Can Boa Constrictors Breathe While They Constrict?
A new study reveals how boa constrictors avoid suffocating themselves while constricting their prey.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00 When boa constrictors squeeze the life out of their prey,
00:03 how do they avoid suffocating themselves in the process?
00:05 (upbeat music)
00:08 A new study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology
00:13 solves this mystery.
00:14 It turns out that boa constrictors can rapidly adjust
00:17 which section of their rib cage they use to breathe.
00:20 So if one portion of the snake is say,
00:22 busy constricting a squirrel,
00:24 a different portion can take over
00:25 and allow air to continue moving in and out of their lungs.
00:28 Researchers figured this out
00:30 by placing blood pressure cuffs on boa constrictors
00:32 to restrict the movement of their ribs.
00:34 They then use a special technique called XROM
00:37 to track how the snakes ribs were moving in real time.
00:41 The team also used various techniques to measure airflow
00:43 in and out of the snakes lungs
00:45 and the electrical activity of different muscles.
00:48 Unlike humans, snakes don't have a diaphragm
00:50 to help pull air into their lungs and then push it back out.
00:53 Instead, the animals completely rely on muscles
00:56 attached to their ribs to alter the volume of their rib cage
00:58 and thus allow their lungs to expand and compress.
01:01 In these video clips, you can see how in one section
01:04 of the rib cage is constricted by the blood pressure cuff,
01:07 another section takes over to ventilate the lungs.
01:09 Even when only the back of the lung
01:11 towards the snake's tail can inflate,
01:13 air still travels through the rest of the lung,
01:15 allowing oxygen to pass into the bloodstream
01:17 and waste products to pass back out.
01:19 Study author, John Capano, told me that the development
01:22 of this form of lung ventilation was likely a key step
01:25 in the evolution of snakes as we know them today.
01:28 He said, "What we postulate in this paper
01:30 "is that this sort of modular lung ventilation mechanism
01:33 "is a big part of how snakes evolved
01:35 "to be what they are today.
01:37 "It doesn't seem like you could evolve constriction
01:39 "to kill really big things
01:40 "if you're compromising lung ventilation."
01:43 So if you ever see a boa constricting a cute, fuzzy animal,
01:47 don't worry, the boa can breathe just fine.
01:49 (upbeat music)
01:53 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:56 (upbeat music)