| 1 | Tiger ratsnake |
Secretly one of the largest snakes in South America. At up to 2.7 metres, they’re much larger than US ratsnakes, following the rule that everything grows freakier and more monstrous in jungles. The tiger ratsnake (Spilotes pullatus) likes warmer regions and climbs trees with ease, while also moving along the ground.
The tiger ratsnake is a constrictor which either asphyxiates its prey in coils, or presses them firmly against a wall. In January 2001, a sighting from Poço das Antas Biological Reserve on Brazil’s Atlantic coast added bats to its diet. The 2.15 metre tiger ratsnake had crawled into a house roof, and was waiting 2 metres away from a roosting bat colony.
When the scientists approached, they noticed a bat-shaped bulge in its stomach. 3 months later, another tiger ratsnake was spotted slithering into the exact same roof. Another study found a bat from the Molossus family in a tiger ratsnake’s stomach. This was too digested for the exact species to be identified, but those confirmed in their diet elsewhere include black mastiff bats and Jamaican fruit bats.
| 2 | Blanding’s cat snake |
This little known African snake reaches 2.8 metres, and is neither venomous nor a constrictor. They grab their prey, manipulate it with their coils, and swallow. Like the tiger ratsnake, this African species climbs trees with ease, and was once spotted 25 metres high in a Nigerian palm oil plantation. They put those skills to good use, in using the bat kingdom as a convenient calorie source. This is a central to West African species, and in Nigeria, thatched roofs are one of their favourite hangouts.
One snake measuring 1.8 metres in Sierra Leone had 8 bats in its stomach, including the white-winged serotine bat. In Guinea, one of their favourites is the Angolan free-tailed bat. Many stories unfold in the wild which we’re unaware of. One time, a Blanding’s catsnake randomly fell from the roof of a golf club 3 metres high. As it hit the ground, a bat colony above let out a loud chorus of excited peeping. Blanding’s catsnakes have also been spotted in a cave in Gabon, where a huge bat colony was lurking.
| 3 | Cuban boa |
The Cuban boa has by far the most bat-munching sightings to its name. It’s the sole large boa (there’s a bunch of dwarf boas) on the island of Cuba, and particularly likes forest areas. Search hard within those forests, and you’ll find dark, dripping caves which the Cuban boa lurks in silently to ambush bat colonies.
Cuban boas have strong enough tails to dangle from stalactites or even the cave entrance itself. They then wait for the bat colony to activate at night, and sweep past in a maelstrom. The Cuban boa either seizes a bat when it touches them, or opens its mouth and allows a bat to get caught.
The Cuban boa shares one of its favourite species with the tiger ratsnake: the Jamaican fruit-eating bat. Others confirmed include Cuban fruit-eating bats, fruit flower bats, buffy flower bats, and Antillean ghost-faced bats. These caves can also become communal bases for Cuban boas, with 8 resting together at once.
| 4 | Forest flame snake |
The forest flame snake is a little researched species which nevertheless inhabits a huge swathe of South America. Sadly, they don’t have the ability to spit fire in your face. Instead, this is a calm and non-threatening snake which inhabits a wide variety of habitats, including dry forest, shrubland and rainforests. Their survival policy seems to be not causing a fuss and hoping that they fly under the radar.
Forest flame snakes have no standout feature, hence why nobody has heard of them. They have a very mild venom, which is specialised against Anolis lizards. Bats are another prey, as shown by a Seba’s short-tailed bat which was found in a forest flame snake’s stomach in 2012. The snake measured 82cm, while the bat measured 23cm. The bat had been consumed tail first. Seba’s short-tailed bat is an frugivorous species which acquires its nutrients from fruit, pollen and nectar. This was the first ever snake confirmed to eat it.
Forest flame snakes average at 1 metre, with a record of 132.7cm. They’re nocturnal, and mostly favour ground, but can climb trees if necessary. Locals dub them the false coral snake, after their contrasting stripes which mimic their venomous neighbours (one of many snakes with that nickname).
| 5 | Checker-bellied snake |
An obscure snake, which is nocturnal and rarely seen throughout its territory. They’ve been found in scattered spots all over South America, including Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Brazil, and also Trinidad and Tobogo.
Checker-bellied snakes hang out in forest edges and misty marshland, and move very strangely. They slither sideways like a desert sidewinder, throwing themselves forward while in loop formation. The checker-bellied snake is believed to feed on geckos and anoles, but a bat belonging to the Myotis family was once found in one’s stomach. This is an insectivorous family, and the bat had been ingested by the snake tail first. Like its fellow bat eaters, this snake is an excellent climber which has been spotted high in coconut palms.
Siphlophis cervinus has an extremely wide head, more like a cobra or viper’s triangular skull. This contrasts against a very thin body, which they can somehow fit a bat inside anyway. Adults are 75-125cm long. Checker-bellied snakes are an egg-laying species, and produce 3-6 per clutch.
| 6 | Yellow-red ratsnake |
A 1.25 metre species which is sometimes red and yellow, but sometimes more like grey and darker grey. They may have outposts, but its stronghold is the Caribbean coast of central America: Mexico, Belize, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. The harmless yellow-red ratsnake (Pseudelaphe flavirufa) likes to lurk in caves, and has been reported eating many bat species: Mexican greater funnel-eared bat, black-winged little yellow bat, Parnell’s moustached bat, and common vampire bat.
Even though the two probably diverged before the dinosaur extinction, Pseudelaphe flavirufa has evolved similar bat-hunting techniques to a Cuban boa. They too fasten their tails to stalactites and dangle down, waiting for bats to pass. Yellow-red ratsnakes have the strength to lift the entire upper two thirds of their body while still dangling. Another strategy is to venture deeper into caves, into dark crannies where the bats’ range of movement is restricted. The horrific Kantemó Bat Cave of Mexico is home to 70 members of this species, and another base is the Brandon Hill Cave of Honduras. Yellow-red ratnakes consume their bats headfirst and can complete swallowing in 9 minutes.
| 7 | Amazon tree boa |
A species of forests, from cloudforests to rainforests. The Amazon tree boa isn’t specially adapted to bats, far from it. But their menu is so enormously wide, their taste buds so undiscerning, that they automatically eat plenty of bats as a consequence. Bats they eat include the Jamaican fruit bat (the Cuban boa’s favourite), black myotis, and dark fruit eating bat.
Their strategies are also variable. Rather than caves, Amazon tree boas lurk next to the fruits and flowers that frugivorous bat species acquire their nectar from. They’re also strong climbers which slither into thatched rooves, and even scientific research stations, and wait patiently for the bats they know will inevitably appear.
The Amazon tree boa’s general strategy is ambush, but less exclusively than other boas. They actively forage as well, slithering steadily and scanning their surroundings. This is a nocturnal species measuring 1.5-2 metres, which avoids moonlight and investigates small forest streams. A bat being constricted by an Amazon tree boa makes distress calls, to alert its fellow kind to the danger.
| 8 | Pygmy python |
The pygmy python is a small, 40-60cm species living in the Pilbara region of western Australia. It’s another snake that lurks outside the entrances of dark caves, but rather than humid, mosquito-infested jungles, these caves are located in the dry, dusty outback. Pilbara is place of orange as far as the eye can see, but with many hidden caves dotted around.
Pygmy pythons are less adapted than the Cuba boa. While they wait patiently at cave entrances, they’re unable to dangle precariously from a stalactite. Instead, they wait on ledges, and snap their jaws at the cloud of bats flying from the black entrance in their hundreds. With a bat seized, they apply their coils, constrict, and swallow, in a manoeuvre they’ve practised hundreds of times.
Their relative the spotted python (Antaresia maculosa) is exactly the same. This version lives in Queensland, and is confirmed to hunt the little bent-wing bat, waiting in dry caves. Mount Etna in Queensland is a particular den, as its sides are littered with hundreds of small caves, making it a hotspot both for spotted pythons and various species of bent-wing bats.
| 9 | Yellow-bellied puffing snake |
This South American snake somehow combines the length of a hosepipe with being rare and seldom seen. Yellow-bellied puffing snakes average at 2.5 metres, easily reaching 3. They’re one of many Brazilian snakes with little research conducted, with so many to cover.
This is a snake of contrasting yellow and black. Some are a banana yellow, but with others, it’s a more sulphurous yellow that belongs in a science lab – hence the Latin name of Pseustes sulphureus. This species likes to rest on trees, but isn’t dependent on them like an emerald tree boa. Their signature defensive trick is to rear up and spread their chest scales, so that the yellow underneath becomes far stronger.
One confirmed prey is the bird the little tinamous, observed in Ecuador. Bats are another, as observed in the Caxiuanã National Forest of northern Brazil. A yellow-bellied puffing snake was captured on the roof of a house, and inside its stomach, scientists found a velvety free-tailed bat, a species which reaches 10cm long. This was observed on November 22nd 1998, and was the first ever sighting of this snake eating a bat.
| 10 | Puerto Rican boa |
The Puerto Rican boa (Chilabothrus inornatus) belongs to the same family as the Cuban boa, and its bat-hunting tactics seem to be copy and pasted. This species also waits outside caves for the furious flock to emerge, and even times its arrival, positioning itself 30 minutes before the colony leaves. Thereafter, it’s the usual story: acrobatic dangling, followed by constriction, tricky mid-air rearranging, and swallowing.
Puerto Rican boas have such a taste for bats that they’ll fight over them like brown bears duelling for salmon. Two boas were spotted in a cave in a tug of war, pulling the bat with their mouths while intertwining their bodies around each other (a bear would have probably clubbed their heads). Puerto Rican boas also eat dead bats, in one case a stiff, dried out buffy flower bat. Another two confirmed prey are Antillean fruit eating bats and Leach’s single leaf bat.
While invasive black rats make up 60% of this species’ prey, bats form most of the remainder. Puerto Rican boas measure a hefty 1.8-2.7 metres, but this is shorter than the Cuban boa, which supposedly reached 8 metres in the days of yore before mass farming.