Tentacled snakes spend their whole life in the water and can stay underwater for up to 30 minutes without coming up for air. They can move only awkwardly on land. In dry times and at night, the snake may burrow itself in the mud.
Through the use of high-speed cameras
the snake's method of ambush is revealed in greater detail. The snake
anticipates the movements of the fish as it attempts to escape. As the
fish swims into range, the snake creates a disturbance in the water by
moving part of its body posterior to the neck. This disturbance triggers
an escape reflex in the fish called the C-start,
in which the fish contorts its body into a "C" shape. Normally at this
point the fish would swim quickly away from the disturbance by quickly
straightening its body, but the snake grabs it, usually by the head,
anticipating its movement. The snake catches fish by tricking them into
reflexively attempting to escape in the wrong direction.Unlike most predators, the snake doesn’t aim for the fish’s initial
position and then adjust its direction as the fish moves, it heads
directly for the location where it expects the fish’s head to be.The ability to predict the position of its prey appears to be innate.
The tentacled snake retracts its eyes when it begins to strike.
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