Throughout human history, snakes have played a key role in folklore and myths. These are truly creatures of superstition and legend, and exert a great power over man's imagination. They are indeed heavily woven into many parts of human culture. Millions of people around the world share their homes with many gourgeous, albeit sometimes quite dangerous snakes. This can lead to accidents. Seeing somebody that has been bitten by a venomous snake may be a very unpleasant sight, feeding the apparent general assumption that snakes are evil creatures. This couldn't be further from the truth. Snakes use their venom weaponry very economically. Contrary to the popular belief that every bite by a snake results in instant death, about a third to half of all snake bites do not involve the injection of any venom. Its just a warning signal.

Many man-snake encounters pass off without any harm to either party. But persistent teasing or tormenting of the snake by people as often happens can indeed result in envenomations. But I don’t think the snake can be blamed in these cases. If you are fortunate enough to encounter a snake in its natural environment, please enjoy its presence and beauty. Watch it while it slithers almost silently through the grass. Watch its tongue flickering rapidly as it feels your presence. As long as the snake does not feel threatened, he will not harm you. Rather, he just wants to be left alone, and will eventually slither away, back into the dense and dark forest he came from before you disturbed him. If one learns more about snakes, their behaviour and amazing adaptations to the ever changing world we live in, I promise that fear will turn into fascination, and fascination into appreciation. These animals are truly extraordinary!

With their elongated, limbless bodies, hypnotizing eyes and flickering tongues, snakes never cease to fascinate me. Honestly, there is nothing I enjoy more than walking through hot deserts, wet swamps or dark forests while looking for any type of "slithering movement". I love studying these spectacular animals in their natural environments.

Snakes form a very succesful group of animals, ranking among the most succesful of vertebrate radiations, both in terms of number of species and their geographic distribution. They comprise about 3000 species that have spread all over the world and elegantly adapted to almost all available niches. Seasnakes have adapted to life in the ocean by evolving a laterally compressed body, fin-like tails and special salt-excreting organs under the tongue sheath. Flying snakes from Asia (Chrysopelea) can launch themselves from high up in the trees, flattening their bodies to serve as a sort of kite, which enables them to glide to another tree or the ground. Afterwards, the body relaxes and the snake will move again in a normal snake-like manner.Cobras can also extend their ribs, but only in the neck region. They stand up with the front part of their bodies vertically raised, and broaden their neck to scare off potential attackers (including humans).