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Optimized for |
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E-mail Bayou Bob!
snake@wf.net |
P.O. Box 1655 D
Weatherford, Texas 76086
940-769-2626 |
|
The Coral
Snake
(Micrurus fulvius tenere) |
| The coral
snake is likely the most gaudy of North
American venomous snakes. This snake has
a multitude of natural mimics which try
to pose as the dangerous coral. |
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The
beauty of this snake represents a true
danger as small children may readily pick
it up to show parents, thus providing
ample opportunity for a bite from this
otherwise rather docile reptile. The snake is classed with
several Old World species like the
neurotoxic cobras, kraits, and mambas.
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| Typically
very small by comparison, averaging only
20 inches or so, this snake is seldom
seen and tends to be very nocturnal. The snake spends much of its
life underground in cracks and crevices.
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The
grooved jaw along with tiny hollow fixed
fangs assure that the coral has a poor
delivery system for getting its venom
into the victim. However, the coral snake
does not have to "chew" its
victim to inflict a painfully venomous
bite, contrary to popular myth. |
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| The diet
of the coral snake consists primarily of
small lizards, snakes, reptiles and
amphibians. When
disturbed the coral snake often lays its
head out of sight and rattles its
flattened elevated tail and emits a
popping sound with its vent lining.
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| The coral
snake lays a clutch of 2 to 3 eggs in the
summer and, unlike the live-young bearing
pit vipers, is the only poisonous snake
in North America to lay eggs. |
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