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Herpetotheres cachinnans holding a Bothrops atrox.

Herpetotheres cachinnans holding a Bothrops atrox.

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Aspects about the feeding behavior of the Laughing falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans) remain poorly investigated with scarce reports of identified species ingested by this bird. Worse still, information describing how this bird ingests poisonous snakes is not known. Although this falcon eats snakes, there are no reports of feeding on Bothrops atrox....

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... Laughing falcons are specialist predators of snakes, which seem protected from their bites, while descriptions of predation by puffbirds indicate a high level of competency, if not specialisation: catching close to the head and immediately killing the catch. NG Smith reports that Herpetotheres do not discriminate between non-venomous and venomous species, which they routinely consume (Costa, Lopes, de Freitas MARÇAL, & Zorzin, 2014;Medrano-Vizcaíno, 2019). Herpetotheres are physically protected against snake bites with thick and concave scales (Costa, Lopes, de Freitas MARÇAL, & Zorzin, 2014) that seem efficient even against large fanged vipers. ...
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