For the first time, biologists have accurately measured the speed at which an adder or rattlesnake throws out its head and bites its prey, finding that the snake accelerates to 60 mph in just 79 milliseconds, according to a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports.

"In nature, all encounters between predators and prey are unique - they are much more diverse than that, which we can see when they interact in the laboratory. Modern technologies"allowed us to understand what determines a successful hunt or escape from a predator, and move closer to uncovering the evolutionary factors that drive predators and their prey," said Timothy Higham from the University of California, Riverside (USA).

Since the Middle Ages and even earlier eras of human existence, vipers, rattlesnakes and other representatives of the viper family (Viperidae) have been considered a symbol of lightning-fast reactions, ultra-high speed and almost guaranteed accuracy of hitting the victim.

All these snakes hunt small mammals and reptiles from ambush, jumping out at them with great speed, opening their mouths 180 degrees and literally “driving” their fangs into the flesh of the victim. Higham and his colleagues decided to study this process in detail by traveling to the Mojave Desert in the southwestern United States, where the famous rattlesnakes live.

Having placed camera traps throughout the desert, scientists connected them to a computer and centrally monitored the movements and hunting of snakes, the favorite prey of which are American kangaroo jumpers (Dipodomys merriami) - large rodents similar to jerboas, moving along the desert sands in a similar “jumping” manner.

To photograph the snakes, scientists used high-speed infrared cameras capable of receiving 500 frames per second in three-dimensional format, as well as special thermal “illumination” systems. When the snake began to hunt, the computer alerted Higham and his team, and the scientists began to “manually” monitor how the vipers tried to catch the jumpers. Scientists have made it easier for snakes by scattering plant seeds around them that their victims eat.

These observations dispelled one of the myths associated with vipers - it turned out that they quite often miss, flying over or missing the rodent, especially if he managed to notice the predator at the last moment before the rattlesnake jumped. On the other hand, it turned out that vipers really move very quickly and bite with tremendous force.

On average, a snake strikes a rodent within 60-70 milliseconds after the jumper enters the strike radius. During this time, the snake's head flies about 12-16 centimeters, moving at a speed of 3.5 meters per second and accelerating its movement by 170-506 meters per second squared. This corresponds to a force of 50g - the maximum a person can experience - and is about the same speed as the airbags in a car are deployed.

Despite such impressive speeds and acceleration, the snake’s hunt for rodents was successful only in half of the cases - in 50% of cases, the jumpers managed to react to the snake’s jump and escape using peculiar “springs” in their legs. In some cases, this was not even necessary, since the snake made a mistake in calculating the “ballistics” of the jump and did not reach the jumper.

As Higham explains, an evolutionary "arms race" forced jumpers to learn to store potential energy in your tendons and release it in critical situations. When a snake jumps on a rodent, the jumper suddenly jumps up greater height, and the viper flies through the place where he stood 30 milliseconds ago.

In the near future, the authors of the article plan to conduct similar experiments with the participation of other vipers and rodents, which will show whether the rattlesnake is the record holder for speed of movement and acceleration, or whether it has worthy competitors among its relatives.

The snake attacks so quickly that it manages to bite its victim four times in a split second. If a person moved with the same acceleration, he would simply lose consciousness.

The Texas rattlesnake, lurking among the sands and meadows of southern California (USA), is one of the most patient predators in the world.

These snakes typically spend their lives alone, lying in wait for their next meal.

They can wait a long time. If necessary, they can go without food for up to two years, but as soon as they get the chance, they become one of the most dangerous and skillful hunters on the planet.

And, like all snakes, their main weapon is not size or strength, but speed.

According to a study published in March 2016, a snake bite takes between 44 and 70 milliseconds.

For clarity, it takes a person about 200 milliseconds to blink. It turns out that during this time a particularly ruthless snake is capable of biting him as many as four times.

This is an almost unimaginable speed: it turns out that snakes bite much faster than we can move.

In fact, if we moved as fast as snakes, we would simply faint.

“In most cases, potential prey has no chance of surviving,” says David Penning, an employee at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (USA).

He spent several months observing rattlers, as well as a wide variety of venomous and harmless snakes, using a high-speed camera.

"These predators are able to reach their target and strike before the prey even realizes it is under attack."

It's not just rattlers that can move that fast. Total number There are an estimated 3.5 thousand species of snakes on the planet - from tiny vipers to huge pythons - but very few of them have been studied.

However, even if we take only those species that have already been studied, it is obvious that very many are capable of developing such amazing acceleration.

This is due to the unique physiology of snakes, which has been perfected over millions of years.

Firstly, snakes are extremely muscular. While the human body has 700-800 muscles, snakes - even the smallest ones - have from 10 to 15 thousand.

How this abundance of muscles allows the snake to move at such breakneck speeds is still unknown.

Some people believe that they compress and accumulate energy to throw, and then straighten out like a spring.

However, snakes have even more interesting feature, which baffles scientists.

Because these reptiles attack at such speed, enormous forces are applied to their bodies - ones that would completely immobilize almost any animal.

Penning discovered that at the moment of throwing the snake experiences a force 30 times greater than the force of gravity.

At the same time, the most trained fighter pilots feel that their arms and legs stop obeying them even under an overload that is 8 times greater than the force of gravity, when they perform rapid stunts in the air.

Under the influence of an overload of 10 times the force of gravity, they quickly lose consciousness.

“Chameleons and some salamanders are known to rapidly extend their tongues towards the prey when attacking, and the acceleration can be much greater than that of a stinging snake,” explains Penning. “However, the main difference is that in this case only the tongue moves, not the brain."

The brain is simply not able to withstand high acceleration.

"The brain is an incredibly delicate organ that is hypersensitive to acceleration and impact," says Penning. "That's why American football players wear helmets and why concussions are considered serious injuries."

When a fighter pilot is exposed to high acceleration, blood flows to the legs, depriving the brain of vital oxygen.

If this happens too quickly, the blood does not have time to return back to the brain, and the person loses consciousness.

However, snakes manage to cope with this difficulty and maintain complete control over the situation, while moving with much greater acceleration and striking their prey with crushing force. This is partly due to the structure of the snake's skull.

"The snake's skull is incredibly dynamic and flexible," says Penning. large quantity various joints gives the snake flexibility and maneuverability."

Penning believes the difference is the same as "hitting a bag or hitting a brick wall."

According to him, “the wall stands still and takes the entire blow, and the bag moves, as if distributing the shock.”

Scientists are now trying to figure out how the skeleton and nervous system snakes.

They are going to use the knowledge gained to protect a person in situations where his body is subjected to a large overload.

The idea that studying snake attack tactics will help us design cars that better protect people from impact may seem funny. But it is much closer to reality than one might expect.

"We're now trying to figure out exactly what happens when a snake strikes its prey," Penning said.

“Snakes are able to extend their heads, freeze, immediately shift into a defensive position, and then repeat these movements over and over again.”

“The question is what helps them endure such stress relatively painlessly, and whether their secret can be used in the future for the benefit of humanity,” he concludes.

Here is a black mamba - the fastest snake in the world. Its movement speed reaches 23 kilometers per hour or 6.4 m per second, but only over short distances. True, the reptile uses its speed more often to escape from enemies, since it hunts while sitting in ambush, waiting for its prey.

Mamba is found from Senegal to South West Africa. Lives on the ground among bushes and grass. It crawls onto trees extremely rarely, as it is poorly adapted to life on them. At the same time, it often settles in fields among deep thickets. Since the lands are often cultivated by workers, and even manually, they are attacked by a snake. Almost no one survives.

The average length is 2.5-3 m, although sometimes specimens up to 4.5 m long are found in nature. Young animals are greenish in color, while adults are black or brown, with a white or light brown belly . It is famous for its aggressive character - it usually attacks first. Leaning on its tail, it raises the front part of its body and makes an instant throw towards its victim, immediately inflicting a bite.

Snake venom is incredibly toxic. Contains dendrotoxins, cardiotoxins, neurotoxins, blockers of voltage-dependent potassium channels of nerve fibers and blockers of muscarinic cholinergic receptors. One bite injects about 100-150 mg of poison, in rare cases - up to 400 mg. At the same time lethal dose for a person it is only 10-15 mg, and for an animal it is even less. If the antidote is not administered within the first minute, the probability of death can reach 100 percent.

In this material, the most fast snake on the planet - a black mamba. We will tell you about the places where the snake lives, what speed it develops, and what size it has. Also, do not forget that, in addition to its speed skills, the black mamba has a real predator instinct, which helped it adapt to almost any habitat. The black mamba is also one of the most poisonous and deadly snakes, which the inhabitants of Africa fear like fire.

The snake got its terrifying name because of its mouth cavity, which is completely covered in black. The rest of the snake's body is colored yellow-green or metallic gray tones.

Meeting a black mamba is not at all difficult if you are an inhabitant of the southeastern part of Africa. The black mamba is found throughout almost the entire territory of southeast Africa, except Namibia and South Africa. Because of its innate survival instincts, the black mamba was able to adapt to all kinds of climatic conditions. Its favorite habitats are savannas, forests, rocks and even swamps.

Most of the land in Africa is occupied by areas devoted to agriculture, therefore the black mamba is often found in ordinary fields and is not at all afraid of people. The snake is even able to climb to the very top of the reeds to bask in the sun after a cold night.

Therefore, it is not surprising that most attacks on humans by black mamba occur in rural areas. Frequent cases of attacks are due to the fact that most of even the largest fields in Africa are still processed manually. On average, about 20 thousand people die from the bite of a black mamba in southeast Africa. Moreover, the largest number of victims occurred due to the banal stupidity of people who thought that catching and killing a black mamba would not be difficult.

The black mamba is the fastest snake in the world. capable of speeds up to 25 km/h(this is approximately 6.5 meters per second). As you may have guessed, to escape from a snake you will have to work hard. But often the black mamba does not use its speed for pursuits, because it mainly hunts, sitting deep in ambush and hiding. The snake needs such a high speed of movement in space in order to escape from various threats. After all, somehow only a snake senses even the slightest threat to its life; it immediately retreats several hundred meters.

2.5 meters is average length black mamba. Less commonly, you can find longer specimens, the length of which can reach 4.5 meters.

The most terrible The enemy of the black mamba is considered to be the mongoose. Not only are these cute animals quite agile and love to feast on snakes, but they are also not affected by the venom of the black mamba. Therefore, snakes are a favorite delicacy of mongooses. But, it’s true, mongooses mostly kill young and inexperienced snakes, while they prefer to interact with adult representatives much less often. But then wild boars They are quite brave and prefer to fry both of them.

The black mamba is aggressive not only during the hunt, but can also attack for no particular reason. When attacking, the mamba rests its entire body on the tip of its tail, thereby the front part of its body to make a lightning-fast throw in the direction of the chosen victim. To dodge such an attack, you must either have the same incredible reaction, or simply be born with a shirt on.

Mamba venom is extremely toxic. It contains neurotoxins, cardiotoxins, dendrotoxins and muscarinic cholinergic receptor blockers. In just one bite, a snake can inject 100 to 150 mg. poison, while the lethal dose for humans is approximately 10 mg. To put it simply, if the antidote is not administered in the first minute after the bite and the victim is not given the necessary medical care, then he cannot avoid death.

You can hear a lot of horror stories and legends about the black mamba, but real cases featuring this snake in leading role, much more terrifying. For example, one day a black mamba managed to get through a chimney into a hut in which seven people were calmly resting after a hard day at work. Perhaps the people would have been able to escape if one of them had not stepped on the snake’s tail. Defending itself and fleeing the threat, the snake bit everyone in the hut several times. The irony is that in the dark room the snake was not even visible, and people could not understand who was biting them.

Despite its “cold-bloodedness,” the black mamba still prefers to avoid direct contact with people, and most often attacks to protect itself.

Unfortunately, an antidote for black mamba bites is not yet widely available. Therefore, there are still a lot of deaths from snake bites every year. But at least now the probability of death is not a 100% guarantee, as it was previously before the advent of the vaccine.

Pronghorn. This elegant creature is the fastest land animal North America, developing a speed of 90 km/h. Over a short distance, a pronghorn would not be able to outrun a cheetah, but would easily pull away from it over any long course. Their endurance allows pronghorns to migrate hundreds of kilometers every year.

Brazilian folded lip. The fastest of bats, accelerating to almost 100 km/h in a dive. Folded lips live in large colonies in caves, under bridges and in old buildings. In the evenings, they simultaneously fly out to hunt, creating a stunning “cinematic” picture.

Sailfish and swordfish. An interesting example of a tie - different sources call either the sailfish or the swordfish the fastest fish in the world, reaching speeds from 100 to 130 km/h. One study that gives the swordfish the upper hand found, using an MRI, that the fish's upper jaw contains an oil-producing tonsil. By spreading around the fish's head, the oil reduces friction with the water and increases speed.

Kalypta Anna. This bird's top speed limit is 80 km/h, which doesn't seem very impressive until you consider its size. Biologist Christopher Clark from the University of California, Berkeley, calculated that at this speed, the hummingbird covers 385 body sizes per second, experiencing strong overloads of 10G.

Cheetah. Far from being the fastest animal on Earth, inferior to birds, fish and even insects, it is still the fastest land and fastest mammal. Reaches speeds of more than 100 km/h, accelerating from 0 to 100 in three seconds.

Black marlin. According to the BBC, the maximum speed achieved by a black marlin is 130 km/h. It was measured by how quickly the line was reeled from the fishing rod when catching a fish, which is a somewhat controversial method. Was the boat moving at that moment, was the fish swimming in a straight line? Either way, it is no surprise that with such speeds, black marlin are very popular among sport fishermen.

Horsefly. If you've ever been chased by one of these biting critters, you know how fast they are. Jerry Butler, an entomologist at the University of Florida, states that an adult male Hybomitra horsefly reaches speeds in excess of 144 km/h. True, it is difficult to accurately measure the speed of an insect due to its size, nonlinearity of flight and other factors.

Needle-tailed swift. This bird reaches speeds of almost 170 km/h, making it the fastest flying animal. It lives in Asia and Australia, occasionally flying to Europe.

Mite. If we take the fastest animal in the world in relation to the length of its own body, then no one will keep up with the tick of the species Paratarsotomus macropalpis. In a second, it covers a distance of 320 of its own sizes - the same as people would accelerate to 2090 km/h.

Peregrine Falcon. Although the peregrine falcon flies slower than the needle-tailed swift, when diving for prey it accelerates to 390 km/h. The claw strike after acceleration is so strong that it can tear off the victim's head.