The old man often said, "The snake is looking for death when it eats the yellow eel." Is this sentence really credible? Could it be that the yellow eel is more powerful than the snake? What are the consequences of the snake eating the yellow eel?
Snakes are one of the apex predators in nature's food chain, they are fierce and extremely predatory. In the waters, water snakes are even more reckless, they specialize in hunting some aquatic animals, and the seemingly weak yellow eel often becomes their hunting target.
However, there is a popular saying in the countryside that "snakes eat yellow eels are looking for death", which sounds as if snakes will suffer terrible retribution if they swallow yellow eels.
So what happens to a stout water snake when it encounters a yellow eel?
Everything seems to be very logical, water snakes have absolute advantages, such as being large, highly venomous, extremely aggressive, etc., once they find the eel, they can quickly nail it with sharp fangs, inject it with poison, and wait for the eel to gradually lose its vitality.
After that, the water snake can swallow the limp yellow eel into its stomach without any problems.
But it's not that simple, and the eel is not completely powerless.
Yellow eels are also cautious by nature, hiding in mud burrows during the day and only hunting at night, giving them a good chance to escape predators.
In addition, the eel's body secretes a layer of mucus, which allows them to escape quickly when attacked, and despite its small size, the eel has a strong appetite and a ferocious temperament.
If they invade their territory, even humans will not be able to escape their bites.
Therefore, when the water snake catches the eel, it is not as easy as imagined, and they have to be careful, otherwise the eel may escape at any time.
If you are unlucky, you will be bitten by a yellow eel, and it can be said that the process of the water snake hunting the yellow eel is undoubtedly a fight to the death.
But even if the water snake eventually catches and swallows the eel, the trouble will not be far away, because the eel's body will become extremely stiff after death.
This means that when the eel enters the digestive tract of the water snake, it will be difficult for them to bend their bodies and move freely, and eventually the water snake is very likely to lose heat and die of stiffness due to inactivity.
Another potential threat comes from toxins in the eel.
If the water snake accidentally contaminates its mouth with the blood of the yellow eel during the hunt, then its nervous system will be damaged, resulting in muscle paralysis and eventually losing the ability to eat, and the yellow eel will choke to death.
It is no wonder that people have the idea that "snakes are looking for death when they eat yellow eels", because whether in the process of hunting or devouring, water snakes are facing a huge threat to their lives, and they need to be highly vigilant, otherwise they will pay the price of their lives.
However, this saying is a bit exaggerated, after all, there are still some water snakes that can safely prey on yellow eels, which depends on the size of the yellow eel.
If the scale is not too large, the water snake can swallow it smoothly, but once it attacks a fairly large yellow eel, the consequences are difficult to predict, so later generations have a more reasonable saying that "snakes eat yellow eels than long".
The conquest between the snake and the eel was a thrilling one, and although the water snake had some advantages, it was not easy to get out of the way, which confirmed the cruel law of nature's food chain - the law of the jungle.
Only occasionally when the prey has a unique defense mechanism, the strong will also pay a heavy price, in which case who eats whom has indeed become an unsolved mystery.
Information source: "The old rural saying "snakes eat yellow eels, looking for death", is this really the case? Why can't snakes eat yellow eels?".
