VIDEO: Gigantic Snake Shedding His Skin

If you are afraid of snakes you should not be watching this video because it will freak you out.

The snake isn’t being violent and it’s not attacking anyone, but it is still rather creepy to see it slither away like this.

If you are passed that and are watching the video and you are asking why snake shed their skin and why it is necessary.

According to usareturn.com, the simple answer is that snakes shed their skin because they are just like all other animals.

All animals shed their skin — even you! In mammals, especially humans, this is an ongoing process that’s rarely noticed.

Skin shedding in reptiles is different. Instead of an ongoing process, reptiles shed skin periodically. Snakes are even more unique, because their skinusually comes off in one piece.

If you’ve ever seen a snake skin, you know it looks like the snake just slithered right out of its skin, almost like taking off a sock!

Scientists call this process ecdysis, although you may also sometimes hear the terms sloughing and molting.

Snakes shed their skin to allow for further growth and to remove parasites that may have attached to their old skin. As a snake grows, its skin becomes stretched.

Unlike human skin, a snake‘s skin doesn’t grow as the animal grows. Eventually, a snake‘s skin reaches a point where further growth is not possible.

When that occurs, a new layer of skin grows underneath the current one. As soon as it is complete, the old skin peels away, leaving behind a snake-shaped shell along with any parasites that may have been attached.

To leave their old skin behind, snakes may go for a swim to allow water to loosen the old skin even further.

When they’re ready to shed the old layer, they create a rip in the old skin, usually in the mouth or nose area. They often do this by rubbing against a rough, hard object, such as a rock or a log.

According to wikipedia.org, snakes are elongated, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniotevertebrates covered in overlapping scales.

The shedding of scales is called ecdysis (or in normal usage, molting or sloughing). In the case of snakes, the complete outer layer of skin is shed in one layer.

Snake scales are not discrete, but extensions of the epidermis—hence they are not shed separately but as a complete outer layer during each molt, akin to a sock being turned inside out.

The shape and number of scales on the head, back, and belly are often characteristic and used for taxonomic purposes. Scales are named mainly according to their positions on the body.

In “advanced” (Caenophidian) snakes, the broad belly scales and rows of dorsal scales correspond to the vertebrae, allowing scientists to count the vertebrae without dissection.

Snakes’ eyes are covered by their clear scales (the brille) rather than movable eyelids. Their eyes are always open, and for sleeping, the retina can be closed or the face buried among the folds of the body.