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Wait a minute. Snakes don't eat humans and are not predators for humans. Snakes have no interest in attacking humans, they just don't want to be attacked by hum
by maxklein 17y ago
Wait a minute. Snakes don't eat humans and are not predators for humans. Snakes have no interest in attacking humans, they just don't want to be attacked by humans. Snakes also avoid going where there are many humans as they are likely to get killed quickly.
So when there are two predatory species that try to avoid each other as much as possibly, how can there be such a strong effect by one to the other?
- indiejade 17y agoMost cases of snakes biting humans occur when the snake is stepped on. Most cases of snakes eating other animals is when the snake can get its jaws (unhinge-able jaws) around a warm-blooded critter. [edit] grammar fix. too early in the am
- ericb 17y agoAs someone with 20/20 vision whose main interest growing up was snake-catching, I have trouble with this hypothesis. Unless a snake is basking or is already moving, you generally won't see it until it is underfoot. In other words, the proposed adaptations don't actually help you see a snake before it is underfoot. And as you mention, snakes are mainly interested in avoiding people. Wouldn't the dangers of uneven terrain, tripping, and falling be a better explanation of why we are good at looking down? Peripheral vision makes sense if you're also watching out for the family as you walk.
- maxklein 17y agoYes, I've seen the situation where you have a group of people looking at a close-by tree, and one person is shouting: look there is a snake. And everyone is saying "where, where"? I've seen this go on for 10 minutes, and people just don't see the snake. It's like some type of puzzle.