Why and When Do Snakes Bite? As is commonly known, snakes bite for two main reasons: to hunt and to defend. When snakes are on the offensive, they use their venom to immobilize and kill their prey.

A confrontation between the king cobra and the inland taipan would be intense, with the king cobra likely to triumph. Despite the taipan’s more potent venom, the king cobra’s larger size, strength, ...

High-speed cameras have finally debunked a long-held myth: That venomous vipers such as rattlesnakes have much faster strikes than nonvenomous snakes. In some cases, harmless snakes actually have ...