Ophiophagy
Ophiophagy ("snake eating") is a specialized form of
feeding or alimentary
behavior of animals which
hunt and eat
snakes. There are ophiophagous mammals (such as the
skunks and the
mongooses),
birds (such as
snake eagles, the
Secretary Bird, and some
hawks), lizards (such as
Crotaphytus collaris), and even other snakes, such as the Central and South American
mussuranas and the North American Common
Kingsnake (
Lampropeltis getula). There is even an entire genus of snakes named after this habit,
Ophiophagus, with species such as the venomous
King Cobra (
Ophiophagus hannah).
The mythic associations of snakes are discussed at Serpent (symbolism).A snake-eating bird of prey appears in a
legend of the Mexican people, who gave rise to the
Aztec empire, and it is represented in the
Mexican flag: The Mexicas, guided by their god
Huitzilopochtli, sought a place where the bird landed on a
prickly pear cactus, devouring a snake. They found the sign on an island in
Lake Texcoco, where they erected the city of
Tenochtitlan ("Place of the Prickly Pear Cactus" – present-day
Mexico City) in
1325. (In the
Coat of Arms of Mexico this bird is depicted as a
Golden Eagle, though it's often said to be a
Crested Caracara[1]. It is also possible that the bird was a
Laughing Falcon or Snake Hawk, a bird of prey which feeds almost exclusively on snakes.)
The
Mayans also had the legend of ophiophagy in their
folklore and
mythology.
Guatemala may derive its name from the
Nahuatl word
coactlmoctl-lan, meaning "land of the snake-eating bird."
[2]Christian folklore associates snakes with
evil (see
serpent) and considers anything that destroys them good. An example for this tradition is
Rudyard Kipling's
short story "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" (in
The Jungle Book), in which Rikki-Tikki, a
mongoose, defends a human family against a pair of evil
cobras.
In some regions, farmers keep ophiophagous animals as
pets in order to keep their living environment clear of such snakes as
cobras and
pit vipers (including
rattlesnakes and
lanceheads) which annually claim a large number of deaths of domestic animals, such as
cattle, and attacks on humans. An example is tamed mongoose in India. In the
1930s a Brazilian plan to breed and release large numbers of
mussuranas for the control of pit vipers was tried but didn't work. The
Butantan Institute, in
São Paulo, which specializes in the production of
antivenins, erected a statue of the mussurana
Clelia clelia as its symbol and a tribute to its usefulness in combating venomous snake bites.
Many ophiophagous animals seem to be immune to the venom of the usual snakes they prey and feed upon. The phenomenon has been studied in the mussurana by the Brazilian scientist
Vital Brazil. They have antihemorrhagic and antineurotoxic antibodies in their blood. The
Virginia Opossum (
Didelphis virginiana) has been found to have the most resistance towards snake venom. This immunity is not acquired and has probably evolved as an adaptation to predation by venomous snakes in their
habitat.
*
The Brahmani and the Mongoose.
*
History of Mexico National Coat of Arms.
*
Laughing falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans) in canopy with False coral snake (Erythrolampus mimus) prey from Bio-Ditrl, Department of Biological Sciences,
University of Alberta, accessed July 27, 2006.
