Snakes on a Pod!

is it a snake or is it spaghetti? Joining me today is writer, actor, YouTube video essayist and snake mom Maggie May fish hell Long. Welcome back, Welcome back my dad. Yeah. Last last the podcast, I made so many dad puns that I officially became Maggie's pun dad. So welcome back, daughter, um, mother of snakes. Hows how's your snake snake baby doing?

Your little noodle boy? Oh, my little noodle boy is great. Uh. I was just telling Katie, So it is two and a half years old, um, which means it's basically full grown at this point. He's like three feet long, three and a half, maybe even four at this point. But yeah, he's got he's basically done growing. And yeah, it's gonna live for another eighteen issue year. Nice. Just he's going to continue to eat lots of lots of mice, lots

of and and then sleep eating, sleep easily explore. We got him the final tank because as they're growing, you know, you don't you don't have to size up. Yeah, you get a size up. So we we have upgraded to the biggest tank that we can conceivably keep without you know, right, without just your entire apartment being dreary. Um right? Which one?

You know? One day, if you know, I would love to get like a giant terrarium, you know, really like duck it out, And the one we have is a pretty big so you know, the next step up we'll walk in terrarium. Yes, a full zoo, a full zoo room that you can just explore to your heart's desire. To watch out for the snake. Does your little noodle boy have a name? Yes, duck Duck the snake I

love it. Probably would eat a duck if he could too, he you know, I So I take him out and the cats don't really notice him because he's so slow moving. Every once in a while they'll notice that something's there, but he watches them, uh, you know, and like maybe he thinks he could get away. He never would, he just you know, sits on herman breathe. But yeah, part of me is like wondering, is it you know, is he scouting? Maybe? Yeah, just like just in case, Yeah,

just in case. I mean like probably has looked no offense, but he's probably sized you up to like could I probably not? Could I for sure? For sure? Yeah? Probably not, Like he still loves you. But it's it's snake brain where snake brain is like I love this person, but could I eat them? Could I eat them? Right? Yeah? Which you know that's you know, snake flattery, that's what you know. I before I got my cats, people would always ask me like, like, so your does your snake

like love you? It's like no, but that doesn't mean that it's not like a meaningful relationship that like it's not a great pet, right and in a lot of ways, like having a pet that doesn't emotionally depend on you is also very cool. It's liberating, right, Yeah, it's it's liberating. And it's like, you know, I love the snake, but I also don't need it to yeah, you know, and

depending snake Mom, you don't you don't need snake validation. Yeah, I don't need to be hanging all little over although, yeah, you know, clinging on squeezing really tight. Because all pythons are constrictors. They are non venomous. Uh they I guess they occasionally bite if they're really frustrated. He did, uh when I very early on. Um, I think it was one of his first sheds. I didn't have the humidity. Uh. Correct,

So he just wasn't humid enough. Um, and uh he got a little and it was his first time shedding, so yeah, he was. That's stressful. It's very stressful the first time, first time shedding. Yeah, so he did streak. That was the time he struck at me. But yeah, I mean his teeth are just like not even almost non existent. Um, it wasn't very just a little cute little chump. Yeah yeah, yeah. I mean my dog's non venomous, but she gives me cute little chomps sometimes wa um.

But yeah, I mean I remember when I was a kid, I wanted a snake really bad, but I found out then I found out you have to feed a frozen mice and I or even a live mince, depending it's not that I think it's wrong. I think it's you know, it's the circle of life. But I'd want to keep all of them. In fact, I like bought some feed or mice just to keep his pets. They're so cute. Yeah, I I did. When I first got the snake, I I did think that that might be a problem because

I also love mice, um and rats. And when I was deciding what pet to get, I was deciding between a snake or a house, which is like a rigid dichotomy. They're interesting. Um. But it ended up I was did not end up being phased by it. Yeah, soever, I think you'd get used to it. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's uh. But then I was ultimately vetoed by my mom who's like, no, not yeah, it usually but all to say, I mean that's like you know, someone thinking abou getting a snake that is yeah, yeah, it's um.

They they're their emotional needs are very limited, but their dietary needs are very involved in there's all sorts of things you have to worry about, like you mentioned, like shedding, keeping the humidity and the heat right, Providing them with lots of places so they can thermoregulate because they are cold blooded, not meaning that their blood is always cold,

but that they cannot internally thermoregulate. So they need to sit in the sun or a lamp to get warm and then hide under a rock or under a log or something to cool back down. So you got to provide all those things. And then you'll also, uh, I think every pet snake you can get needs to eat um. Well, maybe some snakes eat mostly insects, but I think most of them you will need to feed them something meteor

like a mouse. And then you have to be careful because you can't just throw a big live mouse in there that you find, because then it can hurt the snake, like the snake can get beaten up by a mouse, which is crazy. I don't know. We um ours when we got it, he was he was taught to eat frozen. So yeah, so luckily and we only feed him frozen. But yeah, what I found out that with people who feed live snakes that yes, they could get hurt, which

is like the mouse doesn't. It's like you're on board and the snakes on the board, but the mouse isn't on board. It's like wait a minute, no, they can like punch and scratch the snake, and it can actually in the worst case scenarios like really hurt the snake because you know, you're scratched, scratches it and the snake can get an infection. So yeah, yeah, I would if anyone think of getting a snake, I would say, get one that can eat frozen because you know, and then

he never needs to stress about food. Yeah, he has the easiest life any snake could ask for. And you don't have to feed him like that often, do you, because they actually eat. How often do you feed it? Because like they can eat and then go quite a while without another meal, because they basically are big noodles who eat a thing and then digest it for days and days and days and then they're like, alright, I guess I'll have another thing. Yeah. Yeah, it's in that regard.

It's also that that makes it a pretty easy pet um. We feed them about every other week, give or take. Sometimes, like if he's in the middle of shedding, you kind of know that he probably won't eat because, yeah, they're kind of picky, so you know sometimes it will be a little bit longer. But also they're also very telling, like he'll just he'll come out of his cage and start like smelling the top of the cage basically to say,

I'm I'm hungry. Sizing up the cats, Yeah, sizing up the cats um and visually you can you can see, you know, if like your snake is like losing a little bit of weight, you can see it so clearly. Because they're just a you can measure the diameter of the tube pretty easily. So like in in those regards,

it's really easy to tell when they're hungry. It's easy to feed them, and it's easy to uh, you know, if you have to, I guess not in quarantine times, but before that, if you were to go on a vacation, yeah, you could just feed them before you leave. And yeah and so yeah, yeah, low maintenance. But I think it's all about educating yourself before you get one. And then if everything sounds sounds good to you, you know. But

they're so fun, there's so visual they Yeah, they're cool. Yeah. Yeah, I like I like the I like holding them like the like you it's another thing like with them with a lot of like um herbs, a lot of reptiles, like you shouldn't handle them too much, but there are some snakes that are actually very like, okay, chill with being handled, so that's nice. Uh, it doesn't stress them ount necessarily that much. So today we are going to talk about some of the most amazing snakes in the world.

And this is actually I got like a listener question about some like, you know, some of my favorite snakes, and I wanted to go really in depth on it because it's just there's so much ground to cover. There are so many snakes that I find just adorable, really cool, really silly, and some are just like absolutely mind blowing, like gorgeous. So I've separated this into three sections. So in the first sections, we're gonna talk about the absolute

goofiest snake in the world. Second section is going to be the cutest snakes in the world, and the third section is the most gorgeous snakes in the world. All you know, in my opinion, so of course, you know, it's subjective. Every snake has value. Every snake is wonderful and lovely in its own way. But these are just some highlights. Some are just better than others. So so our first snake that we're going to talk about is

the dorkiest snake I love the snakes so much. It is called the Arabian sand Boa and I talked about a little bit in the Q and A episode, but I feel like it just deserves another look, and I wanted you to see it, Maggie, because it's so it's It is a snake that's found in the Arabian Peninsula and around. It lives in desert regions. It spends most of its time buried under the sand. But most importantly, Maggie, when you look at the snake, what are you seeing?

My my goodness. Uh, it's it's just a little like slogo, like his face almost just kind of like decides to end. And eyes that just say like it looks like someone glued a pair of Google eyes too, Weenie. Yeah, yeah it does. Uh. This is the when I was buying my pet snake. This was one of the other options. Really, Yeah,

how did you pass this one up? I I these uses for some reason, snake faces that don't have like a defined like jaw and head for some reason wigged me out for some And I love snakes, so I don't know why the non neck when it just goes from the tube, it's tube with googly eyes. Yeah, something about it, um just is slightly more alien that you know. I guess. Yeah. It's almost like a like a sock come to life, which I guess is a little weird,

isn't it? A little? On Canny Valley uncanny although very cute, very cute, very doofy. And what we cover last time was that the reason they have their eyeballs on the top of their heads is so they can periscope from under the sand. So they will spend most of their time under the sand and then just poke their heads just enough above the sand so that there's like two doofy little eyes can look up above the surface and see prey and then it can ambush the prey from

under the sand. So yeah, that is the Arabian sandbou Again, we covered it on the last Q and A, but I just it had to be mentioned in the goofy snakes, but on two snakes that we have not covered before on the podcast. So first, another extremely goofy snake. This is the Madagascar leaf nose snake. So I've never seen this, Katie, I have never seen this. I've never seen this. That's amazing. I'm proud of myself because I feel like Okay, Maggie loves snakes, it's gonna be hard to surprise her on

this podcast. I am surprised. I I don't think I have ever cute. They got snoots. The Madagascar leaf no snake have long snoots. They're found in Madagascar, obviously, um they grow up to be about a meter in length, that's about three ft. Males and females are highly sexually dimorphic,

meaning that they are very different looking. So males have this long, tapered snout and are more of an orangey yellow and females are sort of a more ashy tan color with a blunt or leaf shaped snout, and so that's the sort of leaf leaf nosed snake Moniker comes from. And biologists aren't exactly sure what the purpose of their snoots are their pointy little snoots, but some of the guesses would be that maybe it's sexual selection, like that's why only males have the really long snoot and the

brighter colors for females. Maybe it's more for camouflage, so it looks kind of like a leaf. And they do like to pretend to be vines, so they will dangle down from branches and kind of just sway in the wind like vines and then yeah, exactly, and then ambush their prey like little is or it's just like I'm just divine flowing in the wind and then and then that's it, and then I'm not. Uh, they are venomous, and even though their bites are very painful, I don't

think they've ever recorded a fatality in humans. Um, so I don't. I don't think they're like, yeah, they're not They're not deadly, but they are. You don't really want to get bitten by one because it's like very painful, it's unpleasant. Um. I think that's like a general rule, right, Like when I'm like this thing isn't deadly, it's like, but still don't get bit doesn't suck. Also, that means

you've annoyed it. Right, let me you you did something wrong, right, think about your choices about why you missed that snake. You did a snake faux pap. Although I do really want to like like boop it's little nose and be like got your nose, you know, or just like yeah, just like man, speaking of boops and snoots, next goofy snake is the tentacled snake. So This is an aquatic snake that lives in slow moving water in Thailand, Cambodia,

and Vietnam. They can stay underwater for up to thirty minutes, and yeah, it's pretty impressive. They can grow to be about one to three feet, which is like just under a meter. From fifty centimeters to just under a meter in length. They're a brownish color. Uh. Sometimes they have dark vertical stripes or splotchy lateral bands. But the most important part is that they got little face dongles, little face tentacles. Yeah, like Maggie did, like the devil horns

to her forehead exactly. Yeah, it's like right next to his nostrils. And so these are two fleshy prongs that sprout out from near each nostril. And they use these two since the movement of fish in the water and they eat fish, so you know, having some a couple of good old fish sensors. Another theory of what they may be used for is actually to help them lure and prey, because fish will see these little little dongles and think they are a couple of worms and come

on in. Yeah, so he's a fisherman, exactly, he's a fisher of fish. Yes, yes, you get a dad, you get it. I simply study under your wing. Give a give a snake a fish, it'll eat for a day. Give a snake nose dongles, and it'll fish for a lifetime. But I do love Jesus talked a lot about snakes. Did Yeah, Um, I was gonna say, I I really like aquatic snakes because you know, you always think of snakes just like year around, especially in the desert. You know they're done like that, dode do dode do lu.

But now these are their their water snakes, aquatic snakes. I like to swim. So in terms of their venom level, they may have some venom, but it's not it's not really harmful to humans. It's mostly harmful to the fish that they eat. And they have these rear things. They don't really bite hard on humans at all, So yeah, it doesn't it's they're not dangerous, right, But again, don't annoy them. Never real snakes. Never pick up a snake you don't know, first of all, because you didn't ask permission,

and it's rude. It's a real snake faux paw. And secondly, it could bite you. And look if you make as it's a pretty big mistake to make. You're like, oh, I think this might be a harmless snake. So you pick it up and you get bitten. You know, then you're wondering black meats yellow hills a fellow or is it black meets red? And you're dead Fred and by and by the time you figured out the right I let you figure out the newmonic device, you're already boaming at the mouth. So our last goofy a snake is

the elephant trunk snake. And these are wrinkly, saggy baggy snakes found in lagoons and rivers in Southeast Asia. They can actually grow to be quite big, up to about five to eight feet, which is two or three ms. And I gotta say, between you and me, kind of looks like a flaccid weener a little bit. I thought that, yeah, it looks a little like a little winter esque, a little weenesk. The wrinkle crinkles are both really cute. And also the last picture you have is him underwater, and

he does like very spooky spooky. It's funny because like underwater, I think it's sort of spooky and ethereal because they're all their wrinkles and bags are sort of floating under the water, so it looks sort of like a like a mermaid ghost or something. It's yeah, like that's the Lord of the Rings that ghosts. That's like, yeah, like the Ring Wraiths. So it's like spooky. But then as soon as you pull it out of the water, it's like shot the water, No, droopy and mag let me back.

He wasn't supposed to wash me warm water. No, I've all shriveled up. So but yeah, they spend most of their time in the water. They can actually hold their breath for up to forty minutes underwater, quite impressive. And their skin is really no good for crawling on land. It's specialized for swimming. So that's why they look look like fierce predators underwater or than above water. It's like it's like an Instagram filter, but it's the water, you know, Yeah, exactly, Yeah,

Instagram versus reality for these snakes. No, man, excuse me. I feel like Santa Anna is coming because like I've been sneezing a lot, and snakes are hyper allergenic. They're yeah, so if that's good, if you're allergic, Yeah, it's like you're allergic actually to dander and saliva. Pets that have hypoallergenic fur, it's that they don't shed as much. In the lack of shedding means there's less dander and saliva shedding everywhere as well. And snake skin they don't really

have dan druff. They just shed all on um. And and then besides that, they're they're pretty clean, boys, they're pretty clean. You can be allergic to snake bites and snake venom, and most people have a severe reaction to like venomous snakes, like rattle snakes. That's you know, it's even building up your immunity, which in that case, I have so many more questions. But yeah, yeah, I cannot

recommend that. So that rough baggy skin actually helps them grab onto fish and hold them under the water, uh and eat them because these guys, these elephant trunk snakes actually have no venom, so they are constrictors and that's how they kill and eat their prey. And because I mean, hey, fish are dang slippery, you know they are they get out of there, especially for a snake. It's yeah, it's like trying to tie down ah, like a piece of soap. Yeah, So you know, the having that baggy skin and it's

rough as well. It will help. It's like sand paper, and it grabs on and wraps around the fish and holds them in place. And you look, you can see these two different around aquatic snakes right with two strategies. The tentacled snake uses motion detecting prongs that look like worms, and he has a venom. And the elephant trunk snake she has that saggy, baggy skin, no venom, but she can constrict around her prey and hold it with that

rough skin. So to to aquatic snakes, two very different predator strategies, both very goofy looking, and I love them. Uh there, what a pair? What pair? What a pair? Some snakes have things, as you may already be aware, but there are a few types of finged snakes. There

are the front fings snakes and rear finged snakes. The difference between the two is deeper than just where their body parts are, so front thinged snakes both look more frightening and present a more immediate danger to humans due to their hollow, syringe like method of action of these big fangs that are right in front of their mouths.

Cobra's mambas and coral snakes are all examples of fixed front finged snakes, who have small, immovable front things which inject venom like hypodermic needles as they chew on their prey. Rattle snakes and copper heads have foldable front things and use a stabbing method rather than a chewing method to inject venom. Front things snakes in general are able to inject a higher concentration of venom in a shorter amount of time, and their venom tends to be more potent

than rear thinged snakes. Rear thinged snakes have things well near the back of the mouth. These things tend not to be hollow venom injectors like front things. Snakes, instead, grooves in the fangs distribute venom to their prey from glands located above the teeth. Typically, this means they inject less venom, and this venom tends to be less potent. Most rear finged snakes are harmless to humans, but there

are a couple of dangerous exceptions. There's the Boomsling of sub Saharan Africa, who has potent venom large rear finged jaws that can open a hundred seventy degrees and can deliver deadly bites to humans. There's also the twig snake of Africa, whose anti blood clotting venom can cause uncontrollable internal bleeding. While on that note, our next section is going to be about the cutest snakes in the world. Don't feel bad if you're scared of snakes, you were

probably born that way. Researchers have studied babies reactions to snakes and found that infants as young as six months old react with enlarged pupils to snakes, even though they've likely never had much variants or knowledge of snakes before. But just because we come into the world with an anti snake bias doesn't mean we have to stay that way. Let's talk about some absolutely adorable noodle buddies, cute snakes,

cute snakes, snakes. I try to make a snake noise and I was like, oh wait, they don't make noises, but they can you guys hear that? Can you hear that? Watch it? I could watch my snake like things all day. It is. It is cute at the little time, be a little exploratory tongue coming out and sniff in the air.

Very cute. I yeah, I find I know that. I mean I find a lot of snakes cute, especially the non viper snakes because like I can see, like I understand the fear of like this sort of viper snakes, like the rattlesnakes, the front finged snakes, they have a bit of a sort of what would you call it, like ghoulish look, because you know, yeah, they look like

they're out to get something. You know, it's probably just like dinner, but you know, like or you um, which I can respect, but you know, they're sort of they're they're a little bit more aggressive, whereas the rear fame snakes or the constrictor snakes tend to have a little bit of a cuter, cuter snout situation I would say, like a little bit of a puppy dog mouth and ye. But yeah, so so here are some super cuteis so.

One of the cutest snakes, in my opinion, are the hog nos snakes and mag you've probably seen these before because they are actually hobbyists do keep some of these as pets because of how cute they are. If I got a second stake, it would probably be a hog nose. Maybe maybe not, but it would be up there. Yeah, the nose is like slightly upturned and you can almost like see they're like little mouth underneath, just like yeah, they have a little upturned snout and just like slightly

parted little mouth. Then it's just like eepep, you know, it's like little roadrunner noises coming out of these guys. They're very cute. I got these big ground eyes. Um. So there are actually a few genuses of hog no snake that are distantly related. So they're all called hogno snakes because of their similar appearance, but they're actually not like directly related. So there are the heterodonts of North America and Mexico. Those are probably the ones most people

are familiar with living in North America. Uh, there is Leo heterodons of Madagascar, which well lives in Um, there's Les Tropus of South America. So three distinct genuses. I'm mostly going to talk about the heterodons of North American Mexico, but I did want to mention the Les Tropus of South America, like to mimic the deadly coral snakes which have red, white and black stripes, And there are a lot of snakes that mimic the coral snake coloration because

it's a pi semitism. In the actual venomous snake, it's signaling a very potent venom. And then there are a variety of mimics. Some are less venomous but still rather venomous. Some of them don't have nearly as powerful venom or don't have venom at all, that are mimicking it to get the benefit of that coloration. And it's this kind of careful balance of sneakery but then honest signals. So

it's very interesting. But with these guys, the South American hognas, they have that dangerous looking coloration, but then this little snout that's just like to give away, like like you go from the tail, it's like, oh what, oh no, this looks like a dangerous snake. And then and then it ends in the head is like getting It's like when I do my makeup and the I put on false eyelashes that start like falling off. It's like, Okay,

you got me. That's not so. Heterodonts are the ones that live in North America and also Mexico, and they are so cute to me. They're the cutest ones. They have just a totally adorable little boops newt. They only grew up to be about twenty inches long, which is about fifty centimeters. They're relatively stout, so some snakes are kind of long and skinny. Some are like sort of stouter and thicker. They're on the thicker side and thick

boys thick gold noodles. What what are like the thick noodles called like like linguini linguini Yeah, like yeah, I don't sorry, I don't know pasta names that good, even though I love pasta. But you know, some big old, thick little yoki's yoki snakes. So they are they don't want to really tangle with you. They are they they don't want to fight you. They don't want to bite you.

They want you to leave them alone. And they are scared of you, so they will try to ward you off if they detect a threat by pretending to be cobras, and they will hiss and flatten their necks. But they know cobras. They're they're just sweet little babies, just we

little babies. They do not want to bite you. They only bite if they are extremely distressed and there you know, their venom is pretty weak and mostly effective against frogs, so it's not really you know, too dangerous for a human unless you have an allergy for an adult human, right or you're an adult woman who turned into a frog. That's true, like if you turned into a frog, like if you drank the water that Alex Jones told you not to drink and you turn into a frog, and

then then you're in trouble. But yeah, they really don't like to bite unless it's prey, and you know that if I'm not interest thing, I think they just really want to avoid. It's both wanting to avoid confrontation and wanting to save their venom for actual actual hunting, and so they will use other techniques to try to ward you off. And usually if they strike at you, it's actually just a head butt because like it's just so

cute to me. It's just like, no, no, there's something adorable to me about like an animal that's usually associated with like being dangerous, and they just really really don't want to fight with you. I think I LL. I grew up in Michigan, so there were very many venomous snakes as opposed to you know, like out here in California, So growing up, I didn't really have an association with snakes being venomous. Most of the snakes in our area,

you know, or just garden snakes. All to say, when I got a snake, a lot of people were worried and like, and you know, and people, a lot of people are afraid of snakes, but for the spart snakes

are much more afraid of us. Exactly. There's a lot of species of animals that it makes sense that we have such a negative association with because when it comes to our safety, it's like if you if you trust every snake and you just like pick them up and give them a kiss, like, that's not gonna work out for you, because like some of them, some of them

truly are dangerous. So in terms of our our survival as a species, it makes sense to be overly cautious about animals than to be too to like, hey, give me a big old hug, Mr. Rattlesnake, or even like a giant Boa constrictor like, give me that's a little tight,

little tight. But yeah, I mean, like now that we have the Internet and the magical power of Wikipedia, I think we can definitely revised our views of snakes as all being terrible and dangerous and mean because they're not a lot of them are good little noodles widow noodles. So so the little hog nose noodles have another trick up their sleeves to get you to go away, and it is to play dead by flipping over, lolling their tongue out of their mouths, and going like I'm dead,

go away. Is that I don't I've never heard of another snake doing that, and do other snakes or is that just a hog nos thing? I think it's I mean, I know that hognos are the most famous for it. I don't know if they're the only snake that does It's called thanatosis, where you like play dead. They're certainly not the only animal that does it, but they I don't. I don't think they're They're certainly not the only reptile that does it, um, but I don't. I also don't

think they're the only snake that does it. But they are the most famous ones for doing it. And they also will excrete a foul odor out of their cloaca to complete the the illusion of being dead. Wow, he's like a Disney imagineer coming all the senses to really pull you into the narrative of I'm dead right like a fog machine, a fake burglary scene, all pig footprints, a murder weapon nearby, and like a motive, like a message scrawled out in fake blood. That's like like the

mongoose did it. So yeah, they they in fact, like if they're in this stage where they're playing dead and you try to like flip them back over, they will flip right right back over to committed committed, so committed like the Daniel day Lewis is of snakes, Wow, very cool. In North America we have a few hognos species. There's the Western hognose snakes, which tend to have sort of a rougher tan and brown skin. They I think they

they're kind of like mimicking rattlesnakes a little bit. The Eastern hognose snakes are a little bit smoother, but they're also sort of brown, tan and splotchy. Sometimes they have solid color patterns. And the ones that are grown in captivity for um, you know, to be kept as pets, they can actually like breed them to have like different colorations,

which is pretty cool. And the whole reason that they have that adorable little upturned snoot that just looks so poopable, Like it just looks like my my finger would fit right on it. And then if I poked it, like their little tongue would come out and be so cute. The purpose for that is not for me to poop it,

but for them to dig in the dirt and sands. Oh, it is like a shovel like a little exactly wow, because they like to cover themselves in a blanket of dirt sand leaf litter to help them thermoregulate and keep warm or keep cool. So yeah, that is that they got a little little shovel for a nose, and it's so cute. It's so cute. So the next total cuteie snake that is unbelievable unbelievable is the blunt head tree snake of South America, Mexico and Central America. You know

earlier when I said I like snakes with heads. This is that, Like, but the cursor goes all the way like like if you haven't had a snake character creation slider and you just like you slit all the sliders. Have you ever watched a monster factory that like McElroy. They do a series where they just go crazy with character creation sliders. I love it because like nature also does this. So like the character creation head like a

body zero percent. Yeah, so they have. They are a little stringy spaghettis with big heads and tiny, skinny bodies. They look unbelieved. It doesn't look like it should work. It just it doesn't. It really looks like a ribbon someone lost that got found a penny and like they're just sitting there. Yeah, like it looks like, you know, they wouldn't be able to move because their heads would be too heavy. And of course they they are real.

They are tree dwelling snakes that live in moist and wet I wrote down wet ass forests because I thought it was clever last night. It's pretty clever. So they are sort of a very, in my opinion, very pretty like brown and cream color with a banded pattern. Sometimes they're a little more orangey brown. Sometimes they're sort of like brown and white. And they got big old eyes, skinny little bodies and giant heads, and they can reach

up to about a meter in length. But it's all like skinny noodle body like so so skinny noodle body. I think like it. It gets a little bit thicker in the middle, like they have a little more muscle in the middle, but it is like mostly skinny noodle. It kind of reminds me like they really gave me the vibe of like Captain America before he goes in the muscles machine. Yes, when he when he's still dinky, yeah, cut, yeah, I thought it was cute before he went in the

muscles cheese cute. He's horrible, but I need to change. But I don't think he needed to change. I mean he needed to change for America to protect America from like base Nazis. In my opinion, as as a nice looking person, he didn't need no muscles machine. Like you don't need no muscles machines, guys, And we look at this. This snake should be a body positivity for anyone who feels like they're not rough enough. No, no, no, you're

perfect and wonderful. This snake is beautiful and the reason their heads are so big is that they have to accommodate their big old eyes. They have some of the best vision of any snake on the planet. Whoa a lot of snakes. Actually, their vision isn't super great, Like they mostly rely on smell, and like that's why they're like always starting their tongue out. They have receptors on their tongue that helps them like smell, taste the air, and be able to locate things that way. But yeah,

their eyes aren't always that great. But for these guys, they have giant eyes, big old peepers that are very good at peeping. And so in order to house these giant eyes that take up almost of their heads, like they need they just need a big skull and they need a big head. Wild, that's wild. I think that the head is this big simply for the eyes. Yeah, it's a vehicle for the big eyes. That's basically Timothy shellomy, right, Like he's a vehicle for guys, you know, and then

there you go. So one of the reasons they need such big eyes is that they are nocturnal and they hunt for tiny critters like amphibians and little reptiles at night, so they need much better vision and that those big old cat eyes helped them see in the dark. And yeah, just utterly like ridiculously cute. They look like a Jim Hanson horrible. They do have a mild venom, but they're not dangerous to humans. They I don't think there's ever been a serious case of a snake bite for for people.

And they also just like don't tend to bite like they're not they're not interested in it. They Um, can I ask a question about how or what what did it eat? I mean, because it's just its head and its tiny body. Yeah, I mean does it just body stretchy? Yeah, body stretchy. Um. It does have a venom to incapacitate its prey, and it eats little things, so like little things. But as you know, like with snakes, they can eat things that seem like they shouldn't fit inside of the

snake because the snakes bodies are so stretchy. So yeah, yeah, so so the answer is they eat small things and their body stretchy. Just cut little chill, little sling beans, little dud uh. And then our last contender for cutest cutiest of snakes is the big eyed green whip snake, which I like to call the kermit snake. I don't think they're technically called that, but they look like, you know, a little kermit snake, like, oh, normous, speggy, I'm a snake.

How are we going to do the show Miss Peggy. So they are found in Malaysia. Not too much is known about them, um so kind of scant info on their behavior. But they really look like a long, tubular Kermit the frog to me because they are a super bright green. They've got these light cream colored bellies and

these huge Kermit eyes, so Kermit eyes trademark. Yeah, like you know how like Kermit's pupils go side to side with sort of like the it's like a big pupil in the center and then it kind of tapers off. You know, Kermit eyes. You get it, you get it.

You know. That's what these snakes got and they're very cute and it's funny because their heads are pretty Their heads are actually kind of long, so when you look at its profile, it kind of makes more sense, like it's like, okay, it's got kind of a longer, narrower head, so the eyes kind of fit. But when it's looking at you face on, it's so silly looking because it just has these like two big beady eyes and then

it's like a little tiny mouth. It looks very grumpy. Yeah, these puddles look because the either are slanted and his little chin comes up. Yeah, it's like an old man just kind of swamp yea retired and just got over it really quickly. It's not easy having no limbs, so cute verte. When did snakes lose their legs? Probably around a hundred million years ago. Genetic researchers identified the gene that controls for limb development, which they call the sonic

hedgehog gene because scientists are nerds. Basically, the sonic hedgehog gene and snakes is dampened such that legs never developed beyond a very basic cartilage blueprint during embryonic development. Sometimes these underdeveloped legs are still present in adults, like in pythons who have legs stubs near their pelvis that they used to grip onto other snakes during mating, so they do still have some of the original leg blueprints that

their lizard ancestors had. It just doesn't fully activate during embryonic development. So why did snakes lose their legs? That's a bit of a trickier question. It may be that their ancestors were aquatic and became more streamlined for swimming, or they were terrestrial and ditched their limbs in favor of burrowing. And sneaking up on prey, or maybe they're just forgetful and don't remember where they left those Dane legs. When we return, we're going to find out that regardless

of legs, snakes can totally own the runway. Most of the time you see a vibrant, colorful snake, it's a case of APIs semitism or warning coloration. The beautiful red, yellow, and black bands of a coral snake warns potential predators of their deadly toxicity. But sometimes non venomous snakes come in dazzling colors for a mysterious reason that has to do with magical crystals. So now we are going to look at some of the most beautiful instagrammable snakes in

the world. Just I mean, it's like you see these snakes and you're like, what I want what she has. I'll buy what she's selling, right, I'll take whatever supplement she's taking, whatever exercise hit program she does. I will follow her makeup videos and army pants and flip flops. Army pants. Yea, these girls were mean to me in high school, but now we're children. We've gotten over it. Yeah, I mean, like they've gotten over it and I've pretended

to get over it. Yeah, that's what. Yeah, it's like no, no, I'm over it. I'm over it. Yeah. So these are sunbeam snakes and there they look as ethereal and pretty as their names suggests. So they're also known as xeno peltus, which is also sounds fantastical, like some kind of fairy queen name. So these are a genus of snakes so different. There are multiple species in this genus and they are found in Southeast Asia. And they have beautiful, shiny, glistening, irridescent,

fairy magical scales. They shine like a beautiful rainbow. They grow up to be a little over a meter, so about fifty one long, so they're not that big. They live underground for the most part. They are non venomous. They are constrictors. They are a dark brownish color, but who cares about all of that. All that we care about is they are shiny, shiny and rainbow ee and iridescent, iridescent like the best, like holographic eyeshadow, nail polish out.

It's beautiful. It's they have a just glossy rainbow shimmer. Sometimes they have like this violet bluish undertone as well, just absolutely gorgeous, shimmering and shining in the sun. So a designer snake, Yes, yes you will, uh yeah if I if in the future I get another, you know, reptile, I tell myself, you know, I don't know what I would get, but these snakes are beautiful, but they do

cost a lot of money. You. As soon as I got my regular pet snake, my Instagram was filled with like, oh but you didn't get like, okay, okay, They're all beautiful in their own way. They're all beautiful. Yeah, I mean it's what's on the inside of the snake, which is like partially digested mice, the snakes pellets. So yeah, these are the magical fairy princesses of the snake world. The so the shin nous is actually caused by microscopic structures on their scales that catch the light. These are

called ritophores and eritophores are these tiny crystal structures. So it's a snake made out of tiny rainbow crystals, which is just I can't anymore. Princess wouldn't want that. It's the princess, and I mean I want to be snake princess. You know, I would be a fairy snake princess. So the purpose of these microscopic crystal structures is probably thermal regulations. So by catching the sun and it helps like cool

off their skin, it like reflects the heat. And for this reason, they and actually other snakes in the world glimmer and shine like wonderful holographic rainbows. So we're going to talk about two other snakes that have the same effect, which blew my mind because like I had heard about these sunbeam snakes. I was like, yeah, that's great, and then it's like, this is the same mechanism that these other snakes us. I'm like, what, there's more, but there

iss but wait, there's more. You call this number one snakes. We'll give you a snake you can't tell what kind and see a snake grab bag. So there is also the brazil only in rainbow boa, rainbow boa, rainbow boa. Yeah, and they are found in Central America in humid woods.

They have sort of the regular boa pattern, like this orange, brown and black sort of splotchy skin pattern, and on top of that though, they have this glowy rainbow sheen, which I am just it's like it's it's amazing because they have they're like, okay, regular snake pattern, but on top of that, we just put a rainbow. Right, what do you think about that? Right? Sell a million handbags.

Don't turn these snakes into handbags. I forgot that that's real, Like my brain would snake skin, and then I was like, oh yeah, but like people, Yeah, yeah, the Cruella developed snakes. I would watch that like a hundred and one rainbow bow snakes. It's just the Cruella de bill of snakes.

And then there's just like hundreds of snakes doing a grand adventure that movie, and then like the what are they called the Darling I don't remember what the humans are in that movie, but yeah, it's not that darlings. Is Peter Pan right? Oh wait, yeah, you're right. I

don't know humans. The humans that on the Dalmatians, but this time they own snakes and then like their snakes, you know, get kidnapped by Kriola de Ville, and then the snakes come back with like a hundred other snakes and then they're just like, well, I guess we gotta now we have a hundred snakes, and I'll write a song about it. And then it's gonna be really cute

and down. Yeah. So yeah, these these rainbow but Brazilian rainbow boas are found in Central America in humid woods, and um, yeah, they have it's like just normal Boa behavior, normal normal boas, just just rainbow addsh like a holographic Pokemon. They're like, you know, they're like the holographic Pokemon of of BoA's. Yeah. So the other snake that has this effect is just incredibly beautiful. It is called the foremost

an odd scaled snake. So these are non venomous, dark blackish snakes found in Taiwan and the ryu Que Islands, Japan, and they grow to be about thirty five inches long, which is ninety you know, not too big. They are nocturnal. They mostly eat earthworms, frogs and so on. Yeah, eating worms in the dirt most important. I know, it's weird, right. Well, what's gonna blow your mind is like some snakes even eat what are called like they'll eat smaller snakes. Sometimes

they are these snakes called blind snakes. And just for the sake of time, I didn't get into them in the cute snake section, but these there are little little blind snakes that there are these tiny, tiny snakes and they look like worms. Um. And they like you can't even really see their eyes um, and like some of them like they have barely functional if if at all having eyes, and like these little tiny meals and they just like look like little worms, but they're actually snakes.

So you know, a bigger snake could probably eat them like a plate of spaghetti. Uh them up. But they also eat the Arabian sandbo which we talked at the top of the show, I think also eats legless lizards that look like snakes. Oh yeah, those things look they look they look like worms or snakes, but they're actually a lizard, which is I mean, you might be like, well, but all snakes are like okay, true enough, but slightly

different evolutionary paths. So um, but these guys, the foremost and odd scaled snakes um, are also beautiful, shiny and glimmery. They are beautiful snake mertmaids who glisten and shine and they actually have like bumpier scales so it catches the light slightly different. So to me, it looks like these snakes are not only rainbow but also slightly gilded, like they're partially made out of gold partially made out of rainbows.

When you have the light, it's all about the lighting. Like, if you don't have these snakes in the right lighting, they're not going to shine, just like me, like when I'm not When I'm in the right lighting, it's great, but like nine of the time I'm not in the right lighting. And you know, yeah, yeah, it's like you know why my chin looks like it's above my nose and like one eyeball is like, you know, beneath my mouth, Like it's the lighting, right. So remember that next time

Gussie Katie was with a Picasso face. Yeah, so my mind is blown by these snakes. I can't get over these shiny rainbowie snakes. They're beautiful, absolutely beautiful utiful. Yeah, man, I do really want one, I know, I want like, I want to like be them if that makes sense in a non in like a non furry way. Well, I guess they wouldn't be furries, right, they'd be like scally that would be oh yeah, I don't know what the terminology is there. If any listeners know, feel free

to tell Katie tell me. But all to say, I would love to see a free costume of this time you're descent snake skin. It's beautiful. This is my snake sona. Yes, yes, I also like I want like, um, I guess, like an eyeshadow in this color, not made out of the snakes. Let me make it clear, I'm not the cruel devill of these snakes. These they are perfect and they must

be defended at all costs. But you know, because like I feel like I have a blue undertone in my skin, and I feel like these would go well with my skin tone. You know, I'm a winter not a summer, and these snakes are sort of a winter. So you see what I'm saying. I see what we're saying. It's also the especially on the sunbeam snake, it's kind of like oil slick color where it just like, ah, I need a nail polish that is in snake color, you know,

snake color. Yeah. Really, Yeah, I'm shiny, but they're not Oh yeah those are nice. Yeah, but they're not they're not quite like they're not sunbeams snake you know. But yeah, I also would like to just like Beauty Gurus channel, but it's just these snakes flopping around. Snake. Yeah, you'll never be sorry. I'm sorry if it offends you that I was just born beautiful. I'm sorry, like I'm sorry glisten in the rainbow. Same sorry, it looks like I'm

made out of a hundred golden rainbows. It's not my fault. A wonderful well. We have covered from the goofiest to the cutest to the most Instagram influencer snakes, in my opinion, in the world. I'm there's so many snakes, though, we'll probably have to do this all over again. Get more snakes in here. I would love to talk snakes anytime, anytime. We will bring you back for snakes too, snakes reloaded, Snakes in a recording booth. Yeah, snakes on a podcast, No,

snakes on a pod. Snakes on a pod? Yeah, okay, all right, sure, okay, But thank you so much for joining me today, Maggie. This was incredible. It's so fun to talk to someone who is as in the mesiastic about snakes and loves them and cherishes them and wants to kiss them as much as I do. I do. I love them. And if anyone is curious about owning a snake, there's a lot of resources, but do make sure you do your research. Um they are you know, the one I have is a beginner snake, but that also,

you know, matters. There's easier snakes to take care of. There's more involved there. There there's a varrieta. Yeah, but they are great pets. So if you're thinking about it, yeah,

I encourage you to check it out. Yeah. I've actually spent a lot of time on snake forms, not because I don't I've never owned a snake, so I only know about it in theory on paper, but like I'm just fascinated by these like snake forms where they're like, you know, my snake has not even a mouse in like in five weeks, and like what can I do?

And like all this advice about like try heating up the mouse sometimes they like warm and you know, really change the temperature or yeah, it's like have you tried seasoning? It's but a little bit. It's a little salt and pepper on it. You know. It feels like people appreciate snakes, you know, more of these days. Yeah, there's a great like like snake community where yeah, there's anyone who owns a snake has usually been online asking all their snakes, right,

snakes making this weird noise? What does it mean? Um? Because also the other thing is that veterinarians oftentimes don't have that much experience with snakes. So I didn't go to I didn't go to veterinary school to treat this hose. Give me it's a tube. Um, And they have a point, but I'll to say that it's also you know, there's a there's a fun community of you know, just sneake owners who love their animals and are happy to help.

It is. It is like nuts to be a veterinarian though, because they're like, you just know all it's all animals now, it's like any animal because like human doctors is like humans. Okay, humans, you can get a handle on humans, it's like, but with veterinarians, it's like birds, cats, dogs, snakesh turkeys, hedgehog, just any of it. It's like, but these are different. They have different organs. Some of them don't have legs, and they should have leg some of them shouldn't have legs.

So what snake looks like a rainbow? And I oh, there was this, I think a few years ago, this viral video of a veterinarian pulling an entire bath towel out of us out of it. I think it was a it was a python, right, and and it was just like this poor python had eaten an entire bath towel. Had a very bad tommy because the poor thing was like at this point, it was like nine bath towel, just like a snake tube filled with bath towel. And they pulled out this whole thing and everyone cheered at

the end. It was amazing. Yeah, and it came out so smoothly. He clearly he might have figured out that it should come out the snakes like all right, I gave my best shop started right about this. Yeah, incredible, incredible.

Also also when you do your research, just make sure that you're getting snakes that are ethically sourced, like you don't you know, like and that's also yes, And try not to shop at, you know, any of the name brand pet stores if you can avoid them, because they usually go with um mass breeders who you know, just breed and toss the puppy the puppy mills of snakes, yes, the puppy mills snakes and little puppies, so you know, yeah, um, you know, you can look at you know, your local

pet stores, um or there are pet stores that just deal with reptiles, um, and you can ask if you know where the snakes have been sourced, right, um. Something actually to consider when you own a snake or other reptile is actually finding a vet who can spay or neuter your pet to prevent it from becoming an invasive species if it escape, because you never know where your snake is gonna find love, make a bunch of babies, and start eating all the local birds. Also, make sure

your snake isn't sourced from the illegal pet trade. I totally get the desire to have cool pet snakes, but you gotta do your research to make sure that their wild counterparts and your local wildlife will not be harmed. With all pets, you want to keep them indoors. Don't, don't really some because then you know if they can become invasive and you don't want that. So but there are all sorts of ways to be a responsible snake owner.

So snakes are amazing. And if you're scared of snakes, just look at the Arabian sand abou and I promise you you will no longer be well. Thank you so much again, Maggie, you got anything to plug? Uh? Yeah, you guys, can hop over to my YouTube channel. Um, I do fun videos where I break down movie um, and we have some fun ones. Comment snakes on a plane, that's not snakes on a plane. But many of the films I cover have animals involved. Yeah, you did a

cats one, right, I did. I did a cat's one. Um, we have a Lord of the Ring one nighteming not so. If you like all the fuls, then holiphants, lazy J k Rowling just inventing an animal that's like two words away from Elephanta. So you can find us on the internet at Creature Feature Pod on Instagram, at Creature feet Pot on Twitter. That's f E T not et. That

is something erent. If you have any questions about snakes or otherwise, if you've got pictures of your pets, if you want to ask me, wait, am I a snake? You can email me at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com. And yeah, thank you guys so much for listening. If you're enjoying this show, if you leave me a review, I will read it. I cherish them all. It like makes my day when someone has a nice review. I'm

just like floating all daylong. Like they like it. They liked the podcast, Thank You So Yeah, I appreciate all that, and I just like you know, I appreciate everyone for listening to Thank you so much. Uh and thank you to the Space Classics for their super awesome song excel Alumina Creature Feature is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts like the one you just heard, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or Hey, guess what?

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