Though many people suffer from more or less serious snake phobia, they make very little distinction between the venomous and the non-venomous types. Snake identification becomes a necessity for people sharing their habitat with all sorts of snake species, particularly when their bite is a threat to human life. The snake identification elements worth mentioning include the color pattern, the scales texture, the body shape as well as the eye pupil specificity, all these features allowing classifications and scientific studies. Familiarity with these traits becomes a necessary prevention measure and authorities advise that people learn how to distinguish between the various snake species.
As a first snake identification detail, length strikes the eye first. The danger often is present small-sized species that are difficult to distinguish in the environment.Since snakes swallow prey without chewing it, once it gets in the digestive system it is only natural that it will modify the body shape: thus any slender snake could look a bit stout; consequently always judge the color pattern too before making any identification. Then, the snake identification as poisonous or non-venomous can be misleading when considering the head and neck shape; though the majority of venomous species have a triangular head shape, there are some with round heads too, and vice versa.
According to pattern and color, snakes could be striped, multicolored, blotched, banded, mono-colored or the only color variations are visible in the head and tail area. It is generally known that snake identification usually considers the type of the pattern in finding out the poisonous or non-poisonous feature of a species; in general words, snakes with intricate patterns or vivid colors are venomous, but this is not always the case. Nature has its way of signaling danger to other creatures sharing the same habitat, but sometimes the vivid colors could be just a clever means of getting cover in the background and not be spotted by predators. This is the case with bright green snakes living in tropical rain forests.
As for scientific snake identification, special materials and professional work methods are required so that both animals and observers remain unmarred by the encounter. One snake skin feature is scale smoothness for shiny scales but they could also be diamond-shaped too; the latter look duller and are specific to snakes living on rocky desert-like terrain. Last but not least, the eye pupil allows for a quick snake identification since the cat-like vertical pupil indicates a venomous predator. With the exception of the poisonous coral snake that has rounded pupils, most dangerous species show the elliptical pupil shape.
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