12/10/2023 0 Comments Blue indigo snake eats rattlesnake![]() Not every kingsnake species has been tested against every venom, but we do know that there is variation in which species are immune to which venoms. ![]() Vipers also exhibit flipping, jerking, “body bridging” and other escape behaviors as a defense against kingsnakes-suggesting, since they do not try to bite kingsnakes in defense, that their venom is essentially useless as an anti-kingsnake defense mechanism by now and that kingsnakes have “won” this arms race.Ī milksnake constricting a Dekay's brownsnake On the other side, vipers that had venom with toxins that were, for example, slightly more painful or fast-acting, might have been more likely to survive a predatory attack. Eventually, all the kingsnakes without these venom resistance traits had been killed by vipers that they tried to eat, and only the resistant ones remained. Kingsnake predators that were slightly better able to tolerate the effects of the venom were more likely to survive. Vipers would sometimes be killed and eaten, but many predators later died from their bites. At first, their predators were probably not very good at resisting the effects of the venom, especially if the predator’s physiology was similar to that of their prey, and venom would have made a very good defense mechanism. ![]() When vipers were first evolving their front fangs, defensive bites became a new option for them. A kingsnake and a copperhead biting one another
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