gansi egg-eating snake Fast Facts
Overview
As their name suggests these snakes eat eggs! They are an arboreal snake that can easily move about in the trees and bushes, raiding the bird nests and feasting on their eggs. They are specially adapted to swallow eggs whole, digest the liquid egg and regurgitate the egg shell by using a part of their spine to crack open the egg. This particular species of egg-eating snake can be found throughout West Africa. They are non-venomous, but to defend themselves they will rub their scales against each other really fast to create a rattling noise and strike out at any potential threats.
Diet
Bird eggs, and only bird eggs. They can sense is the egg is fresh or rotten and even if it has a developing chick inside.
Reproduction
A female will lay a clutch of oblong shaped white eggs and leave them to hatch. The newly hatched egg-eating snakes are left to defend for themselves from day one.
Threats + Conservation
There are currently no known threats to this species.
Fun facts
They have evolved to be almost completely toothless. Capable of eating a bird egg that is 3 times bigger than its head!