When the breeding season begins, male koalas start yelling. But their verbal exchanges rarely escale into actual violence

<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> Australia's favourite furry marsupial is a lover not a fighter.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> Rather than shouting to start a fight, male koalas (<a href="http://eol.org/pages/128425/overview" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><em>Phascolarctos cinereus</em></a>) shout to avoid them, and attract mates in the process.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6G0SlKLxYS3dqsDnlWiZ1v1pRFETBJ2M2jeZokw2q7yQ2v_FnRhQJbjic5krwBhX03Wpc1fa0SrqeqglpMwSqB6dljYOTkwYx04gakr6XraJIM1HwpFQPdfK0ZTHrIzOzL2voa3lovY63/s1600/c1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6G0SlKLxYS3dqsDnlWiZ1v1pRFETBJ2M2jeZokw2q7yQ2v_FnRhQJbjic5krwBhX03Wpc1fa0SrqeqglpMwSqB6dljYOTkwYx04gakr6XraJIM1HwpFQPdfK0ZTHrIzOzL2voa3lovY63/s400/c1.png" width="400" /></a></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <br /></div>  <a href="http://www.uq.edu.au/koala/index.html?page=130697" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.100000001490116px; line-height: 28px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Dr Bill Ellis</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.100000001490116px; line-height: 28px;"> of the University of Queensland in Australia and his colleagues </span><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130657" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.100000001490116px; line-height: 28px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tracked a group of 21 koalas on St Bees Island, 30km off the coast of Queensland</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.100000001490116px; line-height: 28px;">.</span><br /> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.100000001490116px; line-height: 28px;"><br /></span> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwa0cmOXUyYnO-yqWaPstKis9dTxtViKfAgQG7BW8AuIlssY_94s6zGgT-PbnCzOlC-J9b8h8921c9_sIaBQa2qNenLfFHNgfDo95AfOHGrf7BvapIYQNTr-uoItrapPXkNP09wOa1-dOA/s1600/c2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwa0cmOXUyYnO-yqWaPstKis9dTxtViKfAgQG7BW8AuIlssY_94s6zGgT-PbnCzOlC-J9b8h8921c9_sIaBQa2qNenLfFHNgfDo95AfOHGrf7BvapIYQNTr-uoItrapPXkNP09wOa1-dOA/s400/c2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <div class="inline-media inline-image" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 10px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px;"> <div class="caption-wrapper" style="background-color: #f1f1ef; overflow: hidden; padding: 1.6em 16px;"> <div class="caption-lining" style="display: inline; float: left; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; position: relative; width: 572px;"> <div class="caption-text caption-body" style="display: inline; float: left; font-size: 1.4em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.14285714285714em; margin-top: 0.571428571428571em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; width: 572px;"> St Bees Island, Queensland, Australia (credit:Don Merwin).</div> </div> </div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> Expecting breeding season battles between potential suitors, they instead found male koalas making loud, distinctive calls.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> <b>"We had thought that in the mating season male koalas would be fighting more, but instead found that the males bellowed to reduce physical confrontations with other males."</b></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8TRs0zX1npVZJLLQgew6R9DKbhS2wOYGSKezvLlmuAFNfqz-QcwDN370GnH41zL0vEYqMF4YkVTNLa-9k8Py_3y4YHzMfafyRLcQe8a5UPpO0NJLSJyMvbycD9aEobDbmYmRV75Qeruma/s1600/download.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8TRs0zX1npVZJLLQgew6R9DKbhS2wOYGSKezvLlmuAFNfqz-QcwDN370GnH41zL0vEYqMF4YkVTNLa-9k8Py_3y4YHzMfafyRLcQe8a5UPpO0NJLSJyMvbycD9aEobDbmYmRV75Qeruma/s400/download.png" width="400" /></a></div> <div class="inline-media inline-image" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 10px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px;"> <div class="caption-wrapper" style="background-color: #f1f1ef; overflow: hidden; padding: 1.6em 16px;"> <div class="caption-lining" style="display: inline; float: left; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; position: relative; width: 572px;"> <div class="caption-text caption-body" style="display: inline; float: left; font-size: 1.4em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.14285714285714em; margin-top: 0.571428571428571em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; width: 572px;"> We still have a lot to learn about the world of koalas (credit: Dave Watts NPL).</div> </div> </div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> Koalas mate between September and December. Other than that, not much is known about their mating system</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX2TCF1QPbes3CgdDty6BlLhyphenhyphenYXSXRe5Yq60bfImOPuS8DpPhjpBKGuWxjL6eP553n17G_MIkATJhQZ4iL_6ThsworowIiCpa8NfY3Um_2GSxyI6JbTMpTTMraOUkzQiM0RSFORW6dOoYJ/s1600/download+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX2TCF1QPbes3CgdDty6BlLhyphenhyphenYXSXRe5Yq60bfImOPuS8DpPhjpBKGuWxjL6eP553n17G_MIkATJhQZ4iL_6ThsworowIiCpa8NfY3Um_2GSxyI6JbTMpTTMraOUkzQiM0RSFORW6dOoYJ/s400/download+%25281%2529.png" width="400" /></a></div> <div class="inline-media inline-image" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 10px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px;"> <div class="caption-wrapper" style="background-color: #f1f1ef; overflow: hidden; padding: 1.6em 16px;"> <div class="caption-lining" style="display: inline; float: left; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; position: relative; width: 572px;"> <div class="caption-text caption-body" style="display: inline; float: left; font-size: 1.4em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.14285714285714em; margin-top: 0.571428571428571em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; width: 572px;"> Fighting in treetops can be deadly for the koala (credit: Jouan & Rius/NPL).</div> </div> </div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> One possible explanation for the males' reluctance to fight lies in koalas' tree-dwelling lifestyle. As anyone who has tried it will know, brawling in trees can lead to falling out of trees, which can be fatal.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> In 2013 it emerged that <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25185236" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">koalas use a unique vocal organ to make their odd-sounding bellows</a>.</div>

EARTH When the breeding season begins, male koalas start yelling. But their verbal exchanges rarely escale into actual violence

Australia's favourite furry marsupial is a lover not a fighter. Rather than shouting to start a fight, male koalas ( Phascolarctos ci...

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A species of blindsnake breaks the head off its termite prey before swallowing the rest of its body

<div class="byline" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 10px; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-top: 2.4em; vertical-align: bottom;"> <ul class="seperated-list source-attribution" style="font-weight: 700; margin: 0px 8px; padding: 1em 0px 0px; position: relative;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWO-tlpppoY7ykHQld_Jm4zUI5bBze5QLh5sZqWKjnauRedr4FTsIegIGY3Fg88wvJgdnmGfl7dfeBPnjrArFHusgqZ1gb7noWelxFP_wWKXJMgVyUHPOJ50lf0lp1p9ZjjpL75OyKzfXD/s1600/snake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWO-tlpppoY7ykHQld_Jm4zUI5bBze5QLh5sZqWKjnauRedr4FTsIegIGY3Fg88wvJgdnmGfl7dfeBPnjrArFHusgqZ1gb7noWelxFP_wWKXJMgVyUHPOJ50lf0lp1p9ZjjpL75OyKzfXD/s320/snake.jpg" width="320" /></a> <li class="seperated-list-item source-attribution-author" style="border: 0px; display: inline-block; list-style: none; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 8px;"><span class="index-body" style="font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.14285714285714em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Presented by<br />Melissa Hogenboom</span></li> </ul> </div> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 10px;"></span><br /> <div class="body-content" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 10px;"> <div class="mpu-wrapper"> <div class="ad-slot bbccom_slot mpu " data-advert-groups="1_2_3" id="bbccom_mpu_1_2_3" style="background-color: #e8e8e8; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px;"> </div> </div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> To eat food in one gulp or not, that is the question. Slice it into smaller pieces first and it becomes easier to swallow. Gulp it whole and there is less chance your food will escape, if it is still alive that is.</div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> Most snakes do the first. They have no limbs to tear food apart and have an incredible ability to swallow food whole, even if it is much larger than them. </div> <blockquote style="float: left; margin: 3.2em 8px 0px; width: 289.328125px;"> <div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 2.4em; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 1.33333333333333em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px 24px 48px 0px;"> Prey-dismembering behaviour may be widely used</div> </blockquote> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> But there are some exceptions. New research has found that one particular species of blindsnake (<em>Indotyphlops braminus</em>) breaks the head off its termite prey before swallowing the rest of its body.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> First, the snake swallows the termite's body while its head remains outside the snake's mouth. The snake then rubs the termite's head against a surface – in this case its cage – until its head is separated from its body. This sequence of events can be seen in the photo below.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxi5n8dzf_gMy5DDv9THyxDHjdzCG5A3qyZHSiH-uZ6ndfTXyZ8y55XJ_EU8CFFby1yjGAi40pgyajKnhQ2rLfZkX3axO5KYrlMkL19Svxb11bz7UNpFu-zRGmxya0uPFwkiDZ0vA0UTBe/s1600/%2523.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxi5n8dzf_gMy5DDv9THyxDHjdzCG5A3qyZHSiH-uZ6ndfTXyZ8y55XJ_EU8CFFby1yjGAi40pgyajKnhQ2rLfZkX3axO5KYrlMkL19Svxb11bz7UNpFu-zRGmxya0uPFwkiDZ0vA0UTBe/s400/%2523.png" width="400" /></a></div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> It swallows the rest of the termite after its head is disconnected. This process only takes three seconds and the decapitated heads are left uneaten. </div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> Occasionally these small snakes will even regurgitate a termite after swallowing it whole. Only then will it decapitate it before swallowing it again.</div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> The research, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jzo.12268" style="background: 0px 0px; color: black; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;">published in the <em>Journal of Zoology</em></a><em>,</em>discovered that the snakes only decapitated their termite meals about half the time.</div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> This is an unusual feeding behaviour for a snake and was completely unexpected, says lead author of the study Takafumi Mizuno of the Kyoto Institute of Technology in Japan.</div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> "Taken together with brief reports from 1950s and 1960s on similar behaviours in other blindsnakes, our finding implies that prey-dismembering behaviour may be widely used in poorly-known basal [ancient] snakes," he adds.</div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> </div> <div class="inline-media inline-image" style="margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px;"> <div class="caption-wrapper" style="background-color: #f1f1ef; overflow: hidden; padding: 1.6em 16px;"> <div class="caption-lining" style="display: inline; float: left; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; position: relative; width: 572px;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsZ4hkWDmfF7QtehoTF5MX_3ArEKM2Yy9aPHTvT8KSNo_t1yRkfzrj-PK9Bf_GMZFW7zx21fGgg2dd1uuS1GQnPnmFeYYgdVI-SPCq11QETx3YQGBDsVb8FLYPr9d_w8gXh4XCHSxcCTlb/s1600/download.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsZ4hkWDmfF7QtehoTF5MX_3ArEKM2Yy9aPHTvT8KSNo_t1yRkfzrj-PK9Bf_GMZFW7zx21fGgg2dd1uuS1GQnPnmFeYYgdVI-SPCq11QETx3YQGBDsVb8FLYPr9d_w8gXh4XCHSxcCTlb/s400/download.png" width="400" /></a></div> <div class="caption-text caption-body" style="display: inline; float: left; font-size: 1.4em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.14285714285714em; margin-top: 0.571428571428571em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; width: 572px;"> Most snakes eat their prey whole (Credit: ER Degginger/Alamy)</div> </div> </div> </div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> </div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> It did not take longer to eat a decapitated termite instead of swallowing one whole. The researchers therefore propose two reasons why the snakes may be doing so at least some of the time.</div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> The heads contain toxic chemicals which could be bad news for the snake. The reptiles may therefore leave the termites' heads to avoid swallowing these unpleasant toxic compounds.</div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> But those that do swallow them appear unaffected. The termite heads remain undigested. They come out the other end in the same physical state. So perhaps foregoing the heads saves space in a snake's gut.</div> <blockquote style="float: left; margin: 3.2em 8px 0px; width: 289.328125px;"> <div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 2.4em; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 1.33333333333333em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px 24px 48px 0px;"> This makes it stand out among 3,000 or so species of snake</div> </blockquote> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> Blindsnakes will always try to decapitate termites, says Mizuno, but it can be difficult for them to do so. "As a consequence decapitation rate are about 50%."</div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> Though tearing food apart before eating it is rare, blind snakes are not the only ones to do so. Two species of Asian crab-eating snake break the legs off their prey before eating them.  </div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> The blindsnake and the crab-eating snakes are genetically very different. They are separated by a common ancestor which lived 100 million years ago. This prey-tearing behaviour could therefore have evolved independently in these two lineages, the team proposes.</div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> More research is needed to discover just how many other snakes have similar dietary preferences.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIBZ2zhgHOfY1V5iE1vJEpqjl7oVI84sv7ADrIa-4zVG8O6udhT9tOPMIc964LHIW1gb2ydc5pWVgpilp0DX0fnypUL6xd1gPYuBAFMq0Cq5InO6oEq335tfeNqmOMnzcYi_J4-o2yax3n/s1600/download+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIBZ2zhgHOfY1V5iE1vJEpqjl7oVI84sv7ADrIa-4zVG8O6udhT9tOPMIc964LHIW1gb2ydc5pWVgpilp0DX0fnypUL6xd1gPYuBAFMq0Cq5InO6oEq335tfeNqmOMnzcYi_J4-o2yax3n/s400/download+%25281%2529.png" width="400" /></a></div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> What we don't know about these snakes could fill an entire library, says <a href="http://www.biology.usu.edu/htm/our-people/graduate-students/memberID=6753" style="background: 0px 0px; color: black; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;">Andrew Durso</a> at Utah State University, US, who was not involved with the research.</div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> "It's very exciting. These researchers were able to discover something brand new about this snake, almost by accident, something that makes it stand out among 3,000 or so species of snake."</div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> It could also be present in many of the other 400 species of blindsnake, becoming another unusual habit they can add to their name. They are also the only known snake where all species are female. That is, they are parthenogens, they have<a href="http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141219-spectacular-real-virgin-births" style="background: 0px 0px; color: black; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;">virgin births</a>.</div> <div style="font-size: 1.8em; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.55555555555556em; margin-left: 82.65625px; margin-right: 20.65625px; margin-top: 1.55555555555556em; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> <em>Follow <a href="http://www.twitter.com/owoadeu" target="_blank">ADELOWO PHILIP</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/bbcearth" style="background: 0px 0px; color: black; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;">BBC Earth</a> on twitter</em></div> </div>

EARTH A species of blindsnake breaks the head off its termite prey before swallowing the rest of its body

Presented by Melissa Hogenboom To eat food in one gulp or not, that is the question. Slice it into smaller pieces first and it b...

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