![]() is than suffocation, a time factor that could be crucially important to a predator engaged in a physical encounter with potentially deadly prey.” I’m impressed by how much faster the mechanism demonstrated by Boback et al. “Dave, trained as an anaesthesiologist, reached this conclusion due to the combination of his knowledge of cardiovascular physiology combined with years of watching his pet boa constrictors kill wild rats. “It’s especially satisfying to read about experimental confirmation of my old friend David Hardy Sr.’s explanation of how constricting snakes kill their prey,” evolutionary biologist Professor Harry Greene, Cornell University, told The Wire. Once the snakes feel the heartbeat falter and stop, they relax their muscles and swallow their kill.įor the record, the team removed the rats with wires and probes used in the experiment, and fed the snakes with other rats.Īlthough the scientists studied boa constrictors from Belize, Boback thinks Old World pythons likely kill their prey in a similar manner. ![]() In an earlier study, Boback had demonstrated that boa constrictors keep a check on their prey’s heartbeat as they wrap around the animal’s torso. “But it wasn’t until we analysed all these together that we realised how many physiological issues were happening at precisely the same time as the snakes were applying (and increasing) their constriction pressure.” “When we were in the laboratory we could see the individual effects on, say, the arterial pressure and on the ECG ,” says Boback. The boas took no longer than eight minutes to kill the rats. Had the rats not been anesthetised, they would have quickly lost consciousness. With no blood flowing, the brain, liver, and heart were starved of oxygen. Seconds after the snakes wrapped their coils tightly around the rats, the scientists watched with amazement as the blood circulation shut down. “Without a doubt one of the biggest challenges was to fit anesthetized rats with very delicate equipment and secure these in such a way that the snakes would not dislodge them when they struck and constricted the rats,” Boback told The Wire. This allowed them to check on the rodents’ vital parameters throughout the constriction process. īoback and his team inserted electrodes to monitor electrocardiogram (ECG) of the heart, blood pressure catheters, and other probes into 24 anesthetised rats before offering them to nine boa constrictors. They published their findings in a paper called ‘Snake constriction rapidly induces circulatory arrest in rats’ in The Journal of Experimental Biology. Scott Boback and his team from Dickinson College examined cardiovascular functions of rats before, during, and after being enveloped by captive boas. This theory remained untested for two long decades. He suggested death came from rapid circulatory or cardiac arrest. Since suffocation would take a long time, the reptiles ought to be using a more effective strategy. In 1994, David Hardy Sr., an anaesthesiologist in Arizona who also studies snakes, observed that constrictors killed their quarry quickly. The coils tighten until the poor animal becomes lifeless. While six rows of sharp hooked teeth grip the animal firmly, the snake throws two or three loops of its muscular body coils around the victim’s torso like a straitjacket. Pythons and boa constrictors strike and grab their prey. The only weapon at their disposal is their muscular strength. Swallowing kicking pigs and fighting deer alive would be impossible without getting grievously hurt in the struggle. But large snakes like pythons and boas need large meals. Some, like cobras and vipers, use venom to kill, while others, like checkered keelback water snakes, swallow frogs alive. Snakes have no limbs or claws to overpower their prey. They discovered the reptiles dispatch their victims with precise efficiency. Scientists from Dickinson College, U.S., tested the vital parameters of rats as they were being constricted by snakes. ![]() No one thought to investigate how these snake giants killed their prey until now. Others might say they break the bones of their victims. Many, including reptile experts and quiz masters, would say large-bodied pythons and boas suffocate their prey by squeezing hard. Read about them here in this series by Janaki Lenin.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |