[Animals] 7 strange snake stories from 2022

[BirSaNN]

It's no surprise that snakes have always been creepy.

There's no denying that snakes are some of the most fascinating, bizarre and, yes, frightening reptiles on the planet. From an eastern kingsnake swallowing a timber rattlesnake nearly twice its size to a nasty battle between a venomous cobra and an 8-year-old boy, there was no shortage of strange snake headlines this year. Here are seven startling snake stories from 2022.

1. Cobra bites boy; boy bites it back

When a venomous cobra took a bite out of an 8-year-old boy in India after coiling around his hand, the child didn't hesitate to seek revenge on the snake, sinking his teeth into its scaly skin — twice. After the incident, the boy's parents rushed him to the hospital, where doctors deemed the injury a rare venom-free "dry bite." The child walked away unscathed and with a cool story to tell his friends. The snake wasn't quite so lucky. It died.

2. Snake chokes to death on a giant centipede

Humans aren't the only living things that bite off more than they can chew. A rim rock crowned snake (Tantilla oolitica), considered the rarest snake in North America, gave scientists a fright when they came upon the corpse of one of these elusive creatures at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo, Florida. Lodged in its mouth and partway down its gullet was a giant centipede, which the snake had attempted to swallow headfirst. Even though its prey was one-third its size, the snake lost the battle, succumbing to the centipede's venom.

link: https://www.livescience.com/seven-surprising-snake-stories-2022