{"id":29305,"date":"2018-08-13T16:25:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T16:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/?p=29305"},"modified":"2022-11-16T03:41:30","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T03:41:30","slug":"can-cats-kill-snakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/can-cats-kill-snakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Cats Kill Snakes?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On a list of ultimate predators, cats and snakes would surely be near the top. From the largest lions and anacondas down to pygmy rattlesnakes and the tiny rusty-spotted cat, all are efficient hunters and masters of the kill.<\/p>\n<p>But, what happens when these two carnivores encounter each other? Can cats kill snakes?<\/p>\n<p>In this article we\u2019ll cover the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cats and Snakes, Everything You Need to Know<\/li>\n<li>Cats vs. Snakes, Physical Attributes<\/li>\n<li>Can Cats Kill Snakes?<\/li>\n<li>Can Snakes Kill Cats?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Cats and Snakes, Everything You Need to Know<\/h2>\n<p>In certain respects, cats and snakes are very much alike.\u00a0They both strike at the speed of lightning and, with few exceptions, are solitary hunters.<\/p>\n<p>Snakes and cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they must eat meat to survive and both derive little nutrition for plants.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/cats-eat-wild\/\">In the wild<\/a>, cats and snakes occupy similar ecological niches. The largest, such as adult tigers and lions, pythons and cobras, are apex predators at the top of the food chain.<\/p>\n<p>Smaller cats and snakes may avoid larger predators, but are still the stuff of nightmares for smaller prey species. And, while cats are warm-blooded and can live in colder climates than snakes, they overlap in much of their range.<\/p>\n<h2>Cat vs. Snakes, Physical Attributes<\/h2>\n<p>In many ways, cats are built to take on snakes. The snake&#8217;s main advantage is the speed at which it strikes, which is largely nullified by the cat&#8217;s natural abilities.<\/p>\n<p>In one experiment, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/scientists-surprise-even-nonvenomous-snakes-can-strike-ridiculous-speeds-180958452\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">scientists clocked\u00a0snakes lunging<\/a> forward at about half a foot in only 70 milliseconds. That&#8217;s faster than the blink of a human eye which takes about 200 milliseconds.<\/p>\n<p>A cat&#8217;s reaction time, meaning the time it takes after a stimulus to make an observable motion, has been measured between 50-70 milliseconds which might just be fast enough to avoid a hit by a snake.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to an amazing reaction time, cats see at a rate of 100 frames per second, compared to a human&#8217;s paltry 15-20 fps.<\/p>\n<p>Frame rate measures how fast a brain processes images. Computers and televisions today refresh far faster than our brain can process, so we don&#8217;t see that it&#8217;s actually a series of still images we&#8217;re looking at.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s why older monitors have flickering or choppy images. They had lower frame rates so our eyes could see the changes happening.<\/p>\n<p>The point of this is that a snake&#8217;s strike is in slow motion to a cat&#8217;s eyes. Check out the following video which gives a good approximation about how cats see the world:<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content-asset videofit\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Life at 100 frames per second\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vF_XC0M14-E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h2>Can Cats Kill Snakes?<\/h2>\n<p>Now we know that cats have the right tools for the job to take on a snake. But what happens when they meet, would they actually fight?<\/p>\n<p>In the following video, we can see the results of just such an encounter:<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content-asset videofit\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cat vs snake in a fight to the death! See who wins!\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ox2CvVHKukE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>There are a number of\u00a0reasons a cat and snake could be in conflict if they met. If sufficiently larger than the snake, the cat may consider the snake a prey item and might try to kill it for food.<\/p>\n<p>Alternatively, predators that are relatively evenly matched, or occupy the same niche,\u00a0 will often attack each other <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1046\/j.1461-0248.2002.00315.x\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">out of competition<\/a> for the limited resources in the environment.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, cats will often <a href=\"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/cats-attack-no-reason\/\">attack<\/a> and kill smaller animals indiscriminately, or for play. <a href=\"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/will-cats-kill-ducks\/\">Ducks<\/a> may be good examples of this. Outdoor house cats are thought to kill large numbers of native species, in particular, songbirds.<\/p>\n<h2>Can Snakes Kill Cats?<\/h2>\n<p>While it&#8217;s without question that cats will, on occasion, kill and even eat snakes, encounters with snakes don&#8217;t always end well for the cat. Many snakes are venomous, and their venom can make a cat critically ill or even kill them.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, large constrictor snakes have been known to kill and eat house cats. Even jaguars sometimes fall prey to the largest anacondas, though the snake in the following vintage video isn&#8217;t so lucky:<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/J7O0y1g8FGM<\/p>\n<h4>So, can cats kill snakes?<\/h4>\n<p>As cats are predators, it&#8217;s certainly possible for them to kill snakes. In fact, cats in the wild will hunt and kill some species of snakes for food.<\/p>\n<p>However, encounters with certain types of snake can be dangerous or life-threatening for domestic cats. In particular, there are many species of venomous snakes that can severely sicken or kill a cat.\u00a0 The same thing holds true with <a href=\"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/can-cats-eat-spiders\/\">spiders<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, constrictors such as pythons and boas can kill and eat cats. Even non-venomous, small snakes can injure a cat with its <a href=\"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/why-do-cats-bite\/\">bite<\/a>. If you&#8217;re thinking of getting a pet snake, there are friendly snakes which make <a href=\"https:\/\/www.terrariumquest.com\/pet-snakes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">great pets for beginners<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you really want to let your cat explore its snake-hunting instinct, try out this plush <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2Mav3Kx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cartoon snake toy for cats.<\/a> There&#8217;s also the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2MgVRZu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cosmic Catnip Cat Toy<\/a> that will be great fun for your <a href=\"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/cats-and-catnip\/\">catnip-loving feline<\/a> buddy.<\/p>\n<p><em>If you have any questions or would like to share a story about your cat and snakes, please tell us in the comments below. We\u2019d love to hear from you!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On a list of ultimate predators, cats and snakes would surely be near the top. From the largest lions and anacondas down to pygmy rattlesnakes and the tiny rusty-spotted cat,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":29385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":3,"label":"Behavior"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Can-Cats-Kill-Snakes.png",800,578,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Phil Ruth","author_link":"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/author\/ruth_phil\/"},"comment_info":6,"category_info":[{"term_id":3,"name":"Behavior","slug":"behavior","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":46,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":46,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Behavior","category_nicename":"behavior","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catkingpin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}