19/07/2023
Happy World Snake Day!
Many people unfortunately fear snakes. People all over the world often learn from childhood to fear snakes, from adults who fear snakes, from stories, casual references, and culturally significant traditions.
But what does this fear in humans mean for snakes? It is a big threat. People often persecute and kill the animals they fear, regardless of any real threat. Fearful people often kill snakes – any snakes – on sight.
Snakes are animals (not supernatural demons), and they are found on every continent except Antarctica, and on most islands, with some notable exceptions. While some snake species are in fact venomous and can be dangerous to humans, the majority of snake species are non-venomous and harmless to humans. All snakes, venomous and non-venomous alike, are vitally important in the ecological balance of the habitats they live in.
Snakes are also far more beneficial to humans than most would think. Many snake species eat rodents, and while rodents can be cute, they frequently spread disease, and cause harm to food and seed storage for people. Snakes help prevent dangerous overpopulation of animals that can be considered pests, so we are better off learning to appreciate snakes, and to coexist with them.
How important is it to teach people about snakes? Within the past several years, biologists from the Butantan Institute and the University of São Paulo Museum of Zoology in Brazil conducted outreach with local people, teaching them safe ways to interact with snakes, and how to identify venomous and non-venomous species. This led to the important rediscovery of a living Cropan’s boa (Corallus cropanii), also known as a Ribeira’s boa. The species had not been seen alive from 1953 until 2017. A handful of these boas had been seen dead in that span of time, killed out of fear by local people. It was feared that the boas might have gone extinct. Since their rediscovery, empowered by citizen science, and the willingness of the local people to coexist with snakes that they can better understand, scientists can learn about this little-known boa, and the threats to their survival, as well as other species in Brazil’s fragmented Atlantic Forest region.
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The photograph used in this post shows a living Cropan’s boa (Corallus cropanii), recently rediscovered through citizen science and tolerance. The photo was featured in a scientific journal article, and shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. View license information here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en
The photo is accredited to: Fiorillo BF, Silva BR, Menezes FA, Marques OAV, Martins M (2020) Composition and Natural History of Snakes from Etá Farm region, Sete Barras, south-eastern Brazil. ZooKeys 931: 115-153. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.931.46882
