Many snakes are top-level predators. For example, a single rat snake can consume more than 100 rodents a year. Others are important in the control they exert on insect and other invertebrate populations. All snakes form part of the diet of other predators, including several species of snakes, birds of prey and various mammals, and thereby serve to link higher and lower feeding levels. Hong Kong's snakes have highly specialised feeding habits.
Some species eat chiefly snails.
The teeth and lower jaw of snail-eating snakes are specially adapted for pulling the snails from their shells. Blind snakes have a tiny mouth and mainly eat termites. These snakes suck the insides of the abdomen from a termite's body, leaving the less digestible parts. Certain species, such as the Wolf or Taiwan Kukri snake, which specialises in eating eggs, have long spines inside the throat on the neck vertebrae. After a Kukri or Wolf snake swallows an egg, the shell is pierced by these spines and then crushed by the snake's muscle contractions.