CANNIBALISTIC SNAKE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 112, 17 November 1928, Page 18

CANNIBALISTIC SNAKE

Among/the; recent additions to the Zoological. Society's;- reptile collection is a ,7ft. long; specimen of a South American nph-ppisonpus snake, known as the Cribo a species which feeds entirely on other snakes, poisonous as well as .harmless (reports the London "Daily Telegraph") The Cribo is:.the .arch enemy of the justlydreaded; Fer-de-Lance rattlesnake, from the poison of which it is immune, and is capable of overpowering and 'swallowing specimens as.large as itself. As a result of. its 'cannibalistic tendencies it receives Government projection in the State of Sao Paulo, where the Fcr-dc-Lance is specially abundant.^ . In certain ports of Brazil a pfemium of 4d per head was formerly placed on every Fer-de-Lance.. The payments, however, had to be discontinued owing to the fact that the natives started to breed the snake in capivity, and the Fer-de-Lance brings fourth broods of up to 70 young.-. The Cribo is not the only snake that is immune from the bites of its venomous compatriots; our common grass snake is not affected by the poison of the adder. Recent experiments have proved that, amongst mammals, and birds, 'the hedgehog, mongoose, dormouse, and secretary bird are more or less immune from normal doses of snake poison.