The first tiger snakes arrived at the Prague Zoo at the end of 2023, and from 2024 visitors can see them in the exhibition in the Terrarium pavilion. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo
Visitors to the Prague Zoo can now see rare tiger snakes. In addition to their color, these brightly colored reptiles are particularly interesting due to their double toxicity. Not only is their poison, which they inject into the body of their prey, toxic, but at the same time, thanks to their food in the form of toads, they receive other toxins into their bodies, which they can store and use in self-defense. Two young individuals of these doubly poisonous snakes inhabited the Terrarium pavilion.
“Unlike Czech, English distinguishes two types of toxicity in animals – ‘poisonous’ and ‘venomous’. In the case of ‘poisonous’, it is poisoning caused by ingestion or another contact of the poison with the body of the poisoned person. In this case, the animal itself uses the poison only for defense, the attacker poisons himself. A typical example can be the wood frog. In the case of ‘venomous’, it is always a case of poisoning caused by the targeted introduction of toxins by a poisonous animal into the body of the prey or the attacker. Tiger snakes are characterized by both,” says curator of reptiles Petr Velenský.
The tiger snake does not deny its striking resemblance to our collared snake, but it is noticeably more colorful. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo
What is a “poisonous” tiger snake? It obtains steroid toxins from eaten toads and stores them in so-called nuchal (or neck) glands. When threatened, it sets up and expands a strikingly colored, “tiger-like” neck area, from where it releases accumulated venom through cracks in the delicate skin.
“In addition, repeated observations prove that this poison can also be sprayed into the air in the form of tiny droplets or even an aerosol,” explains expert reptile breeder Vojtěch Víta. “Perhaps one of the most remarkable features of this snake is the ability to transfer the venom thus obtained from the female to the young.”
In addition to the Prague Zoo, only two zoos in Europe exhibit attractive tiger snakes – in Estonia and Austria. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo
And for what reason can we refer to the tiger snake as “venomous”? In addition to the poison used for defense, it also has rear poisonous teeth, which it uses for active hunting. The venom of this species affects blood clotting, but human bites are rare and usually not serious.
Visitors to the Prague Zoo can find tiger snakes in the Terrarium pavilion almost directly opposite the entrance door. Two approximately half-meter long snakes inhabited the exhibition together with striped water snakes. In the wild, tiger snakes inhabit forests and meadows close to bodies of water in Japan, Korea, eastern Russia, and China.