· Snakes can survive a long time without food

· Their backbones are very flexible

· Long snakes have up to 400 vertebrae

· Every so often they shed their skin before this happens their skin becomes cloudy, it's skin appears dull, they lose their appetite and may become aggressive

· The flying snake lives in trees and jumps from branch to branch and even glides through the air to lower levels

· An anaconda over 8mm in length can eat a caiman 2m long but it can take a week to digest

· African egg eaters swallow eggs whole

· Over 50 species of snakes live in the ocean

· Some snakes who do not want to fight, pretend to be dead

· People sometimes think that the snakes skin is slimy, in fact it is dry and leathery

· Snakes kill 30-40,000 people a year!

· It's illegal to eat snakes on Sunday in Iraq

· There are no snakes in Ireland, Newfoundland, New Zealand or many South Sea islands

· In Australia, the majority of snakes are venomous, approximately 80%

· Not all snakes lay eggs some give birth to tiny snakes that crawl off and take care of themselves from the start

· Approximately 2500 different species of snakes are known, 20% of these are poisonous

· The snake must bite to inject its venom, no snake has a stinger in its tail

· They do sleep but they cannot close their eyes

· The venom of the king cobra, the world's largest poisonous snake, is strong enough to kill an elephant

· Snakes can travel 3 - 5 miles an hour

· Snakes have a heart, lungs, kidneys, blood, and essentially all the same organs humans possess. They do not have eyelids or ears