信息来源于iNaturalist，科普中国。
"Humans' fear of snakes is in our genes!" This is not only a joke, but also a hypothesis, because human vision is naturally quick to catch things that are potentially risky to us, including snakes, and does not need to be taught.
Therefore, it is indeed a very common and conventional behavior for humans to be afraid of snakes, especially every time in summer, there are hot searches on the news of snakes found everywhere, which greatly deepens the fear of snakes for humans.
But there is a kind of snake that is respected among the people, and the old people in the countryside often teach their offspring not to hurt them when they see a large snake with yellow and black on their body. This kind of snake is called the cauliflower snake, and it is a proper beneficial snake. They are inherently non-venomous and not very aggressive towards humans; And not only can it help eat rats, but it can even hunt poisonous snakes! Wherever they appeared, the vipers were gone.
In the folk, the cauliflower snake also has a nickname called "the king of snakes". Is this a true name or an exaggeration?
Cauliflower snake
First of all, let's introduce the cauliflower snake.
The cauliflower snake is actually a generic name, and the black-browed snake and the king snake are both called cauliflower snakes in the folk, and it is very simple to distinguish between these two snakes. First of all, although the colors of both are yellow and black, the black of the king snake is more, and the top of the king snake has black markings similar to the king character; As the name suggests, the black-browed snake has a coarse black stripe on its eye, which resembles an eyebrow.
The cauliflower snake we are talking about today is the king snake.
The king snake is a large, non-venomous snake, Its body length can reach up to 2.4 meters;Its head is slender, showing a triangular shape (the method of identifying venomous snakes by looking at the shape of the snake's head is really unreliable);Its eyes are relatively large, the pupils are round to vertical oval, they are jet black, and there are golden-orange eyeliners around them; their upper body parts are olive yellow to olive brown, and the edges of many scales are black, so most king snakes look more black, but young snakes lack this characteristic black edge, and it seems that the black proportion is very small, and it is often considered to be other snakes; the color of the ventral side of the neck is milky white to light gray, and the size and shape of the pigmentation are irregular, progressively increasing and denser towards the mid- and posterior ventral side, while spots in the ventral outer quarter or third tend to form dotted lines.
King snakes are diurnal or nocturnal snakes that inhabit bushes and woods, as well as agricultural areas, and are often found in areas of human activity, such as open fields, meadows, rice paddies and even farmhouses, where rodents are certainly more numerous and dense. But they don't just feed on rodents, they also eat birds, eggs or frogs, and sometimes grasshoppers, beetles, lizards or other snakes.
In the wild, the king snake is active and moves quickly. It is ferocious and will attack and try to bite at any time; Some individuals who have been held for months remain aggressive and difficult to control. This snake has well-developed anal glands that produce a disgusting discharge.
The most common English name for the King Ratsnake is "King Ratsnake", which refers to its habit of eating other snakes. In the Latin name Elaphe carinata, "elaphos" means stag, and the naturalist Leopold Fitzinger, who discovered and named the king snake in 1833, did not explain why he chose the name, and later herpetologists speculated that the name refers to the antler-like markings on the head of the type species Elaphe quatuorlineata saurorates.
And "carinata" means "keel", apparently referring to their large size and "dragon"-like scale style.
In the mainland folk, the king snake also has the nicknames of the ribbed snake, the edged scale snake, the king python, the king snake, the king word head, the cauliflower snake, the pine flower snake, the rape flower, the stinky yellow jaw and the stinky green man.
classify
It is worth mentioning that there are still many doubts about the classification of the king snake.
The foreign name of the King Ratsnake" is actually very revealing. "Kingsnake" and "Ratsnake" are actually synonymous with the king snake of the genus Lampropeltis and the rat snake of the genus Elaphe, respectively. Many herpetologists speculate that the king snake should actually be more closely related to the king snake of the genus Lampropeltis than to the genus Elaphe, which it is now classified.
However, there is almost no genetic relationship between the two genera. The main arguments for these wanted to reclassify hertologists were that the king snake was particularly fond of preying on ectothermic prey such as snakes and lizards, and that the physical structure of the head was more similar to that of the king snake of the genus Lampropeltis.
However, most of the current classifications are based on DNA evidence, and DNA technology shows that the king snake has a lot in common with other Eurasian rat snakes, such as the Russian rat snake (Elaphe schrenkii) and the Japanese rat snake (Elaphe climacophora). External morphological traits and behaviors alone are generally not considered reliable taxonomic indicators for classifying interspecies relationships, and their superficial similarity to king snakes may be due to convergent evolution.
Why is the king snake called the "king of snakes"?
In fact, the king snake prefers to eat snakes over other prey, even venomous snakes such as cobras, ring snakes, and five-step snakes. While it is unclear whether it is completely immune to the venom of these species, studies have shown that it is apparently highly resistant to the blood venom of the five-step snake, and even its serum can treat mice that have been poisoned by the blood.
From this point of view, ultra-high toxicity resistance is one of the reasons for "becoming a king".
The second reason is its superior combat effectiveness. The maximum body length of the king snake is 2.4 meters, making it the most ferocious snake except for the python, and when encountering other snakes, they can often rely on their huge size to suppress them, and make other snakes lose their ability to resist through python-like winding technology. They are very aggressive, but their huge size does not suppress their agility. The general latent snake's ability to move is far less than that of the king snake, such as the five-step snake.
The king snake will swoop other snakes, first biting their heads to prevent them from releasing toxins, and then directly suppressing and wrapping around their large size, which can quickly kill their prey.
I feel that size is very important, which should be the third reason for "becoming a king".
Is it an exaggeration?
Although the king snake is super powerful and likes to eat other snakes, they are not invincible, and I think it is indeed a bit of an exaggeration to call them the "king of snakes".
In terms of body size, the body length of all kinds of pythons is often 5 meters, and 2-meter poisonous snakes abound; In terms of toxicity, they are not toxic and can only resist blood toxins (resistance to other toxins has not been studied). Although I don't like "fighting beasts", it is estimated that the king cobra may not be able to fight a large-sized nerve venomous snake.
However, the title of "the king of snakes" is a fool's own foolishness, just from the perspective of evolution and the status of the biosphere, the king snake is undoubtedly a quite successful snake, which plays an important role in the stability of the ecosystem, and many of its secrets are of great help to scientific research, so on August 1, 2008, the king snake was listed in the "list of terrestrial wild animals with important economic and scientific research value protected by the state" by the State Forestry Administration, which is the three protected animals; It is listed as a local key protected wild animal in Hunan Province; In 2020, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration issued the Notice on Regulating the Scope of Classified Management of Prohibited Wild Animals, which also banned the breeding of king snakes for the purpose of eating.