Cunning Snake Pretends To Be A Spider To Catch Prey

In a world filled with rare creatures, scientists discovered a cunning snake who pretends to be a spider to lure its prey. After years of studying the creature, they found out how the spider-tailed viper behaves. The cunning Iranian Pseudocerastes urarachnoides spider-tailed viper uses the tip of its tail to lure birds.

According to National Geographic, a team led by Behzad Fathina of Yasouj University in Iran successfully filmed the hunting behavior of the cunning snake in the Ilam province.

The video shows the snake pretending to be a spider, using only the tip of its tail. The cunning snake lures its prey as it camouflaged itself as a rock. After a few more seconds, a bird tries to catch what it thinks is a spider, but little did the bird know that it will be the prey.

The snake then launches itself to catch the bird. Its spider-like tail, which looks like a spider's body with legs, is so realistic that even an untrained human eye will mistake it for an actual spider.

A video posted by Soroush (@soroush_soll) on Jan 13, 2016 at 4:36pm PST

According to Neatorama, the spider-tailed viper was first discovered in 1968. The snake's tail was initially thought to be a deformity, but when new specimens were found and studied in 2006, scientists were able to determine that its spider-like tail is used to catch its preys.

In the same year, the California Academy of Science stated the findings and announced the name of the new species, Pseudocerastes urarachnoides. Commonly found in Western Iran, the academy described the viper's tail as "distal pairs forming an oval-knob like structure; lateral dorsal caudal scales projected to form elongated 'appendages' along the sides of the terminal knob." In terms of venomous properties, scientists are yet to discover how lethal viper's venom is.