Snake by Caroline Arnold

Author:Caroline Arnold
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: StarWalk Kids Media
Published: 2016-07-27T00:00:00+00:00

A python has two rows of sharp teeth.

EATING

Although wild rosy boas sometimes eat small lizards and birds, their main prey is small rodents. At the zoo, most of the snakes of Rosy’s size are given mice to eat. As soon as Rosy senses that a mouse has been put in her enclosure, she strikes it with open jaws and grabs it in her mouth. Then, even though the keeper has already killed the mouse to prevent it from harming Rosy, the snake quickly coils herself around the mouse’s body just as she would if it were alive. For several minutes she squeezes the mouse so tightly that if it had been breathing, it would no longer be able to do so and would die.

A snake cannot use its slender teeth to chew or cut up its food. Instead, it swallows the food whole, usually starting with the head. First the snake stretches its mouth around the head of its prey. (Unlike the jaws of most other animals, the two halves of a snake’s jaw are not fastened solidly together at the back. Therefore, they can separate and enlarge the opening between them.) At the same time, the skin around the snake’s head and neck stretches like a sheet of elastic. In this way the snake can swallow food that is larger than its own body diameter.

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