rted in Brazil 1907) . Being large confers a number of advantages , not
             least the ability to avoid predation and to eat a wider variety of prey. At the same time, large snakes need
             to eat more than small ones . Even though snakes can survive on remarkably small amounts of food,
             finding enough prey to keep a 130kg (300lbs) body and soul together is no easy task, especially for an
             animal that is not very mobile and must , to a great extent, sit and wait for its meals to come blundering
             by . Large snakes , then , must live in areas where suitable food is relatively abundant . In addition ,
             their large bodies take longer to warm up than small ones and being cold-blooded, they cannot become
             active unless their body temperature is raised to a suitable level . For this reason , they are restricted to
             warm parts of the world . In practice , the regions where both these requirements are met fall within the
             tropics . Here , the ambient temperature is suitable and there is a reasonable chance of finding food every
             Just as snakes vary in size, so they vary in shape. Compared to most other animals, all are long and thin
             of course , but some are longer and thinner than the others . There is some degree of correlation with
             habitat here as arboreal species tend to be more slender and have longer tails and are therefore lighter
             Many diurnal snakes are striped whereas nocturnal or crepuscular species
             Some vary from one individual to another, even when they are from the same clutch of eggs , and a few
             start off one colour and then change as they grow. These colour schemes, convenient though they are for
             identification , are not there for the benefit of herpetologists. Each has a role to play in helping the snake
             to survive. Furthermore, their role in survival may be primarily defensive, as in camouflage, or
             physiological, in increasing the absorption of heat or protecting vital organs from excessive radiation .
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