The remnants of Hurricane Harvey continue to dump rain on the Houston area. Flooding is only expected to get worse this week, with National Weather Service flood warnings lasting until Wednesday evening. And humans aren’t the only ones being affected by the storm’s wrath.
Being bitten by an Australian tiger snake is a wholly unpleasant experience. Within minutes, you start to feel pain in your neck and lower extremities—symptoms that are soon followed by tingling sensations, numbness, and profuse sweating. Breathing starts to become difficult, paralysis sets in, and if left untreated,…
When we made that recent list of Zoo’s 19 craziest moments, we suspected that the show—currently careening through its the third season—would up the ante and get even more insane. And last week, it did. Like, mega-giant invisible snake insane.
A new subspecies of sea snake has been discovered off the coast of Costa Rica, and it’s got a unique hunting style that’s never been seen before in aquatic reptiles. Hanging from the surface like a coiled spring, it preys upon unsuspecting fish as they swim below.
It must be a fever dream, you think, your skin burning and everything going black as some strange force compresses your body. Am I being digested? But suddenly, a muffled human voice begins chatting. A rush of air and you’re free, your captor slithering away. Bewildered, you pose in shock for the camera.
Professional fighters have weight classes for a reason: no matter how adept the smaller fighter is, a much bigger one will probably have some sort of advantage. But size is rarely an issue in the snake world if a kingsnake is competing—and the little snake usually eats the bigger snake. So there’s that.
When a suspicious looking box labeled “two pair shoes” arrived in Australia from Northern Europe recently, the Australian Border Force sent it through an x-ray. They didn’t find shoes, of course. Instead, the box contained a terrifying assortment of venomous snakes, spiders, and scorpions—as if the country needed more…
Snakes are scary. Even small ones—the way they move, the prospect of venom, those little forked tongues—can send chills down your neck. But did you know that some snakes can eat human beings? A tragic incident in Indonesia recently reminded the world of this fact.
Cobras are renowned for their devastating flesh-eating venom, and the dramatic way they rear their heads upwards to flare their hoods. New research clarifies the purpose of these tactics and how they emerged among cobras—insights that could help scientists develop more powerful anti-venoms, and help you spot an…
Welcome back to Giz Asks, a series where we ask experts hard questions about science, technology, and humanity’s future. Today, we’re asking snake experts many questions about two-headed snakes and how they work.
Mohave rattlesnakes and Merriam kangaroo rats are currently embroiled in an evolutionary arms race, pitting wily predator against fast-acting prey. Dramatic high-speed video shows how quick and creative snakes need to be to launch an attack—and how rodents still manage to evade capture.
An Emirates flight from Muscat to Dubai on Sunday was delayed after baggage handlers found a snake in the plane’s cargo. It’s just like that movie. (Can’t remember the name, though. Help me out?)
Imagine the most elegant of dinner parties. The meal: a ground snake. Your guest: a tarantula. No silverware necessary, as your dining partner has brought its digestive juices with it.
In many ways, Australia is great: Twisties, beautiful beaches, hot sports men. In other ways, however, it’s a nightmare hellscape dreamt up by a drunk Salvador Dali after a visit to Jurassic Park.
After performing an autopsy on a bloated Burmese python, scientists in Florida were shocked to discover the remains of three white-tailed deer.
The only thing attracting more attention than the US election right now is that harrowing Planet Earth II video showing a recently hatched iguana as it fends off an army of snakes. For those who can’t get enough of this clip, BBC Earth has released some new footage of the encounter as it was being filmed.
Ten years ago, Samuel L. Jackson warned us about those motherfucking snakes. Now it’s real. On a commercial flight to Mexico City, there was an actual snake on an actual plane.
The menacingly beautiful blue coral snake preys on other fast moving, venomous snakes. To immobilize its prey, this reptile employs a particularly nasty venom—one that makes the last moments of the victim’s life a living hell.
Snakes! Where are their arms and legs? It’s not ok! Over 100 million years ago, snakes did have four appendages, and then evolution stepped in to turn the reptiles into the creepy, slithering freak show that they are today. Now, researchers believe they’ve isolated what caused this change.
Yeah, he just did that. This fearless snake whisperer released 285 snakes back into the wild by dumping out a bag full of them and then rubbing the snakes on the ground to make them all slither away. It’s so gross looking because they just start shooting off in every direction, and absolutely frightening because it’s,…
