Science Was Wrong About Boa Constrictors

Genesis 3:13
“And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”

Remember being taught that boa constrictors kill their prey by literally squeezing the breath out of them? Well, scientists now know this isn’t true at all.

As a recent National Geographic article points out, “Boa constrictors were long thought to kill their prey by suffocation, slowly squeezing the life out one ragged breath at a time. But a new study reveals that these big, non-venomous serpents, found in tropical Central and South America, subdue their quarry with a much quicker method: Cutting off their blood supply.”

The study was conducted by vertebrate ecologist Scott Boback and his research team at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. After feeding lab rats to boa constrictors, they found that the snakes were killing their prey by stopping the flow of blood – a much faster killing method than death by strangulation. Boback theorizes that killing by circulatory arrest gives constricting snakes an evolutionary advantage. After all, the quicker the prey dies, the less chance that it will bite the snake.

That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Evolution. Isn’t it interesting that evolution was also given credit when science mistakenly thought that suffocation was the means of death? The important thing to evolutionary scientists is not how boa constrictors kill their prey. The important thing for them is giving evolution full credit.

When creationists observe the animal kingdom, we praise God. When evolutionists observe the animal kingdom, they, too, give praise, but to a different “god” entirely.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, it seems that evolution has become a god to many. I pray that You will expose this false god and point people to the Creator who alone can save people from their sins. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Author: Steven J. Schwartz
Ref: Jason Bittel, “Why We Were Totally Wrong About How Boa Constrictors Kill,” National Geographic, 7/22/15. Photo: Boa constrictor stopping the circulatory system of a rodent. (Wikimedia Commons)

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