he struck at me. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean his teeth are just like not even almost
Speaker 1: non existent. Um, it wasn't very just a little cute
Speaker 1: little chump. Yeah yeah, yeah. I mean my dog's non venomous,
Speaker 1: but she gives me cute little chomps sometimes wa um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean I remember when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: I wanted a snake really bad, but I found out
Speaker 1: then I found out you have to feed a frozen
Speaker 1: mice and I or even a live mince, depending it's
Speaker 1: not that I think it's wrong. I think it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's the circle of life. But I'd want to keep
Speaker 1: all of them. In fact, I like bought some feed
Speaker 1: or mice just to keep his pets. They're so cute. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I I did. When I first got the snake, I
Speaker 1: I did think that that might be a problem because
Speaker 1: I also love mice, um and rats. And when I
Speaker 1: was deciding what pet to get, I was deciding between
Speaker 1: a snake or a house, which is like a rigid dichotomy.
Speaker 1: They're interesting. Um. But it ended up I was did
Speaker 1: not end up being phased by it. Yeah, soever, I
Speaker 1: think you'd get used to it. Yeah, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's uh. But then I was ultimately vetoed by my
Speaker 1: mom who's like, no, not yeah, it usually but all
Speaker 1: to say, I mean that's like you know, someone thinking
Speaker 1: abou getting a snake that is yeah, yeah, it's um.
Speaker 1: They they're their emotional needs are very limited, but their
Speaker 1: dietary needs are very involved in there's all sorts of
Speaker 1: things you have to worry about, like you mentioned, like shedding,
Speaker 1: keeping the humidity and the heat right, Providing them with
Speaker 1: lots of places so they can thermoregulate because they are
Speaker 1: cold blooded, not meaning that their blood is always cold,
Speaker 1: but that they cannot internally thermoregulate. So they need to
Speaker 1: sit in the sun or a lamp to get warm
Speaker 1: and then hide under a rock or under a log
Speaker 1: or something to cool back down. So you got to
Speaker 1: provide all those things. And then you'll also, uh, I
Speaker 1: think every pet snake you can get needs to eat um. Well,
Speaker 1: maybe some snakes eat mostly insects, but I think most
Speaker 1: of them you will need to feed them something meteor
Speaker 1: like a mouse. And then you have to be careful
Speaker 1: because you can't just throw a big live mouse in
Speaker 1: there that you find, because then it can hurt the snake,
Speaker 1: like the snake can get beaten up by a mouse,
Speaker 1: which is crazy. I don't know. We um ours when
Speaker 1: we got it, he was he was taught to eat frozen.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so luckily and we only feed him frozen.
Speaker 1: But yeah, what I found out that with people who
Speaker 1: feed live snakes that yes, they could get hurt, which
Speaker 1: is like the mouse doesn't. It's like you're on board
Speaker 1: and the snakes on the board, but the mouse isn't
Speaker 1: on board. It's like wait a minute, no, they can
Speaker 1: like punch and scratch the snake, and it can actually
Speaker 1: in the worst case scenarios like really hurt the snake
Speaker 1: because you know, you're scratched, scratches it and the snake
Speaker 1: can get an infection. So yeah, yeah, I would if
Speaker 1: anyone think of getting a snake, I would say, get
Speaker 1: one that can eat frozen because you know, and then
Speaker 1: he never needs to stress about food. Yeah, he has
Speaker 1: the easiest life any snake could ask for. And you
Speaker 1: don't have to feed him like that often, do you,
Speaker 1: because they actually eat. How often do you feed it?
Speaker 1: Because like they can eat and then go quite a
Speaker 1: while without another meal, because they basically are big noodles
Speaker 1: who eat a thing and then digest it for days
Speaker 1: and days and days and then they're like, alright, I
Speaker 1: guess I'll have another thing. Yeah. Yeah, it's in that regard.
Speaker 1: It's also that that makes it a pretty easy pet um.
Speaker 1: We feed them about every other week, give or take. Sometimes,
Speaker 1: like if he's in the middle of shedding, you kind
Speaker 1: of know that he probably won't eat because, yeah, they're
Speaker 1: kind of picky, so you know sometimes it will be
Speaker 1: a little bit longer. But also they're also very telling,
Speaker 1: like he'll just he'll come out of his cage and
Speaker 1: start like smelling the top of the cage basically to say,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm hungry. Sizing up the cats, Yeah, sizing up
Speaker 1: the cats um and visually you can you can see,
Speaker 1: you know, if like your snake is like losing a
Speaker 1: little bit of weight, you can see it so clearly.
Speaker 1: Because they're just a you can measure the diameter of
Speaker 1: the tube pretty easily. So like in in those regards,
Speaker 1: it's really easy to tell when they're hungry. It's easy
Speaker 1: to feed them, and it's easy to uh, you know,
Speaker 1: if you have to, I guess not in quarantine times,
Speaker 1: but before that, if you were to go on a vacation, yeah,
Speaker 1: you could just feed them before you leave. And yeah
Speaker 1: and so yeah, yeah, low maintenance. But I think it's
Speaker 1: all about educating yourself before you get one. And then
Speaker 1: if everything sounds sounds good to you, you know. But
Speaker 1: they're so fun, there's so visual they Yeah, they're cool. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like I like the I like holding them like
Speaker 1: the like you it's another thing like with them with
Speaker 1: a lot of like um herbs, a lot of reptiles,
Speaker 1: like you shouldn't handle them too much, but there are
Speaker 1: some snakes that are actually very like, okay, chill with
Speaker 1: being handled, so that's nice. Uh, it doesn't stress them
Speaker 1: ount necessarily that much. So today we are going to
Speaker 1: talk about some of the most amazing snakes in the world.
Speaker 1: And this is actually I got like a listener question
Speaker 1: about some like, you know, some of my favorite snakes,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to go really in depth on it
Speaker 1: because it's just there's so much ground to cover. There
Speaker 1: are so many snakes that I find just adorable, really cool,
Speaker 1: really silly, and some are just like absolutely mind blowing,
Speaker 1: like gorgeous. So I've separated this into three sections. So
Speaker 1: in the first sections, we're gonna talk about the absolute
Speaker 1: goofiest snake in the world. Second section is going to
Speaker 1: be the cutest snakes in the world, and the third
Speaker 1: section is the most gorgeous snakes in the world. All
Speaker 1: you know, in my opinion, so of course, you know,
Speaker 1: it's subjective. Every snake has value. Every snake is wonderful
Speaker 1: and lovely in its own way. But these are just
Speaker 1: some highlights. Some are just better than others. So so
Speaker 1: our first snake that we're going to talk about is
Speaker 1: the dorkiest snake I love the snakes so much. It
Speaker 1: is called the Arabian sand Boa and I talked about
Speaker 1: a little bit in the Q and A episode, but
Speaker 1: I feel like it just deserves another look, and I
Speaker 1: wanted you to see it, Maggie, because it's so it's
Speaker 1: It is a snake that's found in the Arabian Peninsula
Speaker 1: and around. It lives in desert regions. It spends most
Speaker 1: of its time buried under the sand. But most importantly, Maggie,
Speaker 1: when you look at the snake, what are you seeing?
Speaker 1: My my goodness. Uh, it's it's just a little like slogo,
Speaker 1: like his face almost just kind of like decides to end.
Speaker 1: And eyes that just say like it looks like someone
Speaker 1: glued a pair of Google eyes too, Weenie. Yeah, yeah
Speaker 1: it does. Uh. This is the when I was buying
Speaker 1: my pet snake. This was one of the other options. Really, Yeah,
Speaker 1: how did you pass this one up? I I these
Speaker 1: uses for some reason, snake faces that don't have like
Speaker 1: a defined like jaw and head for some reason wigged
Speaker 1: me out for some And I love snakes, so I
Speaker 1: don't know why the non neck when it just goes
Speaker 1: from the tube, it's tube with googly eyes. Yeah, something
Speaker 1: about it, um just is slightly more alien that you know.
Speaker 1: I guess. Yeah. It's almost like a like a sock
Speaker 1: come to life, which I guess is a little weird,
Speaker 1: isn't it? A little? On Canny Valley uncanny although very cute,
Speaker 1: very cute, very doofy. And what we cover last time
Speaker 1: was that the reason they have their eyeballs on the
Speaker 1: top of their heads is so they can periscope from
Speaker 1: under the sand. So they will spend most of their
Speaker 1: time under the sand and then just poke their heads
Speaker 1: just enough above the sand so that there's like two
Speaker 1: doofy little eyes can look up above the surface and
Speaker 1: see prey and then it can ambush the prey from
Speaker 1: under the sand. So yeah, that is the Arabian sandbou Again,
Speaker 1: we covered it on the last Q and A, but
Speaker 1: I just it had to be mentioned in the goofy snakes,
Speaker 1: but on two snakes that we have not covered before
Speaker 1: on the podcast. So first, another extremely goofy snake. This
Speaker 1: is the Madagascar leaf nose snake. So I've never seen this, Katie,
Speaker 1: I have never seen this. I've never seen this. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: I'm proud of myself because I feel like Okay, Maggie
Speaker 1: loves snakes, it's gonna be hard to surprise her on
Speaker 1: this podcast. I am surprised. I I don't think I
Speaker 1: have ever cute. They got snoots. The Madagascar leaf no
Speaker 1: snake have long snoots. They're found in Madagascar, obviously, um
Speaker 1: they grow up to be about a meter in length,
Speaker 1: that's about three ft. Males and females are highly sexually dimorphic,
Speaker 1: meaning that they are very different looking. So males have
Speaker 1: this long, tapered snout and are more of an orangey
Speaker 1: yellow and females are sort of a more ashy tan
Speaker 1: color with a blunt or leaf shaped snout, and so
Speaker 1: that's the sort of leaf leaf nosed snake Moniker comes from.
Speaker 1: And biologists aren't exactly sure what the purpose of their
Speaker 1: snoots are their pointy little snoots, but some of the
Speaker 1: guesses would be that maybe it's sexual selection, like that's
Speaker 1: why only males have the really long snoot and the
Speaker 1: brighter colors for females. Maybe it's more for camouflage, so
Speaker 1: it looks kind of like a leaf. And they do
Speaker 1: like to pretend to be vines, so they will dangle
Speaker 1: down from branches and kind of just sway in the
Speaker 1: wind like vines and then yeah, exactly, and then ambush
Speaker 1: their prey like little is or it's just like I'm
Speaker 1: just divine flowing in the wind and then and then
Speaker 1: that's it, and then I'm not. Uh, they are venomous,
Speaker 1: and even though their bites are very painful, I don't
Speaker 1: think they've ever recorded a fatality in humans. Um, so
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think they're like, yeah, they're not
Speaker 1: They're not deadly, but they are. You don't really want
Speaker 1: to get bitten by one because it's like very painful,
Speaker 1: it's unpleasant. Um. I think that's like a general rule, right,
Speaker 1: Like when I'm like this thing isn't deadly, it's like,
Speaker 1: but still don't get bit doesn't suck. Also, that means
Speaker 1: you've annoyed it. Right, let me you you did something wrong, right,
Speaker 1: think about your choices about why you missed that snake.
Speaker 1: You did a snake faux pap. Although I do really
Speaker 1: want to like like boop it's little nose and be
Speaker 1: like got your nose, you know, or just like yeah,
Speaker 1: just like man, speaking of boops and snoots, next goofy
Speaker 1: snake is the tentacled snake. So This is an aquatic
Speaker 1: snake that lives in slow moving water in Thailand, Cambodia,
Speaker 1: and Vietnam. They can stay underwater for up to thirty minutes,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's pretty impressive. They can grow to be
Speaker 1: about one to three feet, which is like just under
Speaker 1: a meter. From fifty centimeters to just under a meter
Speaker 1: in length. They're a brownish color. Uh. Sometimes they have
Speaker 1: dark vertical stripes or splotchy lateral bands. But the most
Speaker 1: important part is that they got little face dongles, little
Speaker 1: face tentacles. Yeah, like Maggie did, like the devil horns
Speaker 1: to her forehead exactly. Yeah, it's like right next to
Speaker 1: his nostrils. And so these are two fleshy prongs that
Speaker 1: sprout out from near each nostril. And they use these
Speaker 1: two since the movement of fish in the water and
Speaker 1: they eat fish, so you know, having some a couple
Speaker 1: of good old fish sensors. Another theory of what they
Speaker 1: may be used for is actually to help them lure
Speaker 1: and prey, because fish will see these little little dongles
Speaker 1: and think they are a couple of worms and come
Speaker 1: on in. Yeah, so he's a fisherman, exactly, he's a
Speaker 1: fisher of fish. Yes, yes, you get a dad, you
Speaker 1: get it. I simply study under your wing. Give a
Speaker 1: give a snake a fish, it'll eat for a day.
Speaker 1: Give a snake nose dongles, and it'll fish for a lifetime.
Speaker 1: But I do love Jesus talked a lot about snakes.
Speaker 1: Did Yeah, Um, I was gonna say, I I really
Speaker 1: like aquatic snakes because you know, you always think of
Speaker 1: snakes just like year around, especially in the desert. You
Speaker 1: know they're done like that, dode do dode do lu.
Speaker 1: But now these are their their water snakes, aquatic snakes.
Speaker 1: I like to swim. So in terms of their venom level,
Speaker 1: they may have some venom, but it's not it's not
Speaker 1: really harmful to humans. It's mostly harmful to the fish
Speaker 1: that they eat. And they have these rear things. They
Speaker 1: don't really bite hard on humans at all, So yeah,
Speaker 1: it doesn't it's they're not dangerous, right, But again, don't
Speaker 1: annoy them. Never real snakes. Never pick up a snake
Speaker 1: you don't know, first of all, because you didn't ask permission,
Speaker 1: and it's rude. It's a real snake faux paw. And secondly,
Speaker 1: it could bite you. And look if you make as
Speaker 1: it's a pretty big mistake to make. You're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I think this might be a harmless snake. So you
Speaker 1: pick it up and you get bitten. You know, then
Speaker 1: you're wondering black meats yellow hills a fellow or is
Speaker 1: it black meets red? And you're dead Fred and by
Speaker 1: and by the time you figured out the right I
Speaker 1: let you figure out the newmonic device, you're already boaming
Speaker 1: at the mouth. So our last goofy a snake is
Speaker 1: the elephant trunk snake. And these are wrinkly, saggy baggy
Speaker 1: snakes found in lagoons and rivers in Southeast Asia. They
Speaker 1: can actually grow to be quite big, up to about
Speaker 1: five to eight feet, which is two or three ms.
Speaker 1: And I gotta say, between you and me, kind of
Speaker 1: looks like a flaccid weener a little bit. I thought that, yeah,
Speaker 1: it looks a little like a little winter esque, a
Speaker 1: little weenesk. The wrinkle crinkles are both really cute. And
Speaker 1: also the last picture you have is him underwater, and
Speaker 1: he does like very spooky spooky. It's funny because like underwater,
Speaker 1: I think it's sort of spooky and ethereal because they're
Speaker 1: all their wrinkles and bags are sort of floating under
Speaker 1: the water, so it looks sort of like a like
Speaker 1: a mermaid ghost or something. It's yeah, like that's the
Speaker 1: Lord of the Rings that ghosts. That's like, yeah, like
Speaker 1: the Ring Wraiths. So it's like spooky. But then as
Speaker 1: soon as you pull it out of the water, it's
Speaker 1: like shot the water, No, droopy and mag let me back.
Speaker 1: He wasn't supposed to wash me warm water. No, I've
Speaker 1: all shriveled up. So but yeah, they spend most of
Speaker 1: their time in the water. They can actually hold their
Speaker 1: breath for up to forty minutes underwater, quite impressive. And
Speaker 1: their skin is really no good for crawling on land.
Speaker 1: It's specialized for swimming. So that's why they look look
Speaker 1: like fierce predators underwater or than above water. It's like
Speaker 1: it's like an Instagram filter, but it's the water, you know, Yeah, exactly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Instagram versus reality for these snakes. No, man, excuse me.
Speaker 1: I feel like Santa Anna is coming because like I've
Speaker 1: been sneezing a lot, and snakes are hyper allergenic. They're yeah,
Speaker 1: so if that's good, if you're allergic, Yeah, it's like
Speaker 1: you're allergic actually to dander and saliva. Pets that have
Speaker 1: hypoallergenic fur, it's that they don't shed as much. In
Speaker 1: the lack of shedding means there's less dander and saliva
Speaker 1: shedding everywhere as well. And snake skin they don't really
Speaker 1: have dan druff. They just shed all on um. And
Speaker 1: and then besides that, they're they're pretty clean, boys, they're
Speaker 1: pretty clean. You can be allergic to snake bites and
Speaker 1: snake venom, and most people have a severe reaction to
Speaker 1: like venomous snakes, like rattle snakes. That's you know, it's
Speaker 1: even building up your immunity, which in that case, I
Speaker 1: have so many more questions. But yeah, yeah, I cannot
Speaker 1: recommend that. So that rough baggy skin actually helps them
Speaker 1: grab onto fish and hold them under the water, uh
Speaker 1: and eat them because these guys, these elephant trunk snakes
Speaker 1: actually have no venom, so they are constrictors and that's
Speaker 1: how they kill and eat their prey. And because I mean, hey,
Speaker 1: fish are dang slippery, you know they are they get
Speaker 1: out of there, especially for a snake. It's yeah, it's
Speaker 1: like trying to tie down ah, like a piece of soap. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So you know, the having that baggy skin and it's
Speaker 1: rough as well. It will help. It's like sand paper,
Speaker 1: and it grabs on and wraps around the fish and
Speaker 1: holds them in place. And you look, you can see
Speaker 1: these two different around aquatic snakes right with two strategies.
Speaker 1: The tentacled snake uses motion detecting prongs that look like worms,
Speaker 1: and he has a venom. And the elephant trunk snake
Speaker 1: she has that saggy, baggy skin, no venom, but she
Speaker 1: can constrict around her prey and hold it with that
Speaker 1: rough skin. So to to aquatic snakes, two very different
Speaker 1: predator strategies, both very goofy looking, and I love them.
Speaker 1: Uh there, what a pair? What pair? What a pair?
Speaker 1: Some snakes have things, as you may already be aware,
Speaker 1: but there are a few types of finged snakes. There
Speaker 1: are the front fings snakes and rear finged snakes. The
Speaker 1: difference between the two is deeper than just where their
Speaker 1: body parts are, so front thinged snakes both look more
Speaker 1: frightening and present a more immediate danger to humans due
Speaker 1: to their hollow, syringe like method of action of these
Speaker 1: big fangs that are right in front of their mouths.
Speaker 1: Cobra's mambas and coral snakes are all examples of fixed
Speaker 1: front finged snakes, who have small, immovable front things which
Speaker 1: inject venom like hypodermic needles as they chew on their prey.
Speaker 1: Rattle snakes and copper heads have foldable front things and
Speaker 1: use a stabbing method rather than a chewing method to
Speaker 1: inject venom. Front things snakes in general are able to
Speaker 1: inject a higher concentration of venom in a shorter amount
Speaker 1: of time, and their venom tends to be more potent
Speaker 1: than rear thinged snakes. Rear thinged snakes have things well
Speaker 1: near the back of the mouth. These things tend not
Speaker 1: to be hollow venom injectors like front things. Snakes, instead,
Speaker 1: grooves in the fangs distribute venom to their prey from
Speaker 1: glands located above the teeth. Typically, this means they inject
Speaker 1: less venom, and this venom tends to be less potent.
Speaker 1: Most rear finged snakes are harmless to humans, but there
Speaker 1: are a couple of dangerous exceptions. There's the Boomsling of
Speaker 1: sub Saharan Africa, who has potent venom large rear finged
Speaker 1: jaws that can open a hundred seventy degrees and can
Speaker 1: deliver deadly bites to humans. There's also the twig snake
Speaker 1: of Africa, whose anti blood clotting venom can cause uncontrollable
Speaker 1: internal bleeding. While on that note, our next section is
Speaker 1: going to be about the cutest snakes in the world.
Speaker 1: Don't feel bad if you're scared of snakes, you were
Speaker 1: probably born that way. Researchers have studied babies reactions to
Speaker 1: snakes and found that infants as young as six months
Speaker 1: old react with enlarged pupils to snakes, even though they've
Speaker 1: likely never had much variants or knowledge of snakes before.
Speaker 1: But just because we come into the world with an
Speaker 1: anti snake bias doesn't mean we have to stay that way.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about some absolutely adorable noodle buddies, cute snakes,
Speaker 1: cute snakes, snakes. I try to make a snake noise
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh wait, they don't make noises,
Speaker 1: but they can you guys hear that? Can you hear that?
Speaker 1: Watch it? I could watch my snake like things all day.
Speaker 1: It is. It is cute at the little time, be
Speaker 1: a little exploratory tongue coming out and sniff in the air.
Speaker 1: Very cute. I yeah, I find I know that. I
Speaker 1: mean I find a lot of snakes cute, especially the
Speaker 1: non viper snakes because like I can see, like I
Speaker 1: understand the fear of like this sort of viper snakes,
Speaker 1: like the rattlesnakes, the front finged snakes, they have a
Speaker 1: bit of a sort of what would you call it,
Speaker 1: like ghoulish look, because you know, yeah, they look like
Speaker 1: they're out to get something. You know, it's probably just
Speaker 1: like dinner, but you know, like or you um, which
Speaker 1: I can respect, but you know, they're sort of they're
Speaker 1: they're a little bit more aggressive, whereas the rear fame
Speaker 1: snakes or the constrictor snakes tend to have a little
Speaker 1: bit of a cuter, cuter snout situation I would say,
Speaker 1: like a little bit of a puppy dog mouth and ye.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so so here are some super cuteis so.
Speaker 1: One of the cutest snakes, in my opinion, are the
Speaker 1: hog nos snakes and mag you've probably seen these before
Speaker 1: because they are actually hobbyists do keep some of these
Speaker 1: as pets because of how cute they are. If I
Speaker 1: got a second stake, it would probably be a hog nose.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe not, but it would be up there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the nose is like slightly upturned and you can almost
Speaker 1: like see they're like little mouth underneath, just like yeah,
Speaker 1: they have a little upturned snout and just like slightly
Speaker 1: parted little mouth. Then it's just like eepep, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like little roadrunner noises coming out of these guys.
Speaker 1: They're very cute. I got these big ground eyes. Um.
Speaker 1: So there are actually a few genuses of hog no
Speaker 1: snake that are distantly related. So they're all called hogno
Speaker 1: snakes because of their similar appearance, but they're actually not
Speaker 1: like directly related. So there are the heterodonts of North
Speaker 1: America and Mexico. Those are probably the ones most people
Speaker 1: are familiar with living in North America. Uh, there is
Speaker 1: Leo heterodons of Madagascar, which well lives in Um, there's
Speaker 1: Les Tropus of South America. So three distinct genuses. I'm
Speaker 1: mostly going to talk about the heterodons of North American Mexico,
Speaker 1: but I did want to mention the Les Tropus of
Speaker 1: South America, like to mimic the deadly coral snakes which
Speaker 1: have red, white and black stripes, And there are a
Speaker 1: lot of snakes that mimic the coral snake coloration because
Speaker 1: it's a pi semitism. In the actual venomous snake, it's
Speaker 1: signaling a very potent venom. And then there are a
Speaker 1: variety of mimics. Some are less venomous but still rather venomous.
Speaker 1: Some of them don't have nearly as powerful venom or
Speaker 1: don't have venom at all, that are mimicking it to
Speaker 1: get the benefit of that coloration. And it's this kind
Speaker 1: of careful balance of sneakery but then honest signals. So
Speaker 1: it's very interesting. But with these guys, the South American hognas,
Speaker 1: they have that dangerous looking coloration, but then this little
Speaker 1: snout that's just like to give away, like like you
Speaker 1: go from the tail, it's like, oh what, oh no,
Speaker 1: this looks like a dangerous snake. And then and then
Speaker 1: it ends in the head is like getting It's like
Speaker 1: when I do my makeup and the I put on
Speaker 1: false eyelashes that start like falling off. It's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you got me. That's not so. Heterodonts are the ones
Speaker 1: that live in North America and also Mexico, and they
Speaker 1: are so cute to me. They're the cutest ones. They
Speaker 1: have just a totally adorable little boops newt. They only
Speaker 1: grew up to be about twenty inches long, which is
Speaker 1: about fifty centimeters. They're relatively stout, so some snakes are
Speaker 1: kind of long and skinny. Some are like sort of
Speaker 1: stouter and thicker. They're on the thicker side and thick
Speaker 1: boys thick gold noodles. What what are like the thick
Speaker 1: noodles called like like linguini linguini Yeah, like yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't sorry, I don't know pasta names that good, even
Speaker 1: though I love pasta. But you know, some big old,
Speaker 1: thick little yoki's yoki snakes. So they are they don't
Speaker 1: want to really tangle with you. They are they they
Speaker 1: don't want to fight you. They don't want to bite you.
Speaker 1: They want you to leave them alone. And they are
Speaker 1: scared of you, so they will try to ward you
Speaker 1: off if they detect a threat by pretending to be cobras,
Speaker 1: and they will hiss and flatten their necks. But they
Speaker 1: know cobras. They're they're just sweet little babies, just we
Speaker 1: little babies. They do not want to bite you. They
Speaker 1: only bite if they are extremely distressed and there you know,
Speaker 1: their venom is pretty weak and mostly effective against frogs,
Speaker 1: so it's not really you know, too dangerous for a
Speaker 1: human unless you have an allergy for an adult human,
Speaker 1: right or you're an adult woman who turned into a frog.
Speaker 1: That's true, like if you turned into a frog, like
Speaker 1: if you drank the water that Alex Jones told you
Speaker 1: not to drink and you turn into a frog, and
Speaker 1: then then you're in trouble. But yeah, they really don't
Speaker 1: like to bite unless it's prey, and you know that
Speaker 1: if I'm not interest thing, I think they just really
Speaker 1: want to avoid. It's both wanting to avoid confrontation and
Speaker 1: wanting to save their venom for actual actual hunting, and
Speaker 1: so they will use other techniques to try to ward
Speaker 1: you off. And usually if they strike at you, it's
Speaker 1: actually just a head butt because like it's just so
Speaker 1: cute to me. It's just like, no, no, there's something
Speaker 1: adorable to me about like an animal that's usually associated
Speaker 1: with like being dangerous, and they just really really don't
Speaker 1: want to fight with you. I think I LL. I
Speaker 1: grew up in Michigan, so there were very many venomous
Speaker 1: snakes as opposed to you know, like out here in California,
Speaker 1: So growing up, I didn't really have an association with
Speaker 1: snakes being venomous. Most of the snakes in our area,
Speaker 1: you know, or just garden snakes. All to say, when
Speaker 1: I got a snake, a lot of people were worried
Speaker 1: and like, and you know, and people, a lot of
Speaker 1: people are afraid of snakes, but for the spart snakes
Speaker 1: are much more afraid of us. Exactly. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of species of animals that it makes sense that we
Speaker 1: have such a negative association with because when it comes
Speaker 1: to our safety, it's like if you if you trust
Speaker 1: every snake and you just like pick them up and
Speaker 1: give them a kiss, like, that's not gonna work out
Speaker 1: for you, because like some of them, some of them
Speaker 1: truly are dangerous. So in terms of our our survival
Speaker 1: as a species, it makes sense to be overly cautious
Speaker 1: about animals than to be too to like, hey, give
Speaker 1: me a big old hug, Mr. Rattlesnake, or even like
Speaker 1: a giant Boa constrictor like, give me that's a little tight,
Speaker 1: little tight. But yeah, I mean, like now that we
Speaker 1: have the Internet and the magical power of Wikipedia, I
Speaker 1: think we can definitely revised our views of snakes as
Speaker 1: all being terrible and dangerous and mean because they're not
Speaker 1: a lot of them are good little noodles widow noodles.
Speaker 1: So so the little hog nose noodles have another trick
Speaker 1: up their sleeves to get you to go away, and
Speaker 1: it is to play dead by flipping over, lolling their
Speaker 1: tongue out of their mouths, and going like I'm dead,
Speaker 1: go away. Is that I don't I've never heard of
Speaker 1: another snake doing that, and do other snakes or is
Speaker 1: that just a hog nos thing? I think it's I mean,
Speaker 1: I know that hognos are the most famous for it.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they're the only snake that does
Speaker 1: It's called thanatosis, where you like play dead. They're certainly
Speaker 1: not the only animal that does it, but they I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think they're They're certainly not the only reptile
Speaker 1: that does it, um, but I don't. I also don't
Speaker 1: think they're the only snake that does it. But they
Speaker 1: are the most famous ones for doing it. And they
Speaker 1: also will excrete a foul odor out of their cloaca
Speaker 1: to complete the the illusion of being dead. Wow, he's
Speaker 1: like a Disney imagineer coming all the senses to really
Speaker 1: pull you into the narrative of I'm dead right like
Speaker 1: a fog machine, a fake burglary scene, all pig footprints,
Speaker 1: a murder weapon nearby, and like a motive, like a
Speaker 1: message scrawled out in fake blood. That's like like the
Speaker 1: mongoose did it. So yeah, they they in fact, like
Speaker 1: if they're in this stage where they're playing dead and
Speaker 1: you try to like flip them back over, they will
Speaker 1: flip right right back over to committed committed, so committed
Speaker 1: like the Daniel day Lewis is of snakes, Wow, very cool.
Speaker 1: In North America we have a few hognos species. There's
Speaker 1: the Western hognose snakes, which tend to have sort of
Speaker 1: a rougher tan and brown skin. They I think they
Speaker 1: they're kind of like mimicking rattlesnakes a little bit. The
Speaker 1: Eastern hognose snakes are a little bit smoother, but they're
Speaker 1: also sort of brown, tan and splotchy. Sometimes they have
Speaker 1: solid color patterns. And the ones that are grown in
Speaker 1: captivity for um, you know, to be kept as pets,
Speaker 1: they can actually like breed them to have like different colorations,
Speaker 1: which is pretty cool. And the whole reason that they
Speaker 1: have that adorable little upturned snoot that just looks so poopable,
Speaker 1: Like it just looks like my my finger would fit
Speaker 1: right on it. And then if I poked it, like
Speaker 1: their little tongue would come out and be so cute.
Speaker 1: The purpose for that is not for me to poop it,
Speaker 1: but for them to dig in the dirt and sands. Oh,
Speaker 1: it is like a shovel like a little exactly wow,
Speaker 1: because they like to cover themselves in a blanket of
Speaker 1: dirt sand leaf litter to help them thermoregulate and keep
Speaker 1: warm or keep cool. So yeah, that is that they
Speaker 1: got a little little shovel for a nose, and it's
Speaker 1: so cute. It's so cute. So the next total cuteie
Speaker 1: snake that is unbelievable unbelievable is the blunt head tree
Speaker 1: snake of South America, Mexico and Central America. You know
Speaker 1: earlier when I said I like snakes with heads. This
Speaker 1: is that, Like, but the cursor goes all the way
Speaker 1: like like if you haven't had a snake character creation
Speaker 1: slider and you just like you slit all the sliders.
Speaker 1: Have you ever watched a monster factory that like McElroy.
Speaker 1: They do a series where they just go crazy with
Speaker 1: character creation sliders. I love it because like nature also
Speaker 1: does this. So like the character creation head like a
Speaker 1: body zero percent. Yeah, so they have. They are a
Speaker 1: little stringy spaghettis with big heads and tiny, skinny bodies.
Speaker 1: They look unbelieved. It doesn't look like it should work.
Speaker 1: It just it doesn't. It really looks like a ribbon
Speaker 1: someone lost that got found a penny and like they're
Speaker 1: just sitting there. Yeah, like it looks like, you know,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't be able to move because their heads would
Speaker 1: be too heavy. And of course they they are real.
Speaker 1: They are tree dwelling snakes that live in moist and
Speaker 1: wet I wrote down wet ass forests because I thought
Speaker 1: it was clever last night. It's pretty clever. So they
Speaker 1: are sort of a very, in my opinion, very pretty
Speaker 1: like brown and cream color with a banded pattern. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they're a little more orangey brown. Sometimes they're sort of
Speaker 1: like brown and white. And they got big old eyes,
Speaker 1: skinny little bodies and giant heads, and they can reach
Speaker 1: up to about a meter in length. But it's all
Speaker 1: like skinny noodle body like so so skinny noodle body.
Speaker 1: I think like it. It gets a little bit thicker
Speaker 1: in the middle, like they have a little more muscle
Speaker 1: in the middle, but it is like mostly skinny noodle.
Speaker 1: It kind of reminds me like they really gave me
Speaker 1: the vibe of like Captain America before he goes in
Speaker 1: the muscles machine. Yes, when he when he's still dinky, yeah, cut, yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought it was cute before he went in the
Speaker 1: muscles cheese cute. He's horrible, but I need to change.
Speaker 1: But I don't think he needed to change. I mean
Speaker 1: he needed to change for America to protect America from
Speaker 1: like base Nazis. In my opinion, as as a nice
Speaker 1: looking person, he didn't need no muscles machine. Like you
Speaker 1: don't need no muscles machines, guys, And we look at this.
Speaker 1: This snake should be a body positivity for anyone who
Speaker 1: feels like they're not rough enough. No, no, no, you're
Speaker 1: perfect and wonderful. This snake is beautiful and the reason
Speaker 1: their heads are so big is that they have to
Speaker 1: accommodate their big old eyes. They have some of the
Speaker 1: best vision of any snake on the planet. Whoa a
Speaker 1: lot of snakes. Actually, their vision isn't super great, Like
Speaker 1: they mostly rely on smell, and like that's why they're
Speaker 1: like always starting their tongue out. They have receptors on
Speaker 1: their tongue that helps them like smell, taste the air,
Speaker 1: and be able to locate things that way. But yeah,
Speaker 1: their eyes aren't always that great. But for these guys,
Speaker 1: they have giant eyes, big old peepers that are very
Speaker 1: good at peeping. And so in order to house these
Speaker 1: giant eyes that take up almost of their heads, like
Speaker 1: they need they just need a big skull and they
Speaker 1: need a big head. Wild, that's wild. I think that
Speaker 1: the head is this big simply for the eyes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a vehicle for the big eyes. That's basically Timothy shellomy, right,
Speaker 1: Like he's a vehicle for guys, you know, and then
Speaker 1: there you go. So one of the reasons they need
Speaker 1: such big eyes is that they are nocturnal and they
Speaker 1: hunt for tiny critters like amphibians and little reptiles at night,
Speaker 1: so they need much better vision and that those big
Speaker 1: old cat eyes helped them see in the dark. And yeah,
Speaker 1: just utterly like ridiculously cute. They look like a Jim
Speaker 1: Hanson horrible. They do have a mild venom, but they're
Speaker 1: not dangerous to humans. They I don't think there's ever
Speaker 1: been a serious case of a snake bite for for people.
Speaker 1: And they also just like don't tend to bite like
Speaker 1: they're not they're not interested in it. They Um, can
Speaker 1: I ask a question about how or what what did
Speaker 1: it eat? I mean, because it's just its head and
Speaker 1: its tiny body. Yeah, I mean does it just body stretchy? Yeah,
Speaker 1: body stretchy. Um. It does have a venom to incapacitate
Speaker 1: its prey, and it eats little things, so like little things.
Speaker 1: But as you know, like with snakes, they can eat
Speaker 1: things that seem like they shouldn't fit inside of the
Speaker 1: snake because the snakes bodies are so stretchy. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so so the answer is they eat small things and
Speaker 1: their body stretchy. Just cut little chill, little sling beans,
Speaker 1: little dud uh. And then our last contender for cutest
Speaker 1: cutiest of snakes is the big eyed green whip snake,
Speaker 1: which I like to call the kermit snake. I don't
Speaker 1: think they're technically called that, but they look like, you know,
Speaker 1: a little kermit snake, like, oh, normous, speggy, I'm a snake.
Speaker 1: How are we going to do the show Miss Peggy.
Speaker 1: So they are found in Malaysia. Not too much is
Speaker 1: known about them, um so kind of scant info on
Speaker 1: their behavior. But they really look like a long, tubular
Speaker 1: Kermit the frog to me because they are a super
Speaker 1: bright green. They've got these light cream colored bellies and
Speaker 1: these huge Kermit eyes, so Kermit eyes trademark. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: you know how like Kermit's pupils go side to side
Speaker 1: with sort of like the it's like a big pupil
Speaker 1: in the center and then it kind of tapers off.
Speaker 1: You know, Kermit eyes. You get it, you get it.
Speaker 1: You know. That's what these snakes got and they're very
Speaker 1: cute and it's funny because their heads are pretty Their
Speaker 1: heads are actually kind of long, so when you look
Speaker 1: at its profile, it kind of makes more sense, like
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, it's got kind of a longer, narrower head,
Speaker 1: so the eyes kind of fit. But when it's looking
Speaker 1: at you face on, it's so silly looking because it
Speaker 1: just has these like two big beady eyes and then
Speaker 1: it's like a little tiny mouth. It looks very grumpy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: these puddles look because the either are slanted and his
Speaker 1: little chin comes up. Yeah, it's like an old man
Speaker 1: just kind of swamp yea retired and just got over
Speaker 1: it really quickly. It's not easy having no limbs, so
Speaker 1: cute verte. When did snakes lose their legs? Probably around
Speaker 1: a hundred million years ago. Genetic researchers identified the gene
Speaker 1: that controls for limb development, which they call the sonic
Speaker 1: hedgehog gene because scientists are nerds. Basically, the sonic hedgehog
Speaker 1: gene and snakes is dampened such that legs never developed
Speaker 1: beyond a very basic cartilage blueprint during embryonic development. Sometimes
Speaker 1: these underdeveloped legs are still present in adults, like in
Speaker 1: pythons who have legs stubs near their pelvis that they
Speaker 1: used to grip onto other snakes during mating, so they
Speaker 1: do still have some of the original leg blueprints that
Speaker 1: their lizard ancestors had. It just doesn't fully activate during
Speaker 1: embryonic development. So why did snakes lose their legs? That's
Speaker 1: a bit of a trickier question. It may be that
Speaker 1: their ancestors were aquatic and became more streamlined for swimming,
Speaker 1: or they were terrestrial and ditched their limbs in favor
Speaker 1: of burrowing. And sneaking up on prey, or maybe they're
Speaker 1: just forgetful and don't remember where they left those Dane legs.
Speaker 1: When we return, we're going to find out that regardless
Speaker 1: of legs, snakes can totally own the runway. Most of
Speaker 1: the time you see a vibrant, colorful snake, it's a
Speaker 1: case of APIs semitism or warning coloration. The beautiful red, yellow,
Speaker 1: and black bands of a coral snake warns potential predators
Speaker 1: of their deadly toxicity. But sometimes non venomous snakes come
Speaker 1: in dazzling colors for a mysterious reason that has to
Speaker 1: do with magical crystals. So now we are going to
Speaker 1: look at some of the most beautiful instagrammable snakes in
Speaker 1: the world. Just I mean, it's like you see these
Speaker 1: snakes and you're like, what I want what she has.
Speaker 1: I'll buy what she's selling, right, I'll take whatever supplement
Speaker 1: she's taking, whatever exercise hit program she does. I will
Speaker 1: follow her makeup videos and army pants and flip flops.
Speaker 1: Army pants. Yea, these girls were mean to me in
Speaker 1: high school, but now we're children. We've gotten over it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, like they've gotten over it and I've pretended
Speaker 1: to get over it. Yeah, that's what. Yeah, it's like no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm over it. I'm over it. Yeah. So these are
Speaker 1: sunbeam snakes and there they look as ethereal and pretty
Speaker 1: as their names suggests. So they're also known as xeno peltus,
Speaker 1: which is also sounds fantastical, like some kind of fairy
Speaker 1: queen name. So these are a genus of snakes so different.
Speaker 1: There are multiple species in this genus and they are
Speaker 1: found in Southeast Asia. And they have beautiful, shiny, glistening, irridescent,
Speaker 1: fairy magical scales. They shine like a beautiful rainbow. They
Speaker 1: grow up to be a little over a meter, so
Speaker 1: about fifty one long, so they're not that big. They
Speaker 1: live underground for the most part. They are non venomous.
Speaker 1: They are constrictors. They are a dark brownish color, but
Speaker 1: who cares about all of that. All that we care
Speaker 1: about is they are shiny, shiny and rainbow ee and iridescent,
Speaker 1: iridescent like the best, like holographic eyeshadow, nail polish out.
Speaker 1: It's beautiful. It's they have a just glossy rainbow shimmer.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they have like this violet bluish undertone as well,
Speaker 1: just absolutely gorgeous, shimmering and shining in the sun. So
Speaker 1: a designer snake, Yes, yes you will, uh yeah if
Speaker 1: I if in the future I get another, you know, reptile,
Speaker 1: I tell myself, you know, I don't know what I
Speaker 1: would get, but these snakes are beautiful, but they do
Speaker 1: cost a lot of money. You. As soon as I
Speaker 1: got my regular pet snake, my Instagram was filled with like,
Speaker 1: oh but you didn't get like, okay, okay, They're all
Speaker 1: beautiful in their own way. They're all beautiful. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's what's on the inside of the snake, which
Speaker 1: is like partially digested mice, the snakes pellets. So yeah,
Speaker 1: these are the magical fairy princesses of the snake world.
Speaker 1: The so the shin nous is actually caused by microscopic
Speaker 1: structures on their scales that catch the light. These are
Speaker 1: called ritophores and eritophores are these tiny crystal structures. So
Speaker 1: it's a snake made out of tiny rainbow crystals, which
Speaker 1: is just I can't anymore. Princess wouldn't want that. It's
Speaker 1: the princess, and I mean I want to be snake princess.
Speaker 1: You know, I would be a fairy snake princess. So
Speaker 1: the purpose of these microscopic crystal structures is probably thermal regulations.
Speaker 1: So by catching the sun and it helps like cool
Speaker 1: off their skin, it like reflects the heat. And for
Speaker 1: this reason, they and actually other snakes in the world
Speaker 1: glimmer and shine like wonderful holographic rainbows. So we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about two other snakes that have the same effect,
Speaker 1: which blew my mind because like I had heard about
Speaker 1: these sunbeam snakes. I was like, yeah, that's great, and
Speaker 1: then it's like, this is the same mechanism that these
Speaker 1: other snakes us. I'm like, what, there's more, but there
Speaker 1: iss but wait, there's more. You call this number one snakes.
Speaker 1: We'll give you a snake you can't tell what kind
Speaker 1: and see a snake grab bag. So there is also
Speaker 1: the brazil only in rainbow boa, rainbow boa, rainbow boa. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they are found in Central America in humid woods.
Speaker 1: They have sort of the regular boa pattern, like this orange,
Speaker 1: brown and black sort of splotchy skin pattern, and on
Speaker 1: top of that though, they have this glowy rainbow sheen,
Speaker 1: which I am just it's like it's it's amazing because
Speaker 1: they have they're like, okay, regular snake pattern, but on
Speaker 1: top of that, we just put a rainbow. Right, what
Speaker 1: do you think about that? Right? Sell a million handbags.
Speaker 1: Don't turn these snakes into handbags. I forgot that that's real,
Speaker 1: Like my brain would snake skin, and then I was like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, but like people, Yeah, yeah, the Cruella developed snakes.
Speaker 1: I would watch that like a hundred and one rainbow
Speaker 1: bow snakes. It's just the Cruella de bill of snakes.
Speaker 1: And then there's just like hundreds of snakes doing a
Speaker 1: grand adventure that movie, and then like the what are
Speaker 1: they called the Darling I don't remember what the humans
Speaker 1: are in that movie, but yeah, it's not that darlings.
Speaker 1: Is Peter Pan right? Oh wait, yeah, you're right. I
Speaker 1: don't know humans. The humans that on the Dalmatians, but
Speaker 1: this time they own snakes and then like their snakes,
Speaker 1: you know, get kidnapped by Kriola de Ville, and then
Speaker 1: the snakes come back with like a hundred other snakes
Speaker 1: and then they're just like, well, I guess we gotta
Speaker 1: now we have a hundred snakes, and I'll write a
Speaker 1: song about it. And then it's gonna be really cute
Speaker 1: and down. Yeah. So yeah, these these rainbow but Brazilian
Speaker 1: rainbow boas are found in Central America in humid woods,
Speaker 1: and um, yeah, they have it's like just normal Boa behavior,
Speaker 1: normal normal boas, just just rainbow addsh like a holographic Pokemon.
Speaker 1: They're like, you know, they're like the holographic Pokemon of
Speaker 1: of BoA's. Yeah. So the other snake that has this
Speaker 1: effect is just incredibly beautiful. It is called the foremost
Speaker 1: an odd scaled snake. So these are non venomous, dark
Speaker 1: blackish snakes found in Taiwan and the ryu Que Islands, Japan,
Speaker 1: and they grow to be about thirty five inches long,
Speaker 1: which is ninety you know, not too big. They are nocturnal.
Speaker 1: They mostly eat earthworms, frogs and so on. Yeah, eating
Speaker 1: worms in the dirt most important. I know, it's weird, right. Well,
Speaker 1: what's gonna blow your mind is like some snakes even
Speaker 1: eat what are called like they'll eat smaller snakes. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they are these snakes called blind snakes. And just for
Speaker 1: the sake of time, I didn't get into them in
Speaker 1: the cute snake section, but these there are little little
Speaker 1: blind snakes that there are these tiny, tiny snakes and
Speaker 1: they look like worms. Um. And they like you can't
Speaker 1: even really see their eyes um, and like some of
Speaker 1: them like they have barely functional if if at all
Speaker 1: having eyes, and like these little tiny meals and they
Speaker 1: just like look like little worms, but they're actually snakes.
Speaker 1: So you know, a bigger snake could probably eat them
Speaker 1: like a plate of spaghetti. Uh them up. But they
Speaker 1: also eat the Arabian sandbo which we talked at the
Speaker 1: top of the show, I think also eats legless lizards
Speaker 1: that look like snakes. Oh yeah, those things look they
Speaker 1: look they look like worms or snakes, but they're actually
Speaker 1: a lizard, which is I mean, you might be like, well,
Speaker 1: but all snakes are like okay, true enough, but slightly
Speaker 1: different evolutionary paths. So um, but these guys, the foremost
Speaker 1: and odd scaled snakes um, are also beautiful, shiny and glimmery.
Speaker 1: They are beautiful snake mertmaids who glisten and shine and
Speaker 1: they actually have like bumpier scales so it catches the
Speaker 1: light slightly different. So to me, it looks like these
Speaker 1: snakes are not only rainbow but also slightly gilded, like
Speaker 1: they're partially made out of gold partially made out of rainbows.
Speaker 1: When you have the light, it's all about the lighting. Like,
Speaker 1: if you don't have these snakes in the right lighting,
Speaker 1: they're not going to shine, just like me, like when
Speaker 1: I'm not When I'm in the right lighting, it's great,
Speaker 1: but like nine of the time I'm not in the
Speaker 1: right lighting. And you know, yeah, yeah, it's like you
Speaker 1: know why my chin looks like it's above my nose
Speaker 1: and like one eyeball is like, you know, beneath my mouth,
Speaker 1: Like it's the lighting, right. So remember that next time
Speaker 1: Gussie Katie was with a Picasso face. Yeah, so my
Speaker 1: mind is blown by these snakes. I can't get over
Speaker 1: these shiny rainbowie snakes. They're beautiful, absolutely beautiful utiful. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I do really want one, I know, I want like,
Speaker 1: I want to like be them if that makes sense
Speaker 1: in a non in like a non furry way. Well,
Speaker 1: I guess they wouldn't be furries, right, they'd be like
Speaker 1: scally that would be oh yeah, I don't know what
Speaker 1: the terminology is there. If any listeners know, feel free
Speaker 1: to tell Katie tell me. But all to say, I
Speaker 1: would love to see a free costume of this time
Speaker 1: you're descent snake skin. It's beautiful. This is my snake sona. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I also like I want like, um, I guess, like
Speaker 1: an eyeshadow in this color, not made out of the snakes.
Speaker 1: Let me make it clear, I'm not the cruel devill
Speaker 1: of these snakes. These they are perfect and they must
Speaker 1: be defended at all costs. But you know, because like
Speaker 1: I feel like I have a blue undertone in my skin,
Speaker 1: and I feel like these would go well with my
Speaker 1: skin tone. You know, I'm a winter not a summer,
Speaker 1: and these snakes are sort of a winter. So you
Speaker 1: see what I'm saying. I see what we're saying. It's
Speaker 1: also the especially on the sunbeam snake, it's kind of
Speaker 1: like oil slick color where it just like, ah, I
Speaker 1: need a nail polish that is in snake color, you know,
Speaker 1: snake color. Yeah. Really, Yeah, I'm shiny, but they're not
Speaker 1: Oh yeah those are nice. Yeah, but they're not they're
Speaker 1: not quite like they're not sunbeams snake you know. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I also would like to just like Beauty Gurus channel,
Speaker 1: but it's just these snakes flopping around. Snake. Yeah, you'll
Speaker 1: never be sorry. I'm sorry if it offends you that
Speaker 1: I was just born beautiful. I'm sorry, like I'm sorry
Speaker 1: glisten in the rainbow. Same sorry, it looks like I'm
Speaker 1: made out of a hundred golden rainbows. It's not my fault.
Speaker 1: A wonderful well. We have covered from the goofiest to
Speaker 1: the cutest to the most Instagram influencer snakes, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: in the world. I'm there's so many snakes, though, we'll
Speaker 1: probably have to do this all over again. Get more
Speaker 1: snakes in here. I would love to talk snakes anytime, anytime.
Speaker 1: We will bring you back for snakes too, snakes reloaded,
Speaker 1: Snakes in a recording booth. Yeah, snakes on a podcast, No,
Speaker 1: snakes on a pod. Snakes on a pod? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, sure, okay, But thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining me today, Maggie. This was incredible. It's so fun
Speaker 1: to talk to someone who is as in the mesiastic
Speaker 1: about snakes and loves them and cherishes them and wants
Speaker 1: to kiss them as much as I do. I do.
Speaker 1: I love them. And if anyone is curious about owning
Speaker 1: a snake, there's a lot of resources, but do make
Speaker 1: sure you do your research. Um they are you know,
Speaker 1: the one I have is a beginner snake, but that also,
Speaker 1: you know, matters. There's easier snakes to take care of.
Speaker 1: There's more involved there. There there's a varrieta. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: they are great pets. So if you're thinking about it, yeah,
Speaker 1: I encourage you to check it out. Yeah. I've actually
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time on snake forms, not because
Speaker 1: I don't I've never owned a snake, so I only
Speaker 1: know about it in theory on paper, but like I'm
Speaker 1: just fascinated by these like snake forms where they're like,
Speaker 1: you know, my snake has not even a mouse in
Speaker 1: like in five weeks, and like what can I do?
Speaker 1: And like all this advice about like try heating up
Speaker 1: the mouse sometimes they like warm and you know, really
Speaker 1: change the temperature or yeah, it's like have you tried seasoning?
Speaker 1: It's but a little bit. It's a little salt and
Speaker 1: pepper on it. You know. It feels like people appreciate snakes,
Speaker 1: you know, more of these days. Yeah, there's a great
Speaker 1: like like snake community where yeah, there's anyone who owns
Speaker 1: a snake has usually been online asking all their snakes, right,
Speaker 1: snakes making this weird noise? What does it mean? Um?
Speaker 1: Because also the other thing is that veterinarians oftentimes don't
Speaker 1: have that much experience with snakes. So I didn't go
Speaker 1: to I didn't go to veterinary school to treat this hose.
Speaker 1: Give me it's a tube. Um, And they have a point,
Speaker 1: but I'll to say that it's also you know, there's
Speaker 1: a there's a fun community of you know, just sneake
Speaker 1: owners who love their animals and are happy to help.
Speaker 1: It is. It is like nuts to be a veterinarian though,
Speaker 1: because they're like, you just know all it's all animals now,
Speaker 1: it's like any animal because like human doctors is like humans. Okay, humans,
Speaker 1: you can get a handle on humans, it's like, but
Speaker 1: with veterinarians, it's like birds, cats, dogs, snakesh turkeys, hedgehog,
Speaker 1: just any of it. It's like, but these are different.
Speaker 1: They have different organs. Some of them don't have legs,
Speaker 1: and they should have leg some of them shouldn't have legs.
Speaker 1: So what snake looks like a rainbow? And I oh,
Speaker 1: there was this, I think a few years ago, this
Speaker 1: viral video of a veterinarian pulling an entire bath towel
Speaker 1: out of us out of it. I think it was
Speaker 1: a it was a python, right, and and it was
Speaker 1: just like this poor python had eaten an entire bath towel.
Speaker 1: Had a very bad tommy because the poor thing was
Speaker 1: like at this point, it was like nine bath towel,
Speaker 1: just like a snake tube filled with bath towel. And
Speaker 1: they pulled out this whole thing and everyone cheered at
Speaker 1: the end. It was amazing. Yeah, and it came out
Speaker 1: so smoothly. He clearly he might have figured out that
Speaker 1: it should come out the snakes like all right, I
Speaker 1: gave my best shop started right about this. Yeah, incredible, incredible.
Speaker 1: Also also when you do your research, just make sure
Speaker 1: that you're getting snakes that are ethically sourced, like you
Speaker 1: don't you know, like and that's also yes, And try
Speaker 1: not to shop at, you know, any of the name
Speaker 1: brand pet stores if you can avoid them, because they
Speaker 1: usually go with um mass breeders who you know, just
Speaker 1: breed and toss the puppy the puppy mills of snakes, yes,
Speaker 1: the puppy mills snakes and little puppies, so you know, yeah, um,
Speaker 1: you know, you can look at you know, your local
Speaker 1: pet stores, um or there are pet stores that just
Speaker 1: deal with reptiles, um, and you can ask if you
Speaker 1: know where the snakes have been sourced, right, um. Something
Speaker 1: actually to consider when you own a snake or other
Speaker 1: reptile is actually finding a vet who can spay or
Speaker 1: neuter your pet to prevent it from becoming an invasive
Speaker 1: species if it escape, because you never know where your
Speaker 1: snake is gonna find love, make a bunch of babies,
Speaker 1: and start eating all the local birds. Also, make sure
Speaker 1: your snake isn't sourced from the illegal pet trade. I
Speaker 1: totally get the desire to have cool pet snakes, but
Speaker 1: you gotta do your research to make sure that their
Speaker 1: wild counterparts and your local wildlife will not be harmed.
Speaker 1: With all pets, you want to keep them indoors. Don't,
Speaker 1: don't really some because then you know if they can
Speaker 1: become invasive and you don't want that. So but there
Speaker 1: are all sorts of ways to be a responsible snake owner.
Speaker 1: So snakes are amazing. And if you're scared of snakes,
Speaker 1: just look at the Arabian sand abou and I promise
Speaker 1: you you will no longer be well. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much again, Maggie, you got anything to plug? Uh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you guys, can hop over to my YouTube channel. Um,
Speaker 1: I do fun videos where I break down movie um,
Speaker 1: and we have some fun ones. Comment snakes on a plane,
Speaker 1: that's not snakes on a plane. But many of the
Speaker 1: films I cover have animals involved. Yeah, you did a
Speaker 1: cats one, right, I did. I did a cat's one. Um,
Speaker 1: we have a Lord of the Ring one nighteming not so.
Speaker 1: If you like all the fuls, then holiphants, lazy J
Speaker 1: k Rowling just inventing an animal that's like two words
Speaker 1: away from Elephanta. So you can find us on the
Speaker 1: internet at Creature Feature Pod on Instagram, at Creature feet
Speaker 1: Pot on Twitter. That's f E T not et. That
Speaker 1: is something erent. If you have any questions about snakes
Speaker 1: or otherwise, if you've got pictures of your pets, if
Speaker 1: you want to ask me, wait, am I a snake?
Speaker 1: You can email me at Creature Feature Pod at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. And yeah, thank you guys so much for listening.
Speaker 1: If you're enjoying this show, if you leave me a review,
Speaker 1: I will read it. I cherish them all. It like
Speaker 1: makes my day when someone has a nice review. I'm
Speaker 1: just like floating all daylong. Like they like it. They
Speaker 1: liked the podcast, Thank You So Yeah, I appreciate all that,
Speaker 1: and I just like you know, I appreciate everyone for
Speaker 1: listening to Thank you so much. Uh and thank you
Speaker 1: to the Space Classics for their super awesome song excel
Speaker 1: Alumina Creature Feature is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts like the one you just heard, visit
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Speaker 1: Dad a good one.