Girl power: Female boa constrictor doesn't need a male

In a finding that upends decades of scientific theory on reptile reproduction, researchers at North Carolina State University have discovered that female boa constrictors can squeeze out babies without mating.

Crushing snakes kill by blood constriction, not suffocation

Death by suffocation seems like an awfully protracted way to go and death by suffocation in the grip of a boa constrictor's coils is the stuff of nightmares. Yet Scott Boback from Dickinson College, USA, wasn't so sure that ...

Ruthless boas know when to ditch their squeeze

Boa constrictors can sense the heartbeat of their quarry as they suffocate it, thus giving themselves the signal to know when the prey is dead, scientists say.

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