Scaly, creeping, cold-blooded reptiles can
seem sinister – especially venomous snakes and snapping crocodiles. Yet many reptiles
are glossy, vividly coloured creatures, with
fascinating habits. Most are hunters, but since
REPTILESthey do not use any energy keeping warm they do not need to eat much. Crocodiles often go for months without eating, and some big snakes can survive for a year on just one big meal.▲^41
TURTLES
Instantly recognizable by their shells, turtles and tortoises have existed since the days of the first dinosaurs. Tortoises are famously slow, but turtles can swim quite fast over long distances.▼COBRAS
Among the deadliest of venomous snakes, cobras are armed with anerve poison that paralyzes their victims so they cannot breathe and they die from suffocation.▼TUATARA
Found only in New Zealand, the two species of tuatara are the only survivors of a group of reptiles that mostly died out 100 million years ago, during the age of dinosaurs.▲CROCODILES
The most powerful of all reptiles, alligators and crododiles are ferocious predators that ambush, kill, and eat animals as big as zebras.LEGLESS LIZARDS
▶Some lizards have no legs, so they look and behave like snakes. The European glass lizard has tiny vestiges of legs, showing that its ancestors were like normal lizards.This small turtle has astreamlined shell to help itglide through waterRed-tailed racerSlider terrapinRattlesnakeAlbino
Hermann’s monocled cobra
tortoiseTuataraAmerican alligatorThe grass snake is an excellent swimmer.
It ripples its body to
move through water in search of frogs to eatVIPERS
▶Equipped with long poison fangs that hinge forwards when they open their mouths, vipers such as rattlesnakes are extremely dangerous. Luckily, rattlesnakes rattle their tails as a warning.
Sensing danger, this grass snake is “playing
dead” in the hope
that it will be ignoredThe red-tailed racer’sslender body isadapted for climbing040_041_Reptiles.indd 41 03/01/19 12:09 PM