Blind Snakes: Typhlopidae

Blind snakes are burrowing species that spend most of their lives either underground or out of sight under logs, tree bark, stones, or in some other hiding place. Some will even slither into ant or termite hills. Rainy weather seems to persuade many blind snakes to leave their underground homes and crawl out onto land. A few species have been found in trees, but they may not actually live there and instead be just visiting to look for a meal. Some blind snakes live in wet rainforests, but other species survive quite well in deserts. Many others live in grasslands, dry forests, farm fields, sandy beaches at the oceanside, or high up mountainsides. Almost half of the species are found only on islands, and about 85 percent of all species of blind snakes live only in the Old World, which includes Asia, Europe, and Africa in the Eastern Hemisphere.