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Eating Habits of Reptiles (Part 10)

© Janat Khatoon

This organ comprises a pair of cavities located internally on each side of the snout with ducts leading to an opening in the roof of the mouth. The cavities are heavily supplied with nerve endings like those used in the smell sense. The tongue picks up odorous particles from the ground or out of the air itself and transfers them to the openings of Jacobson’s organ, thus enabling the rattlesnake to trail its victim. Although the process seems to overlap the regular olfactory sense, it does not replace it. Many reptiles with well-developed Jacobson’s organs are able to smell in the ordinary way too. This curious organ is not used in food-getting alone, but seems to be put to important social uses such as the forming of hibernating groups and the finding of one sex another at mating time. Nevertheless, its part in the complex of feeding adaptations of the rattlesnake is evident. It is the only link that the poisonous snake has with the poisoned, doomed but still mobile prey.

Once the rattlesnake has caught up with its now dead or dying victim, it brings to bear the snake-wide ability to fit its jaws over huge quantities of food. A four-foot rather can swallow a full-grown cottontail rabbit. Moreover, it is able to provide itself with cottontails to swallow, something a non-venomous snake could only rarely do. Nor does the interaction of adaptations and there. Because snake venom contains digestive enzymes, the process of digestion begins as soon as the venom diffuses into the tissues of the prey. This, too, is important in terms of economy of effort. Non-poisonous snakes, especially the constrictors, which subdue big prey by squeezing them into immobility, must digest without the help of any internal enzyme action in their food. But for the rattlesnake, digestion of the huge bulk proceeds from the inside as well as at the surface, and there is little doubt that the time involved is greatly shortened—with whatever attendant profit the saving of time might yield to the snake.

The usefulness of venom is not confined to feeding alone. Its potential advantages as a defence mechanism are obviously also powerful. However, this point is not so simple as it might seem at first glance. For while it is clear that poison is a good thing to stay away from, how will another animal know that a snake is poisonous? The question leads to some interesting conclusions.

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