How Do Snakes Eat Prey Bigger Than Themselves? Explained Simply
Friday, 10 April 2026
Snakes have been around for about 150 million years – which is
a little longer than we have, that’s for sure.
One of the questions that snakes provoke from kids (of all sizes) is how
on earth do they manage to eat things that look, to all intents and purposes,
way, way bigger or longer than them? How
can this happen? It looks impossible.
Well, if you have been around for as long as snakes, you
have the time to solve this kind of problem.
Plus of course, we sometimes look at problems from our perspective. Our jaw bones are fused which means that we
would not be able to get something ridiculously large in our mouths and down
into our stomach (although I have seen people try at parties). The jaw bones of the snake, on the other
hand, are not fused. They are still
connected but by a ligament of such elasticity that their mouths can be dramatically
stretched. The gape can be large – even up
to 180 degrees (and that has to be seen to be believed). That always leads to another question – when a
snake swallows something much bigger than itself, how come it doesn’t
suffocate?
This and other questions are answered in the video below, a
TED-Ed lesson by Niko Zlotnik, directed by Anna Benner and narrated by Adrian
Dannatt.
Give a Gift
If you enjoyed this article, please consider making a gift to help Ark In Space to continue to bring you fascinating features, photographs and videos.
Thank you!