On the surface of the snake's body, the snake's ears cannot be found in any case. So people think that the snake does not have ears, it can not hear the sound, is a deaf.
But zoologists say: the snake has ears, but can not hear the sound. What's going on here?
We know that terrestrial vertebrates can hear sound, is to rely on sound waves vibration of the tympanic membrane of the middle ear, through the auditory bone into the inner ear, causing the excitement of the auditory cells, by the auditory nerve to the brain, producing hearing. Snakes do not have an outer ear, there is no tympanic membrane, it can not accept the air-conducted sound waves, so can not hear the sound.
Although the snake can not hear the sound, but can perceive the external vibration. Some people have done experiments, found that the snake on the ground vibration is extremely sensitive, it can perceive 60 meters away from walking footsteps. Originally, the snake does not have an external ear, but there is a middle ear, inner ear, middle ear also has an auditory bone ear column bone, one end of the ear column bone lap in the inner ear of the auditory apparatus, the other end with the connection of the upper and lower jaw of the square bone connection. When the outside world sends out vibrations, it can pass through the abdominal skin, ribs, jaw bone, etc., from the surface of the sound waves and vibrations to the inner ear's sensory organs, causing sensation. The so-called hitting the grass to scare the snake is this reason.
China's Jiang, Zhejiang area of folk snake play artists, often set up stalls in the bazaar, with the mouth shouting, changing gestures, stomping on the two feet to stimulate the snake to make a variety of strange movements to attract the audience. There are also Indian movies in the jianghu artists, coiled legs, sitting on the ground, open the lid of the bamboo basket, blowing the flute, the cobra from the bamboo basket up the front half of the body, along with the melodious flute, shaking his head and twisting his waist, dancing; soon, the artists suddenly stood up, while blowing a flute, while rhythmically stomping on the ground with his feet, the cobra's dance is always followed by the flute's musical score and the artists' feet to beat the beat of the rhythm of the flute, the cobra's dance. The cobra always follows the music of the flute and the rhythm of the artist's foot beat, coordinating in time.
In fact, it is not the snake heard the sound of the flute and dance, but the artist mastered the habits of the cobra. When the artist opened the basket cover, causing the cobra's vigilance, the cobra immediately put up the front half of the body, this time to play snake artist in blowing the flute at the same time, while shaking his head and swinging, while also constantly tapping the ground with his feet, as if playing the beat like a stimulus to the cobra, so that it always maintain a high degree of vigilance, and so the cobra followed the left and right swaying, dancing to the dance.
However, the skill of the entertainer lies in the proper use of the means of stimulation of the snake. If the stimulation action is small, the snake will be indifferent; action is too large, may scare the snake away, a big fuss.