Snakes cause conflicting emotions in different people. Some are panicky afraid and freeze from fear at the sight of any snake, others admire their grace and perfection and tend to look closer. What to expect if a yellow snake suddenly met on your way? Are they poisonous and aggressive? Familiarity with information on the most common yellow snake species will help answer these questions.
Popular and harmless
If a yellow snake, or rather, a reptile with characteristic marks of this color on its head, is encountered on your way, then most likely you are facing an ordinary one. Snakes of this species are the most common, they can be found in any corner of our planet. Variations in their color and size may vary slightly, but on the whole, it can be easily determined by knowing its basic external characteristics:
- The snakes have a uniform color of the back. from dark green to greenish gray.
- The head is not too wide; it smoothly passes from the body, without noticeable expansion.
- Oh - this is a snake with yellow spots on the head, which are placed on its sides. Slightly less often they can be white or beige.
- The size of ordinary snakes varies from 50 to 80 centimeters in length, the diameter does not exceed 5 centimeters.
The named reptile chooses a humid climate with a lot of stones, stumps or branches for the opportunity to hide. Therefore, the greatest probability of meeting these snakes is on the banks of ponds and forest lakes. Also, these snakes swim perfectly, so if you encounter a snake when swimming in a pond, you should not panic, most likely it is. He is not aggressive, he can bite a person only for the purpose of self-defense, and his bite is absolutely harmless and shallow.
Yellow belly and slim body
Going to travel to the steppe region with a dry climate, as well as to the mountains, you need to know the features of such a snake as yellow-bellied snake . These snakes reach very large sizes, on average 2 meters in length. Moreover, the diameter of their body is small, not more than 7 centimeters, due to this effect the snake always remains a “slender” snake.
The snake is a yellow snake that has a very aggressive disposition. If she feels danger at the sight of a person, she can strike a warning blow and attack first. She moves extremely fast, abruptly and actively. In a fit of attack, he can even jump to a fairly high altitude to bite the victim in an unprotected place.
It is not difficult to distinguish the snake: in addition to the characteristically slender body, it is distinguished by a color that served as the reason for the name. The back snake can be gray-green or dark olive in color, but the belly is always in yellow shades.
Having met the yellow-bellied snake on its way, it is necessary not to make sudden movements and gradually move away from the snake so as not to provoke an attack of its aggression.
Conditionally poisonous beauty
Now most of our compatriots prefer to spend their holidays in the warm tropical lands. On the territory of countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines, popular for holidaymakers, there is a yellow-headed snake - mangrove.
Snakes of this species belong to the family of the same, but have a number of significant differences from the harmless snakes we know.
The mangrove snake is quite large: it can reach two and a half meters in length and 6 to 8 centimeters in diameter. Her head, like that of a snake, does not stand out too much against the background of the body. The color of the back is dark green, almost black, but the lower part of the head is painted in bright yellow. Yellow streaks run across the stomach, gradually decreasing towards the tail.
Mangrove snake is considered conditionally poisonous. This means that her bite can have a toxic effect for a person, expressed by fever, swelling, pain, but does not carry mortal danger. This type of snake is not aggressive, but it is quite capable of biting for the purpose of protection. In the daytime, mangrove snakes rest on tree branches, where they crawl with ease. Therefore, traveling through the rainforests, you need to be extremely careful.
Yellow and black danger
The most dangerous for humans is a yellow snake called krait. She lives in India, Thailand, in the south of Asia. You can distinguish a kraight snake by the following signs:
- small size - an average of one and a half meters in length;
- bright color from yellow and black stripes ;
- laterally compressed body resembling a triangle in cross section;
- clearly distinguished head, which is slightly wider than the body.
Snake krait leads a nocturnal lifestyle - at this time it is very active and quite aggressive. During the day, the snake rests and does not show signs of hostility, even if a person approaches a short distance.
The bite of such a beauty almost always leads to death, even serum introduced on time does not significantly increase the chances of survival. Despite the calm behavior of this snake in the daytime, having met it, you should not risk it and try to look closer. It is best to step back without making sudden movements. And in the evening, you should exercise extreme caution and carefully examine the place of walking and overnight on the subject of snakes.
Snakes can cause different emotions: they can be loved, but you can be afraid. But in any case, you need to know the main signs of poisonous and dangerous reptiles in order to behave correctly in an accidental meeting.