Do snakes come out at night?

Most people find snakes to be quite scary and some are even dangerous. To be safe, the vast majority of people do all that they can to stay away from these creatures, wanting to ensure that they do not come in contact with them in any way. That is perfectly understandable, as there are some that are venomous and others just look quite creepy. Staying away from these reptiles seems like a sensible thing to do.



For some, they think that the night time provides them with safety. If they are out at night they will have no worries because they believe that snakes do not come out night. Is that thinking sound? Do snakes come out at night? The answer depends.

The truth is that snakes as a class of animals are a lot like every other class of animal. While there are many similarities in physical appearance to one another, there are many behavioral differences between them and this is seen in this particular behavior. Some snakes do come out at night.

There are a large number that are nocturnal and find the night time to be the perfect time to hunt. There are some types of snakes that can actually detect other animals by using a sensor that allows them to detect infrared. This makes it easy to detect things would be dangerous for them or to see things that would make a perfect night time snack. The night does not bother them at all, and actually is more of an advantage to them.

While there are many species of snakes that are nocturnal, there are also many that are not. Not every snake has this special sensor, and those would be in danger at night because they do not have the ability to detect things that may be dangerous to them. In addition, they do not have great defenses to fend out attacks from other animals and this makes it so that they find the night time to be an inhospitable time to them.

One example of a nocturnal snake is the rat snake. This is one of the most common snakes you will find in America and they are true night time creatures. This makes sense because a large amount of their diet consists of rats, mice and other rodents. At night time these rodents are out and about looking for their own food, and so the rat snake has the perfect opportunity to grab a meal. This is an animal that is nocturnal because it provides them with a much greater opportunity to get the kinds of food that it desires so that it will be taken care of.

It is these kinds of snakes, ones that eat animals that come out at night, that are the most likely to be nocturnal. Read more: Snake Control, Venomous Snakes of Florida, How to Identify Snakes, How to Kill Snakes.