Do snakes fart?
Do snakes fart? You
betcha!
My wife and I were out for an evening stroll with the dogs. I had mentioned seeing her favorite snake, Charlie the Gopher Snake, over on the north side of our property -- while she usually checks up on him in our wee orchard on the south side. It was the second time in as many weeks I’d seen him away from “home”.
Charlie’s about 5 feet long and really pretty. Exceptionally shiny for a snake who spends the bulk of his time underground [hopefully] consuming pocket gophers.
As we passed along the back fence by the bosque -- a favorite place for Hognose Snakes -- my ever-sensitive snoot detected an unusual, pungent order as we passed by the “snakiest” spot below the back meadow. Half in jest, I asked Helen if she knew if snakes farted? Her answer was, “I imagine so. They have a digestive tract and a place to poop.”
Well, she was right. I finally went looking on the Web and found this terrific site about farts. About a third of the way through the page, you’ll find the question -- “Do turtles fart?” The answer includes snakes.
My lovely wife’s sense of logic in Nature was correct.
Note: The few photos I’ve taken of Charlie really suck. To give you a proper idea of what a gopher snake looks like, I’ve borrowed this picture from the Diné Education Web .
Posted: Thu - August 11, 2005 at 02:59 PM