Abominable to some but cu-te to others, serpents have been associated with many symbolisms, even that of cult. However, these symbolism is not the topic of the day. As can be seen above, the issue today is about size. Do you think size matters? Whatever your answer is, it doesn't matter. You're about to witness the battle between the biggest snake and the smallest snake of all. Which will reign supreme?
Nah, just letting you on.
Believe it or not, the smallest snake in the world can be found in Malaysia! And I’m certainly not pulling your legs, folks. A few years back, when I was still staying in my old house, I opened the front door, only to see the smallest serpent I have ever seen in my life.
It’s not evidently big, so obviously it wasn’t the size of it that captured my attention. At first glance, it looked like a worm because it is black in color and had worm-like proportions, not that it was visible to the eye anyway.
Anyway, a black worm was enough to arouse my curiosity, so I took a closer look at the lilliputian creature – with a magnifying glass. I was quite fascinated by these thing back then, so being the somewhat zoological sleuth that I imagined I was, I brought the magnifying glass with me wherever I go.
Looking into the convex lens, I spied miniscule scales that armored the length of its body, slightly glistening under whatever light that shone upon it. It was a surprising discovery as it never came into my mind the existence of such miniature a serpent.
How does it live? From what I could see, it could hardly slither around. I thought it could have been a baby of a larger snake. How does it feed then? It’s mouth was just a slit of line, at least from the magnified view. A regular snake’s fang would already overshadow the size of this super extra ordinary snake.
The question that really daunted me was: how did it end up in front of my door, in my porch? Its mobility didn’t seem to allow that, unless it lived between the cracks and nooks of the red-bricked floor, or something carried it here. Until now, I'm still vexed.
Confirming that it was a snake, I told the whole world (my family) about it. But parents, being the adults that they were and are, just nodded the idea of it without really giving much thought. They were in fact skeptical and treated it as trivial, unknowing of the significance of the discovery.
The next day, the snake wasn’t there no more. Only after yahooing the smallest snake in the world was I aware of that very fact. The pictures on the net showed striking resemblance if not exact to the one that I had seen. Too bad I didn’t take a sample of it.
A picture of the smallest snake in the world, also dubbed as worm snakes, below.
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| Source: news.nationalgeographic.com |
Since I actually had seen one of these smallest snake in the world, I have a simple theory of my own. I think it is possible that the worm snake or thread snake can be found in many countries and continents. It could just need a humid environment to survive in, I don’t know. But its late discovery may be attributed to its size and people usually mistaken them for worms. Thus, it may be possible that although rare, this species could thrive in many places besides Barbados, the place it was first discovered in 2008. I remembered seeing this thing back in 2007 or 2008.
So next time if you see a worm, take a close look because you might well be looking at the world’s smallest snake. And don’t forget to take it as a specimen as a proof.
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