A Little Bit More
There are only 3 species of hognose snakes and all are found in North America – Eastern, Southern, and Western Hognose are their common names. Hognose snakes are able to spread the skin of their head and neck, hiss, and even inflate their bodies a bit with air when threatened. This behavior makes them look larger and dangerous but often frightens people into thinking they’re poisonous. If all else fails, and a potential predator isn’t discouraged, these snakes will roll over on their backs, open their mouth and “play dead”. If you roll the snake back over onto its belly, it simply rolls back over and continues to play dead. Once danger leaves, the snake eventually rolls back onto its belly and crawls off to safety.
As the unit poster notes, hognose snakes prey mostly on toads although they do eat other animals. Since toads have a toxic skin secretion they can exude when threatened, most predators leave them alone, but not the hognose. Hognose snakes produce adrenaline to neutralize the toad’s toxins and have a strong preference for toads as food. Although hognose snakes are mostly diurnal (active in the daytime) and toads are mostly nocturnal (active in the nighttime) the hognose’s keen sense of smell helps it find toads by burrowing in the leaf litter and loose soil in search of its prey. This harmless snake is certainly an interesting one and deserves our protection.
Key Concepts
Behavior and Regulation, Identification, Predator/Prey Relationships, Structures and Functions
Questions
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