Why Are Some Snakes Blind?

Snakes are famous for their pale eyes with long thin slit pupils but some snakes are blind and some have even lost their eyes. Most burrowing snakes are blind and they have adapted to a life underground, where sight is not a useful sense. Some snakes are blind simply because they don't need to see.

The blind, thread and dawn-blind families of snakes are very primitive and are worm-like reptiles that have round bodies, blunt heads and stubby tails. They have very thick and glossy scales that help them move through topsoil and leaf litter and the bones of their skulls have become fused together to form a hard, digging tool.

All snakes that burrow have poor vision, only able to just see the difference between light and dark. Others are completely blind. There are about 180 species of blind snake that live through Africa and Asia. Their eyes have nearly disappeared but in many species remain as tiny eyes hidden under layers of translucent scales.

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