I am not afraid of mice. You won't find me up on a chair screaming if I see one. But I'm not a big fan of spiders or snakes. While I cover that reaction to them in an effort to be "cool", inside you could peel me off the ceiling.
When you work at the Zoo however, it's impossible to not come to see every thing crawly, cold and downright ugly in a new light. And even if you might not come to love them all, you certainly can't get away without a new appreciation of them, because there's a person for every species.... a person that LOVES them as much as you love your cat or dog or horse. Those species are very lucky to have their people.
When I talk to them about the animal they're crazy about, it becomes very easy to see why they are in love. I mean, who knew I'd come to love ducks... and squirrels? I was a dedicated cat person when I was a kid. But because I can't have any pets due to extreme allergies, and yet am a die-hard animal lover, it forced me to seek out any animal I could be with. By the mere fact that I could sit at The Park and observe the ducks at a distance day after day, I got to know them by coloring, watched who hung with whom and where in the park they could be found, learned all about their eating, grooming and sleeping habits, and saw that they really had distinct personalities. It didn't hurt that they would come right up to me, and that many would eat from my hand. Of course personal interaction seals the deal. They are no longer separate from me, or objects, or potential meals of dim intelligence.
The woman at the Zoo who is in love with our komodo dragon made him one of m favorite guys. I see something different now when I look at his lizard face. I can even sense a subtle sense of humor. But I'm still not a huge reptile fan. The one species I didn't want to train to handle were snakes. And now I have about 20 acres in VA where I will someday be encountering them. The peeps in the Herpetology Department wrote to me about snakes, because knowledge goes a long way to dispel fear and empower. It was too good not to pass along to you.
First, the first rule when a snake is encountered is to leave it alone. Snakes do not attack people; they will only strike and try to bite when they are feeling threatened (and many won’t even bite at that time). Bites occur when people try to kill snakes or move them.
Second, snakes have several basic needs; namely, food, water, and shelter. If someone is finding snakes around their house, chances are that conditions are favorable for snakes to live there. Keep yards clean and free of debris or anything that could offer shelter to a snake or could harbor rodents. Keep yards mowed, trees and bushes trimmed, etc. If you do this and still see a snake, then the snake is just moving through. With the ongoing drought and the continued development in suburban areas, their natural habitat is being destroyed and wild animals are seeking new habitat.
Of the 34 or so varieties of snakes in the Houston area, only 6 are venomous. Of those 6, three are rattlesnakes and are never encountered in theHouston area anymore; occasionally, a Western diamondback rattlesnake is seen in west Galveston Island or on the Bolivar peninsula, but even these sightings are becoming less frequent. The only three venomous snakes that really occur in the Houston area are the Water moccasin (Cottonmouth), Copperhead, and Coral snake. My recommendation is to buy a field guide (Texas Snakes: A field guide by Dixon and Werler is an excellent book) and learn to tell these three species from the others. It’s not hard.
As for first aid treatment for a venomous snake bite, go to a hospital immediately. There is no recommended treatment, despite all that you hear on the media. If you can, take a picture of the snake so there can be a positive identification. Non venomous bites require no further treatment than soap and water.
As a side note, both Judith and I have received numerous calls over the years from hospital staff with snake bite victims (the last one was Saturday, August 13th, in the morning). Almost all of the calls have occurred around 3:00am on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Not coincidentally, local bars close at 2:00am.
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3 comments:
I read something helpful recently, I can't remember where. Concerning the coarl snake, I never could get the rhyme...
red on yellow, friendly fellow
red on black, better stay back...
catchy and ALL WRONG
RED on YELLOW is deadly.. cobra without a hood.
But think of it as a stop light,
yellow on red
caution and stop.
I can finally remember... though I give corn snakes a wide path too.
I understand that most people have an instinctual fear of snakes but they are beneficial and seeing a snake in your yard is a sign of a healthy ecosystem. I'm always happy to see snakes in my yard.
In Australia we have lots of poisonous snakes, many of the most deadly in the world. I have had poisonous snakes up close plenty of times. I had to kill one in my bedroom once. We encounter them regularly in the warmer months (which is most of the year.)
I write this because I heartily agree with what you have said. I like snakes. I am scared of them, but that doesn't stop me liking them. I have stepped on a snake in the dark, accidently kicked one in the bathroom, and run across many others over the past 15 years, and I have not been bitten. I would only kill one if I had to (as unfortunately I did in the bedroom incident.)
I wish people didn't loathe them so much.
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