As repti les, snakes may have signified deadly threats in the environment of early mammals. We review findings suggesting that snakes remain special stimuli for humans. Intense snake fear is prevalent in both humans and other primates. Humans and monkeys learn snake fear more easily than fear of most other stimuli through direct or vicarious conditioning. Neither the elicitation nor the conditi...

To evaluate whether the 'oxygen and capacity limited thermal tolerance' model (OCLTT) applies to an air-breathing ectothermic vertebrate, we measured oxygen uptake (V̇(O₂)), cardiac performance and arterial blood gases during a progressive rise of temperature from 30 to 40°C in the snake Python regius. V̇(O₂) of fasting snakes increased exponentially with temperature whereas V̇(O₂) of digesting sn...

BACKGROUND In the present study, we describe the first paramyxovirus infection in a snake collection in Croatia caused by an introduction of new snakes that were not previously tested and didn't show any signs of disease. CASE PRESENTATION In less than a month after introduction into a healthy colony, new snakes began to show respiratory symptoms (i.e. mouth opening, wheezing, etc.) and died ...

An operational control program for brown tree snakes (Boiga irregulans) on Guam began in April 1993. The program focused on minimizing the dispersal of brown tree snakes to other Pacific islands and the U.S. mainland. During the first year of operation, more than 3,000 snakes were caught within a kilometer of high risk port facilities using traps, detector dogs, and spotlighting. Additionally, ...

this study was done to determine whether high or low dose of anti-snake venom (asv) is better in coagulopathy in victims of envenoming by vipers. this retrospective study was conducted on the 154 patients (mean age ± sd, range) of viper snake bites who were referred to the emergency ward of razi hospital, ahvaz, iran over 2 years period (2004 - 2006). according to the treatment dosage the patie...

Objective: Snakes are among the predators of any ecosystem and have been seen in different parts Iran. The report on their distribution Isfahan province was taken into consideration because importance regional knowledge these animals. Case report: During this survey, a sample snakes collected from north province, Kashan city, University site Medical Sciences studied. snake identified by morphol...

Garter snakes Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis feed frequently but also tolerate extended periods of fasting when food is unavailable. We studied the dynamics, reversibility and repeatability of size changes of the small intestine and liver using ultrasonography. We employed light and transmission electron microscopy and flow cytometry to study the tissue mechanism that drives this flexibility. W...

Snakes lack both an outer ear and a tympanic middle ear, which in most tetrapods provide impedance matching between the air and inner ear fluids and hence improve pressure hearing in air. Snakes would therefore be expected to have very poor pressure hearing and generally be insensitive to airborne sound, whereas the connection of the middle ear bone to the jaw bones in snakes should confer acut...

Many mammalian species that interact with venomous snakes show resistances to venoms. The family Sciuridae has several North American members that harass venomous snakes and show proteolytic resistances in their sera. We examined sera collected from an African ground squirrel (Xerus inauris) against two sympatric venomous snakes (Bitis arietans and Naja annulifera) and found no support for prot...

Snake fungal disease (SFD) is a clinical syndrome associated with dermatitis, myositis, osteomyelitis, and pneumonia in several species of free-ranging snakes in the US. The causative agent has been suggested as Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, but other agents may contribute to the syndrome and the pathogenesis is not understood. To understand the role of O. ophiodiicola in SFD, a cottonmouth snake ...