I became interested in snakes as a kid in the Delta of
Mississippi. There were two books in
the school library on snake identification, and as I was enthralled with
wildlife and the outdoors, and snakes were so prevalent in our area, I made it
a point to study them. As a teenager, I
handled numerous snakes, including poisonous ones.
Snakes get a bad rap.
Even the Bible portrays the snake (and Eve) as evil.
Actually, snakes are one of the most beneficial
creatures to man. They eat bugs, slugs,
mice, rats and numerous vermin.
Poisonous snakes are dangerous and should be
avoided. There are over seven thousand
snake bites recorded each year, but deaths are rare. There were 23 deaths from venomous snakes in
the United States between 2010 and 2018.
Four were from copperheads, four from exotics and 15 from
rattlesnakes.
Four of the deaths were from exotic snakes owned by
the deceased.
Three deaths (2012, 2014,
2015) were from snakes handled in Pentecostal Churches in Kentucky, and West
Virginian.
Three died while messing with the snake trying to remove it from an area.
One died while trying to extract venom
from a copperhead,
and one bitten on the ass while taking a crap in woods. Death
is not funny, but I couldn’t help it – I had to include the last.
There are eight species of snakes in Maine and none of
them poisonous. There is a record of a
timber rattler found in southern Maine in 1901, but that was an anomaly.
However, there were no ticks in Maine forty
years ago but now they are plentiful.
Climate change is causing many animals to extend their habitat
northward.
Snakes should be treated like any other wild
animal. Leave it alone and don’t harm
it.
the Ol’Buzzard
