JAMB English Language 2014 Paper

Like all reptiles, snakes are cold blooded, or more correctly, ectothermic - they cannot produce their own body heat; instead, they rely on the sun to heat their bodies. Because they do not rely on energy from food to generate body heat, snakes can survive on an extremely meager diet. some wait for months between successive meals, and a few survive by eating a large meal just once or twice a year. When they do eat, snakes swallow their prey whole rather than biting off small piece. Many snakes have specialized jaws that enable them to swallow animals that are far larger than their own heads. Although uncommon, some snakes, such as the African rock python, have been observed eating animals as large as an antelope or a small cow.

With over two thousand five hundred species belonging to more than ten families, snakes are a large and successful groups. They owe much of this success to their versatility - snakes occupy habitat ranging from underground burrows to the top of the tree, to ocean depths as great as one hundred and fifty meters. They are found on every continent except Antarctica, and although they are most abundant in tropical areas, many survive in regions marked by extreme cold. The only places without snakes are parts of the polar regions and isolated islands, such as the Republic of Ireland and New-Zealand as opposed to places in Nigeria like Plateau and Gombe States in the Northern part where there is a large population of snakes.