Some snakes species can survive without food for two years by employing novel survival strategies not seen before in vertebrates.
HOUSTON: Some snakes species can survive without food for two years by employing novel survival strategies not seen before in vertebrates, according to a new study.
The study found that some snake species will actually digest their own hearts and grow bigger heads to broaden prey options during periods of famine.
The study, to be published next month in Zoology, is the first ever to examine starvation physiology in snakes. The founder, Marshall McCue thinks intense snake hunger may even explain some of the more outrageous snake stories from recent years.
“These animals take energy reduction to a whole new level,” he said. While scientists knew that some snake species could survive for up to two years without a meal, no studies have examined the physiological changes that take place when a snake goes for prolonged periods without food.
McCue examined three snake species — the ball python, the ratsnake and the western diamondback rattle snake — to study their responses to prolonged periods without food.
The 62 snakes studied went about six months without eating. McCue then looked at physiological, compositional and morphological changes in the snakes. The results showed that the snakes could lower their standard metabolic rates, some by up to 72 per cent.
The study claims that the snakes continued to grow despite the lack of food -- a counterintuitive finding, but a measurement that again does not appear in the research literature. It means the snakes become extremely efficient in their ability to use available resources.
To illustrate the strategies employed by snakes to combat starvation, McCue uses an economic analogy of supply and demand. “When you’re cut off from resources, you are an organism that still needs to expend energy,” he said. The “demand” end is met by decreasing their metabolic rate.
The “supply” end must be met by frugal use of resources they have at hand for energy, which comes from within. The snakes used up selected fat stores first during starvation, but he also found crucial differences between the snake species.
The ratsnakes, which typically have a more abundant rodent supply in their natural environment, began to break down proteins faster than the pythons or rattlesnakes.
The protein use was higher in the snakes less well adapted to starvation,” McCue said. —Agencies
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