What if a snake bites another snake?

Introduction

According to World Health Organization an estimated 5.4 million people are bitten by snakes every year and around 130,000 people die. Half of the human population feel extremely anxious when they see a snake. According to a survey, Snakes topped the list of Americans' Fears. 56% and 51% of the participants reported being afraid of snakes in surveys conducted in 1998 and 2001 respectively. 

source: newsgallup.com

And it's been found out that human vision could detect images of snakes from a range of objects much quicker than could detect frogs,

 flowers and caterpillars. 

• So, what if these creatures which terrified humans for generations & made our eyes specially evolve decided to have a civil war? 

• Or, what if a snake wanted to commit suicide biting itself?

Snakes and Venom

Snakes have venom glands in their mouth. During envenomation (bite which injects venom into prey) venom from glands passes through fangs to enter the prey's body. In this process, sometimes the venom leaks from fangs and enters the snake's stomach. Also, when a snake eats the prey after killing it with venom, the venom goes into the snake's stomach.

Special Digestive chemicals present in their stomachs are capable of breaking down venom very easily. So, the snake's digestive system can easily deal with the venom present in the prey it just swallowed before it can harm the snake.

In the instances mentioned here, the venom didn't directly enter the snake's blood.

Snake vs Snake of same species

Snakes getting bitten by other snakes of the same species is pretty common. It usually happens during fights and matings. As this is frequent, snakes developed immunity towards the venom from their species. 

When a snake bites itself or gets bitten by another snake (of the same species) the venom gets into the snake's blood. But the antitoxins already present in its body saves it from getting affected by the venom. 

source: cainpost.com.au

Snakes don't get affected by their venom but may die if the wound of the bite is severe.

Exception

But all snakes don't have this immunity to their Venom. An Australian brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) was found dead after biting itself.

Snake Vs snake of different species

Even though the primary purpose of venom is to kill prey or rivals, venoms from different species of snakes vary in their chemical composition and quantity. This is because they evolved according to their surroundings and regular prey and enemies.

But what if a snake bites another snake of a different species? Is it frequent in nature? No. So, snakes don't have immunity to venom from snakes of other species. Therefore, they get affected.

However, snakes don't like to waste their venom. They mostly use venom only when its needed and don't inject all of the available venom in a single bite. Sometimes, they don't even inject any venom this is called Dry bite. Rattlesnake is mostly likely to go for a real bite.

Exception

Some snakes exhibit immunity even to venom from other species of snakes. For example Kingsnake is immune to Rattlesnake's venom. This allows it to feed on Rattlesnakes.