Beverly Munn, age 12, of Maryside, New Brunswick, Canada for her question:

Is it true that snakes swallow their young?

A snake seems to be a secretive and mysterious fellow and several ancient civilizations adopted him as a symbol of wisdom. Later peoples learned to mistrust his snaky ways. Then all sorts of likely and unlikely tales were spread around to warn people to beware of the sneaky snake.

We all have our likes and dislikes for the various members of the animal kingdom. But many of us base our preferences from the human point of view and, you must admit, this is hardly fair. Each animal species lives in a world of his own. His methods of coping are dictated by the voice of nature and are entirely his own business. Zoologists regard the snake from an objective, scientific point of view. Pet owners who keep snakes feel a fondness for them based on acquaintanceship. But most people have an abiding horror of them. A lot of this discrimination is based on hearsay handed down through many generations.

Some of the popular tales you hear about snakes are true, some are partially true, and some are downright rubbish. Almost all these tales are highly exaggerated and since few of us have a chance to study snakes at first hand, they are hard to verify. But two of the popular snake yarns can be laughed out of court. The milk snake is not guilty of sucking milk from a cow. He could not perform this trick if he tried. The hoop snake does not grasp his tail in his teeth and bowl along the ground like a hoop. This is a good idea, but no snake ever thought of it.

However, the report that certain poisonous and constrictor snakes are dangerous to human beings is deadly accurate. But when you consider that snakes have their own world, you must agree that it is up to the human population to learn how to recognize and protect themselves from the small group of menacing snake species. The rumor that snakes swallow their young is somewhere between the true and the untrue. It is possible but not likely and in any case no mother snake deliberately contemplates devouring her own offspring.

Scientists know that the secretive snake is not smart enough to contemplate any sort of scheme. Mrs. Snake is not even intelligent enough to feel any affection for her children. Some snakes lay eggs and leave them to hatch in the ground and a few coil around their eggs to keep them warm. But when the youngsters are ready to hatch, these mothers lose interest and go away. Some snakes give birth to live babies and these mothers also take no interest after their babies are born. All snakes, however, are meat eaters and many of them eat snakes smaller than themselves. A mother snake might come across one or two of her own teenagers and eye them as possible groceries. In which case, if she can catch up with them, she may swallow them alive.

Affection for offspring is part and parcel of native intelligence in certain members of the animal world. It is hard for us to imagine the snake's low rating in both these departments. But parent snakes discard their children and do nothing to instruct them or help them to cope with their world. Young snakes never know their parents and if they meet accidentally later in life, they do not recognize each other. A mother snake who swallows her young has no way of knowing what she is doing. However, her youngsters usually know enough to keep out of her way otherwise there would be no snakes left in the world.