NEW-ZOO SNAKE

Evening Star, Issue 20023, 14 November 1928, Page 8

NEW-ZOO SNAKE

“CANNIBAL" WHICH EATS RATTLERS

Among Urn remit additions lo (lie I.midon Zoological Society’s reptile collection is a 7ft long specimen of a South American non-poisonous snake, known as the Cribo, a species which feeds entirely on other snakes, poisonous as well as harmless, writes a correspondent of tho ‘ Daily Telegraph.’ The Cribo is the arch enemy of the justly dreaded Fer de Lance and 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 protection in the State of Sao Paulo, where the Fer-de-Lance is specially abundant.

In certain parts of Brazil a premium of fourpence per head was formerly placed on every For-de-Lance. The payments, however, had to be discontinued owing to tho fact that the natives started to breed the snake in captivity, and tho Fer-dc-Lancc brings forth broods of up to seventy 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. Decent 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.