Post #14307

Spider-tailed viper: A snake with a salpug-shaped tail Someone, looking at spiders, will say: ugh, spiders. I hate spiders. Someone, looking at snakes, will say: ugh, snakes. I hate snakes. But I bet that the c-c-combo of a snake with a spider on its tail will cause only one reaction in you - panic. Meet the spider-tailed viper - a nightmare for impressionable individuals and a mystery for scientists. After all, the snake has been leading people by the nose for almost 36 years! In 1970, biologists came across the carcass of a slightly strange false-horned snake. Everything was as usual: 60 centimeters long, sandy camouflage, and soft horns made of scales above the eyes. Only at the very tip of the tail a disgusting tumor was visible - the eerie formation was framed by abnormally long scales. What would a normal person do with the find? That's right, I should have thrown the reptile away! What did the scientists do with it? That's right, they preserved the animal and hid it until better times. They remembered about the snake only in 2006. Researchers traveling through the eastern provinces of Iraq came across a similar sick animal in its natural habitat. But the “disfigured” snake was in no hurry to roll its eyes painfully and give up the ghost; it was actively scratching its tumor over the surface of the body. That’s when it dawned on the people: the reptile is quite healthy, it’s just that with its tail it copies the salpuga (photo 5) - the favorite delicacy of desert birds! Moreover, the animal puts on a whole exhibition: its highly rough body represents a stone, and the tip of its tail represents an arachnid running along it. Insectivorous birds flock to the snake's performance and try to bite the viper's tail. Well, then everything is simple: a jerk, a bite, and a poisonous surprise that quickly spreads through the bird’s veins. However, this method of hunting made the snakes very lazy. During the day, they perform only two actions: crawl into the shade and return to the sun. They don’t even crawl to bodies of water; they restore water balance through the blood of their victims. The reptile begins to actively move only if it is thoroughly scared. Having pumped air into the lungs to make it appear larger, the scaly hose begins to hiss and jerk aggressively. The viper is not capable of more - its poison is too weak to fight back against large animals. Swelling and redness - that’s all that a person will get from our heroine’s bite. Spider-tailed vipers are so secretive and cautious that we don’t really know their range, let alone their lifestyle or reproduction. For 15 years now, herpetologists have been trying to unravel the secrets of our heroine, but she resists with respectable tenacity. - - - - - We have a huge group, which is 11 years old and there are many zoologists who write tons of text every day from the field in which they are specialists. Due to VK’s failed policy towards authors, all this, unfortunately, re