Post by WVsnowflake on May 27, 2008 18:11:16 GMT -6
I happen to love snakes so this is a real good article!
By Alan Tennant
If you are afraid of snakes, we hope you will still read this article, which stresses that most North American snakes aren’t dangerous, and that snakes are interesting and even beautiful wild creatures. — Mother
When I began wildlife consulting at the Austin, Texas, Natural Science Center, I quickly learned how intensely some people react to snakes. The vast majority of North American snakes pose no threat to humans (those that do are coral snakes and the pit vipers: rattlesnakes, copperheads and cottonmouths). But for those who called the Center, no other issue carried the same urgency as a snake in their vicinity.
One of my first such emergencies entailed a supposed tree-climbing cobra. When I arrived in the suburban subdivision, four firefighters — summoned by the same anxious homeowners who’d called me — were being raised into a large oak tree. After half an hour of treetop acrobatics — the snake darted from branch to branch just beyond their clutching fists — the firefighters gave up trying to grab what I could see was a long, slim Texas rat snake. After I declared that the snake was, for certain, not a cobra, the neighborhood settled down.
www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/2006-06-01/Snakes-The-Good-the-Bad-and-the-Beautiful.aspx
By Alan Tennant
If you are afraid of snakes, we hope you will still read this article, which stresses that most North American snakes aren’t dangerous, and that snakes are interesting and even beautiful wild creatures. — Mother
When I began wildlife consulting at the Austin, Texas, Natural Science Center, I quickly learned how intensely some people react to snakes. The vast majority of North American snakes pose no threat to humans (those that do are coral snakes and the pit vipers: rattlesnakes, copperheads and cottonmouths). But for those who called the Center, no other issue carried the same urgency as a snake in their vicinity.
One of my first such emergencies entailed a supposed tree-climbing cobra. When I arrived in the suburban subdivision, four firefighters — summoned by the same anxious homeowners who’d called me — were being raised into a large oak tree. After half an hour of treetop acrobatics — the snake darted from branch to branch just beyond their clutching fists — the firefighters gave up trying to grab what I could see was a long, slim Texas rat snake. After I declared that the snake was, for certain, not a cobra, the neighborhood settled down.
www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/2006-06-01/Snakes-The-Good-the-Bad-and-the-Beautiful.aspx
