What food does the five-step snake eat?

The five-step snake is a poisonous monotype snake under the viper subfamily Agkistrodon halys. Only one species of Agkistrodon acutus belongs to Agkistrodon acutus, which is quite famous in Asia and is widely distributed in China. Wuyi Mountain and Southern Anhui Mountain area have the most reserves, while outside China, only in northern Vietnam, let's take a look at what the five-step snake eats.

What food does the five-step snake eat?

The five-step snake is a broad-eating snake species with many kinds of feed, such as frogs, rats, insects and so on. The young snakes have poor predation ability, and the main food is the larvae of frogs, thorn-breasted frogs, toads and suckling rats of rats and mice. Generally, the 1-year-old snakes from 10 days after coming out of the shell to before the first hibernation are mainly fed on the larvae of the frog with an average weight of 1.6 grams, supplemented by suckling mice weighing about 2 grams. The 2-year-old snakes from the first hibernation to the second hibernation were mainly fed by adult frogs, supplemented by mice, and the 3rd-year-old snakes from the second hibernation to the third hibernation were mainly fed by mice, frogs and frogs. Adult snakes are mainly fed with artificially raised mice, rats, frogs, toads and so on.

How toxic is the five-step snake?

The five-step snake is more toxic than the cobra. The venom of the five-step snake is not toxic on the unit, but it does not prevent the snake from being more dangerous in fact. In Shibi Township, Chenxi, Hunan Province, almost all the people bitten by this snake died, and those bitten by the cobra can basically be saved. According to the survey data, dangerous incidents and even deaths caused by the bite of Agkistrodon acutus are indeed relatively common, at least in the Chinese mainland area. On the one hand, this is because the snake is large, ferocious, long fangs, and the bite is more serious, on the other hand, it is also because the snake belongs to the snake species with large detoxification.

The living habits of the five-step snake

1. Environment: the five-step snake mainly lives in the evergreen and deciduous mixed forest at an altitude of 400 to 700 meters above sea level. It likes to live in the ditch of the mountain dock in summer. The requirement for the habitat condition is that there are trees and water in the tea garden, farmland and firewood pile, and it can climb trees and enter the human room. In winter, it often overwinters in natural holes formed by tree roots or in old rat holes.

2. Activity: the annual activity cycle of the five-step snake is about 9 months from the Waking of Insects to heavy snow. The main factors affecting the activity are temperature, humidity and food. When the air temperature is 20-30 ℃, the activity is the most frequent. When the air temperature is as high as 35-38 ℃, the activity is concentrated in many directions. At night, pine handle lighting is more sensitive and has reaction to torch attack, and there is almost no obvious trend of temperature when using flashlight.

3. Reproduction: the stinky gland secretion at the base of the female tail of the five-step snake has a special smell, which can attract the male snake, there is a mating phenomenon before mating, the eggs are intertwined with each other during mating, the eggs are mostly laid in the natural cave, and the tunnel is shallow, short and dry. The entrance of the cave seen in a terrace is 10 centimeters, and the tunnel is only 25 centimeters. The number of eggs varies, the young female snake lays eggs early but the number is small, the old female snake lays eggs late but the number is large, generally 12-18 eggs, egg white, oblong, egg shell soft, touch like paper, egg weight 16-18 grams, the size is 42-45 × 25-30 mm. Most of the eggs lay in a circle and stick together. they usually give birth in 1-3 days, hatch young snakes in about 24 days, grow 19 cm long when they come out of the shell, begin the first peeling 10 days later, and peel for the second time 49 days later.

4. Hibernation: the hibernation period is about 3 months from heavy snow to the following year, and the hibernating cave is deep. Snakes often live together, and sometimes live in the same hole with Agkistrodon halys. When the air temperature is 8 ℃, the snake body surface temperature is equal to the snake body surface temperature. When the temperature is higher than 8 ℃, the snake body surface temperature is always 1 ℃ lower than the air temperature. When the temperature is lower than 8 ℃, the snake body surface temperature is slightly higher than 1 ℃. When the snake body surface temperature is above 11 ℃, it can bite people. In the young snakes raised in captivity, the pupil did not move when the temperature was lower than 17 ℃, and the mouth was opened and bit when touched by tweezers at 12 ℃.