It may be small, but the hognose snake can make a big impression. When threatened, the hognose can hiss loudly, lunge viciously and shake its tail into a blur. If that doesn't work, it will roll over and play dead! But the snake's favorite prey never sees this amazing trick. The hognose has a toad or a mouse locked in its jaws and halfway down its throat before the victim knows what hit it.
Oink, Oink: The hognose snake gets its name from its upturned snout, which resembles the nose of a hog. The snake uses its shovel-shaped nose to dig through loose soil in search of prey or to dig burrows.
Make Up Your Mind: Hognose snakes from the same litter can have many different colors and patterns. One might have brown or black blotches on its light tan skin while another might be one solid color. Experts aren't sure what causes this phenomenon, which seems to happen at random.
Dead Snakes Tell No Tales[]
A "dead" hognose snake will stay completely motionless for up to a half hour.
The hognose snake has a most unusual defense mechanism-it plays dead! When a predator such as a fox or a hawk gets too close, the snake will turn over on its back, open its mouth and let its forked tongue hang out as if it were really dead. If the attacker touches it, the snake will remain motionless. If the predator tries to harm the snake anyway, the hognose will spring "back to life" with a frightful display of hissing and lunging, which is often enough to scare away even the most determined enemy.
Flipside: The hognose snake often makes one mistake when it's playing dead. If you pick it up, it will remain limp in your hand. But if you set it on the ground on its belly, it will flip over onto its back again!
Poisonous Nature: The hognose snake is venomous. Its venom is not deadly to humans, like that of a copperhead or rattlesnake, but it's strong enough to harm most of the animals it preys upon.
Pop Goes the Toad[]
The hognose snake loves to prey upon toads, which it swallows whole. Toads will inflate themselves with air so they won't get swallowed by predators, but the hognose has a pair of small fangs toward the back of its mouth that can "pop" the toad so it goes down easier. The fangs also inject a fluid that helps break down the toad's body so it's easier to digest.
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Trivia[]
- The section “Poisonous Nature” erroneously calls the snake poisonous, despite the fact that it correctly calls it venomous in the text itself.