Can Snakes Smell?
They do not use the same type of olfactory organs that humans do, we smell by using our noses, snakes use something completely different to detect odor particles in the air. Snakes use highly specialized organs in the roof of their mouths to collect particles from the air. The Jacobson's Organ is named after the individual who discovered this unique organ. A snakes' tongue will move in and out rapidly to pick up particles floating in the air and deposit them on the roof of the mouth where the organ is located.
The Snake then is able to determine such things as the whereabouts of prey, water and other stuff! Creatures such as the Rattlesnake will bite a victim and follow the scent trail left by the rodent as it flees. The snakes venom eventually kicks in and the prey item will die, the snake simply has to follow the trail using the particles given off by the fleeing animal.
Can Snakes Hear?
Snakes have no external ear openings but do have an inner ear. They detect sound primarily by vibrations in the air. The extremely sensitive plates on the belly of snakes are also a method the animal uses to detect both prey and predators, while this is not hearing in the sense that we think of it this form of gathering vital information is very successful for the snake.
Why Do Snakes Shed?
Humans shed their skin almost continuously from birth, snakes shed several times per year but this process occurs all at once compared to the millions of individual skin cells that humans shed off daily. Our reasons for shedding are very similar to the snakes, one it allows us to grow and repair damage from scrapes and abrasions. The actual name of the process of shedding is Ecdysis. Ecdysis occurs at various time intervals based on many factors, the age of a snake, it's growth rate and other environmental factors, including parasites, can determine how often a snake will shed.
One widely held belief is that you can tell the age of a Rattlesnake by counting the buttons or rattles on it's tail. Each time the snake sheds it leaves a piece of the skin behind creating or adding to the rattle. A young rattlesnake with plenty of food available may shed as often as every six weeks! So you can see that by the time the young snake reached it's first birthday the animal may have as many as 8 rattles! When the rattles reach a certain length they become too long and will actually break off, so an adult may not have any rattles at all! There is nothing that can be learned by counting the buttons on a Rattlesnakes tail (except whether or not your first grade teacher taught you to count!)
Many ancient cultures believed snakes lived forever, seeing the snake crawl from it's skin the people believed the animals were being born again!
The actual species of snake can occasionally be identified from the shed itself. Some pigmentation from the snakes skin will stay with the shed skin, if this pattern is identifiable enough an fairly accurate determination can be made of the species that shed it!
How Long Do snakes Live?
The age of a snake varies greatly by species, the longest recorded age for a snake in captivity was a little over 46 years for a Ball Python housed at the Philadelphia Zoo.
On average most of our North American Snakes will live about 18-20 years in captivity. The large family of Boa and Python snakes will average closer to 30 years in captivity.
In the wild their life span is reduced due to natural pressures from predators, harsh winters, droughts etc. The average age of a wild snake in North America is believed to be 10-11 years.
Where Do Snakes Spend the Winter?
Some tropical snakes never hibernate. In climates with harsh winter temperatures all cold-blooded animals need to seek refuge from extreme temperatures. The vast majority of snakes utilize existing burrows of mammals or rotted tree trunks etc. Some species will utilize rocky outcroppings where available to over winter.
There are several documented species, including the Hognose Snake that will burrow down into soft soil and spend the winter a few inches below the surface. The metabolism of the snake slows down substantially with a heart rate barely detectable. The snakes of northern climates such as Canada are often underground for over 9 months per year!
One amazing hibernation story is the Garter Snakes of Manitoba, Canada. 
How Do Snakes Reproduce?
The Majority of snakes lay eggs. There are a few species that give birth to live babies, most notably in the United States all of the pit vipers, rattlesnakes, copperheads and the cottonmouth or water moccasins give birth to live babies. In the case of the live bearers (boa constrictors and anacondas are two new world examples) the female actually retains the eggs inside of her body where they hatch and the babies are passed out fully formed.
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How Many different Snakes Are There?
It is accepted today that there are a little more than 2,700 species of snakes. The sub-species count varies based on continuing discussion concerning the taxonomy of several species of snakes. Advanced identification tecqniues such as DNA have allowed our knoweldege of snake species (and lots of other creatures) to expand greatly in just the last decade.
Hybrids are snakes that generally do not occur naturally in the wild, (there are a few exceptions to the rule, notably different King snakes interbreeding in the U.S. etc) several hybrids have been produced by breeders today to naturally select color patterns etc. While these hybrid snakes do increase the number of different types of snakes they are not considered new species.
Which Snake is the Most Poisonous?
The question we are asked the most! First let's set something straight, no snake is poisonous! Snakes are venomous, poison is something you ingest, venom is a highly specialized chemical that the snakes use in several ways.
But lets get back to the question, the Sea Snakes are the most toxic of all snakes, but pose little if any threat to humans. As far as land snakes are concerned Australia has several that are highly toxic to humans. The Taipan and Brown snake are considered to be the most toxic of land dwelling snakes.
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