Severed Snake Heads Still Deliver Dangerous Bite

Venomous snakes are scary when they're alive, and now reports say they can still deliver a dangerous bite even after they're dead.

A chef in China preparing cobra soup, a rare delicacy, suffered a fatal snake bite from one of the decapitated heads he chopped up for the meal, the UK Daily Mirror reported.

While this story may seem strange, "It means snakes have the capability of biting and injecting venom even after the head has been severed," snake expert Yang Hong-Chang told the Mirror.

"Snakes in general are well known for retaining reflexes after death," Steven Beaupré, a biology professor at the University of Arkansas, told Live Science.

And snakes aren't the only ones with this unique - and in this case deadly - quality. It's displayed in many ectothermic, or cold-blooded, vertebrae as well, including species of reptiles and amphibians.

For venomous snakes, like the notorious cobras and rattlesnakes, biting is one of the reflexes that can be activated in the brain even hours after the animal dies, Beaupré told Live Science. But the bite reflex is stronger in these types of snakes because they use their bite differently compared to some carnivores. Usually snakes will aim for a quick-fire attack that requires a single, lethal lunge rather than sinking their teeth in like many meat-eaters do.

In fact, rattlesnakes have been known to inject venom into prey in less than two-tenths of a second, according to Beaupré.

Unfortunately for the Chinese chef, it appears that he was the unlucky victim - though not the first - of this type of quick-bite reflex.

"Just because the animals has been decapitated, that doesn't mean the nerves have stopped functioning," Beaupré explained.

Ions, or electrically charged particles that remain in nerve cells fuel this reflex. So when the nerves are stimulated, even after death, the snake can still react via an electrical impulse that stimulates the mouth muscles.

So, if you're cooking up some cobra soup, or happen to heroically sever the head of an attacking  snake, still beware of its vicious bite.