213: SQUEEZEE

The myth

Boa constrictors kill their prey by squeeeezing them to death, gradually tightening the coils until the victim can no longer breathe.

The “truth”

It’s been known for a long time that the suffocation model of constricting – in which each time the prey exhales, the boa tightens its grip, until it’s impossible for the prey to inhale – didn’t fit the facts. For one thing, observation showed that death usually took place too quickly for it to be due to asphyxiation. It also wouldn’t be an efficient method: the snake would expend far too much energy in such a gradual process, while the struggling prey would have time to try to escape or fight back. The snake would itself be vulnerable to attack by predators while it was thus preoccupied. Recent research has come up with a new solution. It’s now believed that the boa squeezes its dinner – typically a rodent – hard enough to prevent the flow of blood to vital organs. The prey dies, not of suffocation, but of a circulatory arrest. This can be achieved within a minute, as opposed to the several minutes which asphyxiation would require.

Sources

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33625080; www. sciencenews.org/article/boa-suffocation-merely-myth; www. smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/boa-constrictors-get-a-feel-fortheir-prey-82954806/

Disclaimer

Do let us know if any of this is inaccurate; just write to the letters page, and I’m sure they’ll squeeze it in somehow.

Mythchaser

We’ve mentioned “burglar’s signs” before [ FT151:26, 333:23]. The latest variation comes from Portishead, near Bristol, where “Police have stepped up patrols after mysterious rocks were left outside homes and under the wheels of cars,” supposedly in order to “work out which homes are empty during the day”. The local Neighbourhood Watch has urged residents to “stay vigilant”. The aforementioned mysterious rocks, or stones, are white, as is the slim, tall, pale, van driver, with long mousey hair and a goatee beard, suspected of involvement. Well, what other explanation could there possibly be for pebbles on a driveway? ( Western Daily Press, 12 May 2017).