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In India, there are approximately 300 snake species found throughout the different habitats in the country. About half of them are non-venomous and the other half are venomous, with varying degrees of potency. In the video at the bottom of the page, the climber is a non-venomous rat snake.
What Do Rat Snakes Eat?
You can probably guess what rat snakes eat based on their name, but rats aren’t their only food source. They also eat mice and larger rodents like squirrels. They don’t stop there, however. They also snatch up birds, bird eggs, lizards, and small frogs. They’re non-venomous and instead, constrict their prey to kill it before eating it.
Can Rat Snakes Climb?
Surprisingly, rat snakes are skilled climbers. They don’t have feet or even sticky pads throughout their bodies, but they are still able to get into trees and up walls. They use their tubular bodies to twist and flex as needed and use their scaly bellies to find anchor points as they make their way up higher. These undulating movements help them rise and their ventral scales help them grip. It’s much easier when they have several points up a wall where they can hold on and ascend (or descend) further.
Rat Snake Scales Down Building In India
When the video below starts, the cameraman points upward to the top of a tall white building. There are some balconies on the right side and on the left, there are some windows. There are pipes running vertically on the side he’s filming and you can hear several birds shrieking. A couple of them are standing just outside one of the windows, using the pipes as perches.
The birds are distressed, likely because the rat snake has found their nest and eggs. Suddenly, you see it appear from the window. The pipes are a few feet from the window so it keeps a grip on the window’s ledge as it grabs hold of the pipes to begin its descent. It moves quickly and skillfully, already winding down the pipes while its tail is still partially in the window.
It swirls around the pipes to maintain a grip and keeps making its way down. There is a child in the background, expressing both excitement and fear. At one point the kid says, “It’s a black mamba!” and insists he’s correct, even though there are no black mambas in India. The snake continues making its way down carefully, peeking into another window on its way. The video ends just as the snake reaches the ground floor.
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