Shchitomordnik - a small poisonous reptile. In length, his body, given the tail, rarely grows eighty-five centimeters. The upper body is painted in a dark brown color, broken by light stripes, vaguely reminiscent of zigzags. The belly is the lightest part of the body. The head is large. If you look at it from above, it seems a bit flattened. Shields are located on the top of the face. It was because of them that the snake got its name - the common muzzle.
Snake habitat
The common, or Pallasov, shchitomordnik, as it is called in another way, has a fairly wide range of residence. The snake lives in the distant Caucasus, in the mysterious Mongolia, in northern Iran. She was seen in the middle of Asia, as well as in Korea and China. In Russia, the common muzzle moth lives in large numbers on the Lower Volga, up to the borders of the Far East.
The point habitat of a reptile is very diverse. This species of vertebrates cannot be called one hundred percent steppe or only mountainous. It does not live exclusively in forests. Shchitomordnik is equally found both in green areas, and in the vast expanses of endless steppes, in semi-deserts. The reptile lives in regions rich in swamps, as well as in meadows near the beautiful Alps. It has a weakness for river banks. If we look at the mountains, then the muzzle can be found at an altitude of up to three thousand meters.
Muzzle activity
The common muzzle reaches the peak of an active lifestyle immediately after the cessation of wintering, that is, in the first months of spring. It was at that time of the year that they were extremely aggressive. This behavior in the spring can be explained by the start of the mating season. Until the beginning of summer, the common mollusk adheres to a daily lifestyle. He can be found swimming in the rays of heaven.
With the onset of summer, the regime changes dramatically. The snake begins to crawl out to hunt after dusk falls to the ground. During the day, she prefers to hide from the sun in dark places, for example, in the burrows of field mice, dense thickets of bushes, cracks between stones. With the onset of the first cold weather, the muzzle begins to actively look for a place where it will winter. The time when the snake stops its active life depends on the region in which it lives. In the Russian Federation, as a rule, the muzzle squirrel hibernates around the beginning of October.
What does a snake eat?
With the approach of night, the common mollusk gets out of the shelter and proceeds to search for prey. These snakes eat all the animals that they are able to defeat and swallow. A significant part of their diet is occupied by various rodents: field mice, shrews and others. Quite often, a reptile ruins the nest of small birds building houses on the ground or not far from it. The muzzle swallows both the bird itself and the eggs with the chicks. In addition, he catches lizards, frogs or toads. Attacking snakes having a smaller size is a common thing for the muzzle. Newborns feed on insects.
This reptile does not have to fight a potential victim. As a rule, their hunt takes place according to the following principle. The snake creeps up to prey, with a sharp throw gets to it, and then bites, introducing a dose of poison into the body. A frightened victim tries to escape, but the poison kills her faster than she has time to leave. A special heat-sensitive fossa is located on the head of the muzzle. With her help, the snake finds the dead victim, capturing the heat emanating from her body.
Breeding muzzle
Females of this reptile species, like a significant proportion of other viper snakes, are viviparous. Newborn snakes are born in thin translucent sacs, which are immediately discarded. One female is able to bring from two to twelve cubs. The color of the little muzzles exactly repeats the coloring of the parent. In the first period of life, babies eat small invertebrate animals. Growing up, they pass on to victims of larger sizes. Large enough may be the adult mollusk Pallasov. Body length can reach eighty centimeters.
Snake venom
The common muzzle is a poisonous snake. Its poison in its effect on the body resembles a viper bite. First of all, poison affects the state of the blood. However, neurotoxins are found in the constituent components of the poison. They have a direct negative effect on the state of the nervous system, and also cause paralysis of the respiratory system. For humans, a bite of the muzzle is not fatal in most cases. But fatal incidents were still recorded. The venom of this snake is a danger to people suffering from respiratory diseases.