Wild Snake Myths & Just General "Old Wives Tails"
Snakes will hunt or "chase" you down. False This is 100% false. Most snakes are ambush predators and wait in hiding for their prey. While a scared or provoked snake might move toward you, it is likely trying to escape or defend it's self. Snakes have limited eyesight and when a large animal (like a human) comes at them they are going to get freaked out. Simply leaving the snake alone and it will move on. If you're worry called animal control and they can send someone to remove the snake. Snakes size up their owner to eat them! False Again this is one of those things I hear a lot and it's100% false. Snakes are opportunistic feeders yes and eat food that's offered to them in captivity. But humans do not make up any species of snakes natural diet in the wild. Snakes hunt by scent, and if it doesn't smell like food they don't eat it. Unless you have been rolling around with rodents, I don't think your snake wants to eat you. They lack the intelligence to "size up their prey" they would not understand a unit of measurement, and don't know to wait until they grow larger to then eat that item. Snakes in captivity and in the wild tend to try to eat things that are too large for them (ever seen a snake puke up a meal that was too big? Yeah it's gross) The old store that some lady slept with her python until one day it stopped eating & was told it was because it was "sizing her up" to eat her next has been going around for years. I think I first heard this story in the 90's & I have no idea where it originated. There is zero proof in this story, zero record of who this woman actually was, or where the original story even came from. The snake most likely stopped eating because it was old, or sick. The store normally says that she let the snake sleep in her bed for years. So how old was this snake? How big was this snake? And for anyone that has ever owned snakes, you know they don't hold still, so how was this snake even staying put in the bed with her every night for years? Nothing about this story has ever added up. Snakes can't hear or see: False While snakes don't have the best hearing it's been proven they do hear, just not higher pitched sounds like we do. They can also pickup on vibrations that we can't. They also see colors, but lack binocular vision. So they see just fine but it's limited to more of what's to their sides and close by. Most snakes have heat sensing pits that allow them to see heat as well.