A new study reveals how boa constrictors avoid suffocating themselves while constricting their prey.
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00:00When boa constrictors squeeze the life out of their prey, how do they avoid suffocating themselves in the process?
00:06A new study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology solves this mystery.
00:15It turns out that boa constrictors can rapidly adjust which section of their ribcage they use to breathe.
00:21So if one portion of the snake is, say, busy constricting a squirrel,
00:24a different portion can take over and allow air to continue moving in and out of their lungs.
00:29Researchers figured this out by placing blood pressure cuffs on boa constrictors to restrict the movement of their ribs.
00:35They then used a special technique called XROM to track how the snake's ribs were moving in real time.
00:41The team also used various techniques to measure air flow in and out of the snake's lungs and the electrical activity of different muscles.
00:48Unlike humans, snakes don't have a diaphragm to help pull air into their lungs and then push it back out.
00:54Instead, the animals completely rely on muscles attached to their ribs to alter the volume of their ribcage
00:59and thus allow their lungs to expand and compress.
01:02In these video clips, you can see how when one section of the ribcage is constricted by the blood pressure cuff,
01:07another section takes over to ventilate the lungs.
01:10Even when only the back of the lung, towards the snake's tail, can inflate, air still travels through the rest of the lung,
01:16allowing oxygen to pass into the bloodstream and waste products to pass back out.
01:20Study author John Capano told me that the development of this form of lung ventilation
01:24was likely a key step in the evolution of snakes as we know them today.
01:28He said,
01:29What we postulate in this paper is that this sort of modular lung ventilation mechanism
01:34is a big part of how snakes evolved to be what they are today.
01:37It doesn't seem like you could evolve constriction to kill really big things if you're compromising lung ventilation.
01:44So if you ever see a boa constricting a cute, fuzzy animal, don't worry.
01:48The boa can breathe just fine.