5 ms·

Fear of Rattlesnake Island

16 points by samclemens 10y ago

meddlepal 10y ago
I'm from Boston and I don't usually care too much about the western part of the Massachusetts but I'm in strong agreement with locals on this one. Rattlesnakes have no place in Massachusetts. This is more about a conservationist that wants to re-establish a colony of these snakes in MA when there have been virtually none for a long long time. This isn't about fixing an unbalanced ecosystem, Western MA has a strong ecosystem that is well balanced already.
- bmh_ca 10y ago
  Some blame the rise of ticks and tick borne diseases like Lyme on the demise of predatory snakes. If true, the balance may not be ideal.
  - etangent 10y ago
    On the other hand, one would expect snakes to suppress the population of amphibians and some ground-nesting birds like nightjars and thus indirectly increase the population of mosquitoes. So clearly, one would have to also introduce something that eats these snakes, like gorillas perhaps. /sarcasm
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- armenarmen 10y ago
  Agreed. Also, the author's need to call the locals xenophobic for not wanting poisonous snakes imported seemed a bit off
  - curun1r 10y ago
    I don't know if it's xenophobic, but I do think it's ignorantly fearful. I've had a near-lifelong fear of snakes that started when I was taken to see the movie "The Black Stallion" when I was very young. While it's a touching movie about a boy who develops a special bond with horse, there's a scene where he has an encounter with a very scary cobra that traumatized me. Recently, I resolved to confront my fears. I went on vacation to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, where snakes much more dangerous than rattlesnakes are common. The first time a snake crossed my path there, I was so startled that I couldn't even identify what kind it was, only that it was probably arboreal since it had a thin body and was able to raise itself off the ground a pretty considerable height. But it scurried off before I could get more than a couple seconds to observe it. Over the course of the months that I spent in Southeast Asia, I saw many more snakes and I didn't realize the effect (or lack thereof) they were having on me. That was until, near the end of my trip, I had a cobra pass about 6 feet in front of me. I should have been terrified...here was the exact snake that featured in so many of my childhood nightmares and it was close enough that it could decide to attack me. But instead of being terrified, I calmly watched as it slithered off into a bush. In fact the one common theme of the roughly dozen encounters I had with snakes there is that they just wanted to get away from me. And while my fear of them diminished, they consistently seemed to be afraid of me. I understand the fear of snakes very well. They're so different from us and they've evolved a defense/hunting mechanism that's basically targeted at us (well, most mammals). But I'm also starting to realize how irrational that fear is. Just because these snakes are poisonous doesn't mean that they're likely to poison anyone. I know the definition of xenophobia involves people from other countries, but the root of it is really fear of what's different from ourselves or fear of an "other." So, to the extent that xenophobia is that fear of what's different, maybe it is xenophobic to be that irrationally afraid of snakes.
nxzero 10y ago
Always interesting to me how much fear people have of wild animals. Rattlesnakes aren't dangerous and they're at 100000x more risk of being killed by a human than killing anyone.
- kurthr 10y ago
  I grew up with snakes in Texas from Water Moccasins and Coral snakes to Diamond Backs... they aren't safe, if you're sleeping on the ground, walking around in brush and can't see, or are climbing a rock wall you can easily be bitten. It's easy to get thrown from a horse too. The worst are young children and pets who don't know better, which can be killed or lose a limb, especially by a baby rattler (they don't strike and release... keep pumping poison), if you're not within 30min of a hospital. Most hospitals don't carry anti-venom any more either, because it's expensive and it goes bad. I saw a 2-3foot (baby no rattle) western diamond back cruise through our camp of ~20 people, 3 children <6yr, and 2 dogs at 5pm over last Perseid weekend. It wasn't safe, and I was much more careful walking in the brush after. No one tried to kill it, but I'd put the chance of it biting someone/dog at more than 1/100 not 1/100k!! We never saw Mama.
  - ChuckMcM 10y ago
    This is similar to my experience spending a lot of time in the desert areas of the south western US. Basically there were things you could do that would exponentially increase your likelihood of being bitten. Examples being sticking your hand under rocks or into holes. Understanding that snakes moderate their body temperature by moving from shade to sun to shade again allows you to quickly see spots that a snake would find attractive. Usually a surface in the early morning or late evening sunlight, next to a place where a snake could be in the shade but have some awareness of its surroundings. Once you figure that out, you can easily spot places that snakes would like to hang out and either avoid them, or as I was prone to do in my youth, go find them.
  - nxzero 10y ago
    In the United States you have about a one in 50 million chance of dying from snake bite; five people die a year from snake bites. Cars alone kill 100k to million snakes a year; not to mention how many people they kill too. Please stay in the city if your afraid of animals.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

16 points by samclemens 10y ago

I'm from Boston and I don't usually care too much about the western part of the Massachusetts but I'm in strong agreement with locals on this one. Rattlesnakes have no place in Massachusetts. This is more about a conservationist that wants to re-establish a colony of these snakes in MA when there have been virtually none for a long long time. This isn't about fixing an unbalanced ecosystem, Western MA has a strong ecosystem that is well balanced already.

bmh_ca 10y ago
Some blame the rise of ticks and tick borne diseases like Lyme on the demise of predatory snakes. If true, the balance may not be ideal.
- etangent 10y ago
  On the other hand, one would expect snakes to suppress the population of amphibians and some ground-nesting birds like nightjars and thus indirectly increase the population of mosquitoes. So clearly, one would have to also introduce something that eats these snakes, like gorillas perhaps. /sarcasm
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
armenarmen 10y ago
Agreed. Also, the author's need to call the locals xenophobic for not wanting poisonous snakes imported seemed a bit off
- curun1r 10y ago
  I don't know if it's xenophobic, but I do think it's ignorantly fearful. I've had a near-lifelong fear of snakes that started when I was taken to see the movie "The Black Stallion" when I was very young. While it's a touching movie about a boy who develops a special bond with horse, there's a scene where he has an encounter with a very scary cobra that traumatized me. Recently, I resolved to confront my fears. I went on vacation to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, where snakes much more dangerous than rattlesnakes are common. The first time a snake crossed my path there, I was so startled that I couldn't even identify what kind it was, only that it was probably arboreal since it had a thin body and was able to raise itself off the ground a pretty considerable height. But it scurried off before I could get more than a couple seconds to observe it. Over the course of the months that I spent in Southeast Asia, I saw many more snakes and I didn't realize the effect (or lack thereof) they were having on me. That was until, near the end of my trip, I had a cobra pass about 6 feet in front of me. I should have been terrified...here was the exact snake that featured in so many of my childhood nightmares and it was close enough that it could decide to attack me. But instead of being terrified, I calmly watched as it slithered off into a bush. In fact the one common theme of the roughly dozen encounters I had with snakes there is that they just wanted to get away from me. And while my fear of them diminished, they consistently seemed to be afraid of me. I understand the fear of snakes very well. They're so different from us and they've evolved a defense/hunting mechanism that's basically targeted at us (well, most mammals). But I'm also starting to realize how irrational that fear is. Just because these snakes are poisonous doesn't mean that they're likely to poison anyone. I know the definition of xenophobia involves people from other countries, but the root of it is really fear of what's different from ourselves or fear of an "other." So, to the extent that xenophobia is that fear of what's different, maybe it is xenophobic to be that irrationally afraid of snakes.

nxzero 10y ago

Always interesting to me how much fear people have of wild animals. Rattlesnakes aren't dangerous and they're at 100000x more risk of being killed by a human than killing anyone.

kurthr 10y ago
I grew up with snakes in Texas from Water Moccasins and Coral snakes to Diamond Backs... they aren't safe, if you're sleeping on the ground, walking around in brush and can't see, or are climbing a rock wall you can easily be bitten. It's easy to get thrown from a horse too. The worst are young children and pets who don't know better, which can be killed or lose a limb, especially by a baby rattler (they don't strike and release... keep pumping poison), if you're not within 30min of a hospital. Most hospitals don't carry anti-venom any more either, because it's expensive and it goes bad. I saw a 2-3foot (baby no rattle) western diamond back cruise through our camp of ~20 people, 3 children <6yr, and 2 dogs at 5pm over last Perseid weekend. It wasn't safe, and I was much more careful walking in the brush after. No one tried to kill it, but I'd put the chance of it biting someone/dog at more than 1/100 not 1/100k!! We never saw Mama.
- ChuckMcM 10y ago
  This is similar to my experience spending a lot of time in the desert areas of the south western US. Basically there were things you could do that would exponentially increase your likelihood of being bitten. Examples being sticking your hand under rocks or into holes. Understanding that snakes moderate their body temperature by moving from shade to sun to shade again allows you to quickly see spots that a snake would find attractive. Usually a surface in the early morning or late evening sunlight, next to a place where a snake could be in the shade but have some awareness of its surroundings. Once you figure that out, you can easily spot places that snakes would like to hang out and either avoid them, or as I was prone to do in my youth, go find them.
- nxzero 10y ago
  In the United States you have about a one in 50 million chance of dying from snake bite; five people die a year from snake bites. Cars alone kill 100k to million snakes a year; not to mention how many people they kill too. Please stay in the city if your afraid of animals.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]