Belly up: my latest post for NatGeo, on snake stomachs

Wow, talk about getting no respect: snakes are the Rodney Dangerfield of reptiles. They help us out by eating rats and bugs for us, they're so beautiful we copy their skin patterns for our clothing (and in some cases take the skins right off them) and what do they get in return? We use hurtful expressions like "snake in the grass," and "cold-hearted snake," and even even blame them in mythology for humanity's getting trespassed from paradise. True, some of them are highly venomous...but I can think of a few people I could say that about as well.

I find snakes beautiful but never thought about how beautiful they can be underneath until Dave Partington asked me, via Weird Animal Question of the Week on NatGeo, what is the purpose of some snakes having such beautiful underbellies.

And they do, don't they? Check out that checkerboard on the red rat snake in the photo and click on the link in the graph above to see what our experts had to say about their belly colors. That one looks like piano keys to me, but even though he's harmless I wouldn't try tickling his ivories. Even the bite of a harmless snake is a bite, so when you see snakes keep a distance. Respectfully.

Beautiful photo from FactZoo


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