Diving can be dangerous for a lot of reasons. You could have issues with your oxygen tank. A shark or a whale might decide to eat you for lunch. Or, olive sea snakes might try to have sex with you.
Wait, what?! Yes. A new study warns scuba divers that the underwater reptiles may pursue them because they mistake them for mates.
The findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, determined that the snakes’ tendencies to chase and bite humans were part of the sea creatures’ mating rituals. The male snakes also reportedly flick the female’s body with their tongues to confirm via chemicals that she’s the right species and sex. (Talk about kinky!) If all checks out, the male will attempt to align his body with hers, wrap his coils around her, and hold her in place while he does the deed.
But the snakes have been hitting up humans rather than their own kind, likely due to an inability to distinguish shapes underwater. Over a period of a year, one of the study’s co-authors, Tim Lynch, was approached in the Great Barrier Reef of Australia 74 times.
“These patterns suggest that ‘attacks’ by sea snakes on humans result from mistaken identity during sexual interactions,” the study concluded.
Still, these close encounters aren’t entirely innocent. Olive sea snakes can be deadly to humans.
“Our study shows that keeping calm is the key. The snake is not attacking you,” study co-author Rick Shine told CNN. “He just thinks that you may be a female snake. And once he works out that’s not the case, he’ll wander off to look for love elsewhere.”
So if you come across one of these slithery mysteries in the deep, let them tongue you. Who knows, it might be more pleasant than you bargained for.
Cover Photo: ullstein bild / Contributor (Getty Images)
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