- Joined
- Jun 11, 2008
- Messages
- 1,409
I try not to get involved in threads that have to do with snakes because the lack of accurate information fueling many of the post here really bugs me. I'm making this thread to add a bit of science to the "Kill all the snakes" vibe I've seen gaining ground recently.
I'm sure not many people know about snake metabolism and the part it plays in disease control.
Venom can be made of many different things but all snake venom has complex enzymes and a ton of protein. The reason that is important is because it takes a snake a lot of energy to produce that venom. That also means that many venomous snakes have a higher metabolism in order to take in the extra calories to produce the venom they need to procure food and that translates to more mice being eaten in a shorter period of time.
I've had Lyme disease twice. It is a hazard of working outdoors. I know a lot of people think Lyme disease comes from ticks but it does NOT. Lyme disease, Spotted Fever, Barbesia, Ehrlichiosis, and a few others that are commonly carried by ticks all start in rodents like mice. In fact mice "make" almost all the diseases that we have to be careful of in the woods, and the only way to be infected by a tick is to be bitten by a tick that has already bit an infected rodent. What is the largest predator of small rodents......Snakes of course. Almost all small/med predators eat rodents but none are as specialized to go down in their dens and clean house like a snake. Sankes are the most effective way to cut off a lot of diseases at the source.
I live in the Mid-Atlantic and have seen stories of tick disease "outbreaks" for years on the news. The USGS has twenty years of snake population data that shows a DIRECT CORRELATION between the reduction in snake populations and the number on ticks that were carriers of rodent diseases like Lyme. This particular long term study is done at Patuxent Research Refuge. This correlation was discovered accidentally when some entomologists noticed trends in their research on the percentage of ticks carrying diseases that matched up with the timelines of "dips" in the snake population surveys done on the refuge.
There are a lot of thing that snakes do that are important to the environment. We all know that but a lot of people just don't care. I'm hoping that a little extra education will help more people to understand why they are even more important to those of us that like to be outdoors since they are the most effective natural method of keeping us from getting sick while out in the woods.
Also, I'd like to add a bit of credentials to my opinions/experience. I'm a biologist that specializes in Herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians. My area of study is in population ecology which means I study how the growth or decline of a species effects the environment that it lives in. I have been working with Timber Rattlesnakes (C. horridus) for several years and have never even had a close encounter to getting bit. I have captured them, clipped scales to mark them, implanted radio telemetry devices, and tracked some individuals for over 24 months. I can say more than most that I understand venomous snake safety but I just don't see them as much of a threat. I have over forty snakes right now being tracked and none of them want anything to do with me. They are there and I am there but that's all there is to it. I have however seen other people come close to getting bit by screwing with the snakes that I was tracking. The only way to get bit is to mess with the snake, try to pick it up, etc... or to step on it accidentally. The latter is a very rare occurrence and that statement is backed up by data from the USFW on the locations of snake bites admitted to hospitals since 1971 when they started keeping track of bite locations.
This snake is being released after radio implant surgery. It should be pretty aggressive after such an ordeal but this is the common way they act upon release.
[youtube]bCGJ0tiHKG4[/youtube]
Here's one that I'm "poking" to provoke to rattle but it just wouldn't. It was warm and decided to slowly leave than turn and fight even though I was harassing.
[youtube]lv7JG1Aq0dM[/youtube]
I got this one to rattle because he was about to shed and was almost completely blind from the scales over the eyes going milky. He was vulnerable because he couldn't see. He had been caught before, implanted with a tracker, and weighted and measured. He had every reason to be aggressive but all he did was peacefully crawl away.
[youtube]aijdJhy9OY4[/youtube]
I'm sure not many people know about snake metabolism and the part it plays in disease control.
Venom can be made of many different things but all snake venom has complex enzymes and a ton of protein. The reason that is important is because it takes a snake a lot of energy to produce that venom. That also means that many venomous snakes have a higher metabolism in order to take in the extra calories to produce the venom they need to procure food and that translates to more mice being eaten in a shorter period of time.
I've had Lyme disease twice. It is a hazard of working outdoors. I know a lot of people think Lyme disease comes from ticks but it does NOT. Lyme disease, Spotted Fever, Barbesia, Ehrlichiosis, and a few others that are commonly carried by ticks all start in rodents like mice. In fact mice "make" almost all the diseases that we have to be careful of in the woods, and the only way to be infected by a tick is to be bitten by a tick that has already bit an infected rodent. What is the largest predator of small rodents......Snakes of course. Almost all small/med predators eat rodents but none are as specialized to go down in their dens and clean house like a snake. Sankes are the most effective way to cut off a lot of diseases at the source.
I live in the Mid-Atlantic and have seen stories of tick disease "outbreaks" for years on the news. The USGS has twenty years of snake population data that shows a DIRECT CORRELATION between the reduction in snake populations and the number on ticks that were carriers of rodent diseases like Lyme. This particular long term study is done at Patuxent Research Refuge. This correlation was discovered accidentally when some entomologists noticed trends in their research on the percentage of ticks carrying diseases that matched up with the timelines of "dips" in the snake population surveys done on the refuge.
There are a lot of thing that snakes do that are important to the environment. We all know that but a lot of people just don't care. I'm hoping that a little extra education will help more people to understand why they are even more important to those of us that like to be outdoors since they are the most effective natural method of keeping us from getting sick while out in the woods.
Also, I'd like to add a bit of credentials to my opinions/experience. I'm a biologist that specializes in Herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians. My area of study is in population ecology which means I study how the growth or decline of a species effects the environment that it lives in. I have been working with Timber Rattlesnakes (C. horridus) for several years and have never even had a close encounter to getting bit. I have captured them, clipped scales to mark them, implanted radio telemetry devices, and tracked some individuals for over 24 months. I can say more than most that I understand venomous snake safety but I just don't see them as much of a threat. I have over forty snakes right now being tracked and none of them want anything to do with me. They are there and I am there but that's all there is to it. I have however seen other people come close to getting bit by screwing with the snakes that I was tracking. The only way to get bit is to mess with the snake, try to pick it up, etc... or to step on it accidentally. The latter is a very rare occurrence and that statement is backed up by data from the USFW on the locations of snake bites admitted to hospitals since 1971 when they started keeping track of bite locations.
This snake is being released after radio implant surgery. It should be pretty aggressive after such an ordeal but this is the common way they act upon release.
[youtube]bCGJ0tiHKG4[/youtube]
Here's one that I'm "poking" to provoke to rattle but it just wouldn't. It was warm and decided to slowly leave than turn and fight even though I was harassing.
[youtube]lv7JG1Aq0dM[/youtube]
I got this one to rattle because he was about to shed and was almost completely blind from the scales over the eyes going milky. He was vulnerable because he couldn't see. He had been caught before, implanted with a tracker, and weighted and measured. He had every reason to be aggressive but all he did was peacefully crawl away.
[youtube]aijdJhy9OY4[/youtube]
