10 Things You Didn't Know About Snakes

[Catherine]

Very good information about snakes!
There are a lot of details that most people do not know about snakes.

Snakes are very complex animals and I am glad to see sections about snake social behavior and snake intelligence.
I keep my snakes in social groups. Corn snakes are very much social creatures. I find they have very definite likes and dislikes.
I managed to get a male and female black corn snake. She didn't like him so I was never able to breed them.
When they come out of the egg they seem to want to be together at first. If I put snakes together they all end up curled into a ball in their den. 

Garter Snakes in the wild hibernate together and I have come across a mother with her babies still around her in the foothills of the Rockies. It was early in the year and she may have given birth just a short time before. They were together though.

I have noticed that my snakes are not equally intelligent. Some are definitely smarter. But then how am I measuring intelligence?
This is an area that requires more study.

I didn't realize that there is a snake species that is all female. I have seen lizard species that are all female.

I had golden skinks for a while and they not only give live birth, the male was there on the moss helping her and the baby as it was born. He did a fair amount of parental care as well. He watched over the babies and I think he was teaching them to hunt food. At night the parents were curled around the babies under a hollow log.

It would be interesting to find a snake that stayed with its young.
All things are possible.