page_title: Hognose
section_title: Behavior
hierarchical_section_title: Hognose / Behavior
caption_attribution_description: (Leioheterodon madagascariensis) Photographer: en:User:Dawson
context_page_description: Hognose snake is a common name for several colubrid snake species with upturned snouts. They include three distantly related genera:
  Heterodon, which occur mainly in the United States and northern Mexico
  Leioheterodon, the hognose snakes native to Madagascar
  Lystrophis, the South American hognose snakes.
  The North American Heterodon species are known for their habit of thanatosis: playing dead when threatened.
context_section_description: When threatened, hognose snakes will hiss, flatten their necks and raise their heads off the ground like cobras. They sometimes feign strikes, but actual Heterodon bites are very rare. This behaviour has earned them local common names such as "puff adder", "blowing adder", "flathead", "spreadhead", "spreading adder" or "hissing adder". Note: For Heterodon, "puff adder" is a common name inconsistent with established usage. "Puff adder" is the accepted common name of Bitis arietans, an unrelated, dangerously venomous African species of viper, which incidentally does not flatten its neck in any threat display.
  If this threat display fails to deter a would-be predator, Heterodon species often roll onto their backs and play dead, going so far as to emit a foul musk and fecal matter from their cloaca (in liquid form) and let their tongues hang out of their mouth, sometimes accompanied by small droplets of blood. If they are rolled upright while in this state, they will often roll back as if insisting they really are dead.  It has been observed that the snake, while appearing to be dead, will still watch the threat that caused the death pose. The snake will 'resurrect' sooner if the threat is looking away from it than if the threat is looking at the snake.
  They are rather timid snakes and commonly hide from predators by burrowing down into leaves, sand, etc.
caption: Malagasy giant hognose snake (Leioheterodon madagascariensis)
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