What basic information should people know about snakes?
Snakes are a natural and integral component of the ecosystem. As predators, they are invaluable for their role in maintaining the balance of nature by helping to keep populations of their prey in check. Their prey consists of everything from earthworms to rabbits, and this includes other snakes. Snakes are especially important in the control of rodents. Bull snakes can be a farmer’s best friend. Snakes are distinctive in possessing an elongated, scaly body without limbs, external ear openings or eyelids, and like all other reptiles, they are cold-blooded or, more properly, ectothermic. Snakes cannot tolerate extreme cold and will normally hibernate in the winter, emerging from their dens late February or early March in Texas. They also avoid extremely torrid conditions, confining their activity in hot climates to early morning, evenings, and night-time. Limblessness has in no way been a handicap to evolutionary success. Snakes successfully occupy many terrestrial, arboreal, underground
