Slow motion puff adder attack

Do you like snakes? If you're scared of snakes you may not want to watch this puff adder in action. It's incredible though!

Instructions

Do the preparation task first. Then watch the video and do the exercise. Remember you can read the transcript at any time.

Steve Backshall: Ohh, … that was glorious! You can see the tongue flickering on the air, it’s drawn back into that classic ‘s’ shape, which gives it the possibility to extend, to strike. Let’s focus on the balloon. Oh wow! That is absolutely unbelievable. Well, it’s a very, very short strike but you could see as the mouth opened, the sheath, that covered the fangs, being exposed. They are very, very long those fangs that really act like tiny stiletto daggers and they have just knifed into the balloon and, for a fraction of a second, the water is just hanging there in one place. If that was mammal prey, it would have carried it on in pumping the venom into its body, then it retreats and lets it go.