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Scientists Found That Most Snakes Are Cannibals McDonald Wildlife Photography Inc. – Getty Images<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you\u2019ll learn when you read this story:<\/p>\n
Snakes have been known to prey on other snake species, but a new study suggests this behavior is more widespread than originally believed.<\/p>\n
The study analyzed 503 documented cases of serpent cannibalism and found that the behavior can be seen in different snakes across the world in different contexts, whether between mates, siblings, or rivals.<\/p>\n
The only family of snakes not known to participate in cannibalism were blind snakes, which researchers hypothesize is likely due to the fact they don\u2019t possess an unfused jaw.<\/p>\n
One of the most enduring serpent symbols in human culture is the ouroboros<\/a>, an image of a snake devouring its own tail in a symbol honoring the cyclic and enduring nature of life. Now a new study suggests that this ancient emblem may also represent some uncomfortable biological truths as well, chief among them being that snakes<\/a> have an unsavory tendency to snack on their own species.<\/p>\n In other words, snakes are cannibals<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a study published in the journal Biological Reviews<\/a>, biologist Omar Entiauspe-Neto, a Ph.D. student at the Universidade de S\u00e3o Paulo, and his co-authors analyzed 503 recorded cases of snake cannibalism across 207 species. Most of these cases occurred within three families\u2014Colubridae, Viperidae, and Elapidae\u2014with Colubridae, the largest of the snake families at 249 genera worldwide, accounting for nearly 30 percent of recorded cannibalism events.<\/p>\n Researchers were aware that snakes ate other snake species, and that a few scattered reports of cannibalism<\/a> also existed, but this study shows that the practice is more pervasive than originally thought\u2014and that it may have a biological benefit. Because this behavior is so widespread among snake species, geography, and cannibalism categories (whether it happens in mating pairs, related individuals, or combating males), the authors note that it\u2019s possible this behavior evolved separately in the snake evolutionary lineage at least 11 times.<\/p>\n \u201cEach new record reinforced the idea that cannibalism in snakes is not an anomaly or a rare curiosity, but a widespread and ecologically relevant behavior that we had been systematically underestimating,\u201d Universidade de S\u00e3o Paulo master student Bruna Falc\u00e3o, lead author of the study, told Smithsonian Magazine.<\/a><\/p>\n