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Thread: snakes

  1. #61
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    just *****?

    ...somehow a ***** snake attack seems worse.


    Sea Snakes Attacking Humans Probably Just *****, Scientists Say

    Sea snake attacks are mysterious and sometimes deadly, and now scientists say they may just be 'highly aroused.'

    By Becky Ferreira
    August 19, 2021, 8:00am


    OLIVE SEA SNAKES ARE AMONG THE LARGEST MARINE SNAKE SPECIES, AND ARE ABUNDANT ON SOME CORAL-REEF AREAS. CREDIT: JACK BREEDON

    Picture yourself snorkeling or scuba-diving along a lush coral reef, abundant with color and life. All of a sudden, this serene underwater experience morphs into a horror show as an aggressive sea snake slithers into view and attacks you for no apparent reason.

    Should you ever face this scary situation, ocean scientists have some sage words of advice: don’t panic and stay still, because the snake may just be trying to mate with you.

    That’s the upshot of a new study led by Tim Lynch, a senior research scientist at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, which is based on his 158 encounters with olive sea snakes (Aipysurus laevis) as a diver in the Great Barrier Reef.

    Lynch and his colleagues observed that unprovoked aggression from these animals almost always involves males during the breeding season, suggesting that these encounters are a result of “mistaken identity during sexual interactions,” according to a study that offers “the first quantitative evidence on sea snake ‘attacks,’” published on Thursday in Scientific Reports.

    These insights about olive sea snakes were recorded in dives Lynch conducted from 1994 and 1995, but it wasn’t until the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020 that the opportunity finally arose to publish the results.

    “You can blame COVID for this,” said Richard Shine, a professor of biology at Macquarie University and an emeritus professor at the University of Sydney who co-authored the study, in an email.

    “Tim Lynch did the work as part of his PhD,” he continued. “I examined his thesis in 2000, thought it was great, but he never published it. Stuck at home with COVID, I contacted Tim to ask if he was interested in collaborating with me to turn bits of his thesis into published papers. He agreed (bless his heart!), and this is the first one.”

    Though Lynch captured this data decades ago, the lessons from the study remain just as relevant today. Sea snake attacks are rare, but they can be fatal, according to another recent study that Shine co-authored.

    Some snake species are extremely venomous, including olive sea snakes. Victims tend to be fishers because “snakes caught by fishermen are stressed and can’t escape, so they retaliate,” Shine noted. However, recreational swimmers and divers could be threatened by encounters as well: even if a snake doesn’t bite a diver, the panic from an unprovoked attack could put the person’s life at risk.

    It’s easy to see why a sea snake that has been captured by fishers would retaliate and defend itself, but Lynch, Shine, and co-author Ross Alford, an ecologist at James Cook University, wanted to understand the motivations behind unprovoked attacks. The authors note that it is extremely rare for snakes that live on land to charge or bite people for no reason, making this behavior in their marine relatives something of an anomaly in the larger snake family.

    By examining diver reports and Lynch’s own observations, the researchers discovered that aggression toward humans almost always occurred during the winter breeding season, which lasts from May to August. Males approached humans much more often than females, and displayed behaviors that could be related to courtship, such as coiling around a diver’s limb.

    “Agitated rapid approaches by males, easily interpreted as ‘attacks,’ often occurred after a courting male lost contact with a female he was pursuing, after interactions between rival males, or when a diver tried to flee from a male,” the authors wrote in the study.

    These encounters suggest that a “reproductively active male, highly aroused, mistakes the diver for another snake (a female or a rival male),” they added. “At first sight, the idea that a snake might mistake a human diver for another snake seems ludicrous, given the massive disparity in size and shape between those two objects. Nonetheless, this offers the most plausible explanation for our observations.”

    Indeed, the study suggests that sea snakes may have poor eyesight compared to land snakes, which could also explain the rare instances of females charging divers. These females were often fleeing from pursuant males, and may have mistaken humans for coral formations that they could hide behind.

    As tempting as it might be to try to escape these encounters, the team notes that a sea snake might give chase—and you are simply not likely to outswim these speedy ocean animals. The best course of action is for the person to stay still and let the snake explore them by “tongue-flicking,” or even making contact with the skin or wetsuit, which is likely to de-escalate the conflict as the animal realizes its mix-up.

    “If mistaken identity underlies most ‘attacks’ by sea snakes on divers, the best strategy for divers in such a situation may be to allow the snake to investigate them and in particular to allow for the snake to investigate chemical cues with its tongue; a bite is unlikely unless the animal is threatened or injured,” the team said in the study. “Attempting to flee is likely to be futile and may even increase the ardour of the pursuit; and attempting to drive the animal away may induce retaliation.”

    Shine and his colleagues also point out that male sea snakes are far from the only species that “court inappropriate objects,” in the words of the study, and provide many colorful examples of other mistaken courtship attempts. Dolphins, dugongs, sea lions, and sea turtles have all been observed attempting to copulate with humans, and “some beetles famously court beer bottles,” the study notes.

    Shine hopes that these recent studies into sea snakes will motivate people to better understand these mysterious and important marine animals.

    “Sea snakes are very understudied, so the potential is huge,” he said.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  2. #62
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    Wait ... what?

    Our forum censors h0rny? Oh man, that's hilarious.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  3. #63
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    Snake pizza

    Pizza Hut in Hong Kong rolls out snake-meat pizza for limited time
    Doc Louallen
    USA TODAY

    Pizza Hut introduced a new and exotic pizza option available only in Hong Kong that's garnering attention around the world. The new pizza is topped with finely shredded snake meat, giving it a distinctive texture and flavor.

    Pizza Hut and Ser Wong Fun teamed up to create a 9-inch pizza inspired by traditional snake stew. The pizza features shredded snake meat, black mushrooms, and Chinese dried ham.

    The pizza will only be available until November 22nd.

    According to CNN, customers who have tried the pizza claim that the texture of the snake is similar to dry chicken.

    No strings attached:Krispy Kreme wants to gift you a dozen donuts on World Kindness Day.


    Pizza Hut pizza with snake meat.
    Inspired by popular regional dish

    Snake meat is believed to have medicinal properties and Pizza Hut claims that it can boost blood circulation.

    “Combined with pizza, it marks a breakthrough from the conventional concept of what maintaining good health means while challenging one’s taste buds,” Pizza Hut Hong Kong said in a statement to CNN.

    A popular Hong Kong and southern China snake stew inspired the dish.

    Pizza Hut Hong Kong has announced its plans to introduce unconventional menu items, such as a pizza topped with Chinese preserved sausages. This move is part of a trend among Asian franchises of American brands to celebrate local food culture with gastronomical creations, including pizzas featuring durian, pig blood curds, or Tonkotsu ramen.

    Fast-Food-Nastiness
    snakes
    Gene Ching
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  4. #64
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    northern green anaconda

    Gigantic new snake discovered in Amazon rainforest could be biggest in world at ‘astounding’ half a ton
    AMY WOODYATT, CNN Feb 24, 2024 0
    This is a modal window.The media could not be loaded, either because the server or network failed or because the format is not supported.
    Scientists have made a remarkable discovery in the Amazon rainforest, uncovering a previously unknown species of giant anaconda. This discovery was made while filming National Geographic’s Disney+ series "Pole to Pole" with Will Smith. This newly documented species, named the northern green …


    Scientists working in the Amazon rainforest have discovered a new species of snake, rumored to be the biggest in the world.

    A team from the University of Queensland traveled to the Ecuadorian Amazon to search for the previously undocumented northern green anaconda (Eunectes akayima), following an invitation from the Waorani people to observe anacondas “rumoured to be the largest in existence,” according to the scientists.

    The team joined the hunters on a 10-day expedition to the Bameno region of Baihuaeri Waorani Territory, before paddling down the river system to “find several anacondas lurking in the shallows, lying in wait for prey,” Professor Bryan Fry, a biologist from the University of Queensland, who led the team, said in a statement.


    A Northern green anaconda on a riverbank.
    Bryan Fry, The University of Queensland

    Anacondas are giant, non-venomous constricting snakes found in or near water in warm parts of South America.

    “The size of these magnificent creatures was incredible — one female anaconda we encountered measured an astounding 6.3 meters (20.7 feet) long,” Fry said of the team’s discovery, which was made while filming for National Geographic’s upcoming series “Pole to Pole with Will Smith.”

    The team also said they had heard anecdotal evidence that snakes of 24.6 feet and 1,100 pounds had been sighted in the area.

    Green anacondas are the world’s heaviest snakes, according to the UK’s Natural History Museum, which noted that the heaviest individual ever recorded weighed 500 pounds. It measured 27.7 feet long and was 3.6 feet wide.


    Close-up of a northern green anaconda head.
    Bryan Fry, University of Queensland
    While another species, the reticulated python, tends to be longer — often reaching more than 20.5 feet in length – it is lighter.

    But experts studying the creatures discovered that the newly identified northern green anaconda species diverged from the southern green anaconda almost 10 million years ago, and they differ genetically by 5.5%.

    “It’s quite significant — to put it in perspective, humans differ from chimpanzees by only about 2%,” Fry said. The findings are described in the journal MDPI Diversity.

    The team then set out to compare the genetics of the green anaconda with other specimens elsewhere to assess them as an indicator species for the health of ecosystems, and warned that the Amazon is facing numerous threats.

    “Deforestation of the Amazon basin from agricultural expansion has resulted in an estimated 20-31% habitat loss, which may impact up to 40% of its forests by 2050,” Fry said.

    Habitat degradation, forest fires, drought and climate change threaten rare species like the anacondas, which exist in such rare ecosystems, he added.
    That's terrifyingly big.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  5. #65
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    China Snake Farm - How Farmer Make 1 Billion USD from 3 Million Snake Every Year?

    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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