The feeding behavior of the snail-eating snake Pareas carinatus Wagler 1830 (Squamata: Colubridae)

Abstract

The behavior of captive Pareas carinatus feeding on European round-shelled snails is described. The snake bites into the snail's body and lifts it from the ground. With alternate retraction movements of the mandibles, it pulls the body out of the shell while the upper jaw rests on the outside of the shell. There are only slight differences to dipsadine snakes: Pareas never followed a mucus track and did not coil around the snail's shell. There seemed to be a preference to catch the snails from behind. Extraction time (24-390 s) and number of mandibular movements (22-98) were similar to the data on the dipsadines.