Blind Snakes: Typhlopidae

As is true with many other burrowing species that remain out of sight most of the time, scientists know little about their behavior or reproduction. When they are dug out of their burrows, the snakes quickly try to bury themselves again. If they are captured, they will wiggle wildly, ooze a bad-smelling material from the vent area, release their body waste, and/or poke the tail spine into the attacker. Any of these actions can cause the attacker to drop the snake. Occasionally, up to twenty individuals from some species of blind snakes coil up together under a stone. Scientists are unsure why they do it, but they think the snakes are just sharing a good spot.

Most blind snakes lay eggs, but in a few species, the eggs may hatch inside the mother so that she gives birth to live baby snakes. The flowerpot snake may be parthenogenetic (PAR-thih-no-jeh-NEH-tik), which means that the females do not need males to fertilize their eggs in order to have babies. It is the only parthenogenetic snake, and one of the few parthenogenetic vertebrates in the entire animal kingdom. Vertebrates (VER-teh-brehts) are animals with backbones. Among blind snakes overall, small or especially thin species have fewer eggs — sometimes just one, raisin-sized egg. Larger species may have more than fifty eggs that are the size of large grapes. Eggs probably hatch in one to two months, but some hatch in just a week. Many of the blind snakes mate during only one season a year, usually in late spring, but others appear to mate all year long.