Spot the snake!

June 10, 2017 • 3:30 pm

Matthew Cobb keeps an eye out for cases of “spot the. . ” mimicry, and here’s one:

I love the scientific name: “Bitis peninguey“, and it is indeed venomous. I like the Wikipedia note: “An ambush hunter, it buries itself just beneath the surface of the sand with only its eyes and the tip of its tail exposed (individuals with black tail-tips employ caudal luring). When prey happens by, it is seized and envenomated.” I didn’t know the word “envenomated,” but now I do. 

And here it is in action, capturing a lizard in Namibia after drinking condensed water off its own skin!

13 thoughts on “Spot the snake!”

  3. I’m going to guess that it’s not much of a threat to humans. It would not go after something that big. Would it?

    1. It’s only 8 to 10 inches long and has a weak venom that doesn’t require antivenin.

  4. I think it should be envenomed. Envenomated sounds the sort of word I make up when trying to be funny.

  6. There’s a lot of convergent evolution going on here too.

    Sidewinder rattlesnake and fringe-toed lizard of SW US sand dunes are remarkably similar in general morphology & behavior to this snake and lizard of African dunes, though doubtless only distantly related. Someone must have studied this at some point.

    1. Yes, there are even more than two groups of snakes that practice sidewinding. Saharan horned viper, Sidewinder rattle snake and also the South East asian watersnakes, who use it in mud flats.
      I haven’t a clue how many species use it, but there is definitely some convergence. It is also said that many snakes that do not usually sidewind, attempt it -with varying degrees of success- when put on a slippery surface.

  7. Pre the Fall of Man, that snake was eating vegetable matter and walking on four legs.

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