Prey
This snake is known to be a powerful constrictor, and therefore its diet consists of mostly mice if domestic, and other rodents if wild. It also can feed on clutches of reptile eggs detected beneath the surface via smell. In part because of its resistance to pitviper venom, the desert kingsnake is able to consume young diamondback rattlesnakes that are common within its range, and at the scent of L. getula even adult western diamonbacks edge hastily backward, shielding their heads with defensive loops.
Read more about this topic: Desert Kingsnake
Famous quotes containing the word prey:
“A lioness, with udders all drawn dry,
Lay couching, head on ground, with cat-like watch
When that the sleeping man should stir; for ‘tis
The royal disposition of that beast
To prey on nothing that doth seem as dead.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“...I delivered the poor who cried, and the orphan who had no helper. The blessing of the wretched came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made them drop their prey from their teeth.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 29:12-17.
Job, recounting his faithfulness.
“Education ... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading, an easy prey to sensations and cheap appeals.”
—G.M. (George Macaulay)