h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hey, Delicia, good to see ya again!

"Snakes...why did it have to be snakes..." (Indiana Jones)

Odor first. Snakes DO have kind of a musty, musky, funky sort of odor. It's not something you're going to notice just walking by one, it's not nearly that strong. But if you hold a snake, you can smell them, and the smell will be on your hands when you put them down. If someone has a pet snake and they don't keep the cage properly cleaned up, it can get rather offensive! But, then again, so can any other dirty animal cage!

My critters (dogs and cat) can always smell if I've handled a snake, even if I wash. So to them, it must seem fairly strong!

Slimy? No. They have kind of a slick feel to their skin, and they feel cool, as opposed to mammals feeling warm to the touch. But they don't feel damp or clammy.

That concludes today's lesson.

Hope all is well with you, drop by anytime!

Thanks a bunch, warrior ranger! I thought as much, but it's tricky when one standard phrase for a subject is true, and another false. Those standard phrases have a tendency to be perpetuated throughout the whole genre, and if they're false, can prejudice the whole story.
I never held a snake, would love to try it, and my other ambition is to fry and eat one.
I did hold a big iguana once, it seemed to like the body warmth and snuggled up in a strange way a cat doesn't, and i don't think i would particularly want to eat an iguana after this experience, having acquired a liking for these beasties. Crocs now, i don't mind eating crocs, they would eat me, if they could, wouldn't they?
Can you specify the snake smell a bit, is it rather organic, or somehow synthetic, or quite like nothing else in the world? And what do your pets do when they smell it on you, do they look funny, or coldshoulder you or something?

Yeah, when you're not sure which myths are based in fact, and which are just made up, it can get a wee bit confusing!

Snake smell is hard to describe. It's definitely an organic type smell, sort of musty. A little like a wet dog, or perhaps a bath towel that's been thrown on the floor wet and left there. Neither of those analogies really cover it, but you get the general idea.

My animals shy away from me if I've handled snakes. When my younger Buck was a puppy, and my older Roxie was raising him, I came home one day from work, and Rox started barking at me and pushing the pup away from me. Wouldn't let me near him. I couldn't figure what on earth was wrong! Then I finally remembered that I'd killed a rattler earlier in the afternoon. So I washed my hands again, and put on a scented lotion. She still was upset. So I took off my boots (I had stepped on the snake to hold it down while I cut off the rattle) and put the boots outside. THEN she finally calmed down and let me near them.

They don't react that aggressively anymore, but they do still avoid me if they can smell a snake. And if we get one in the yard, they'll bark until I come move it or kill it.

What effect does serpent smell have on you when you smell it, does it make your hackles raise, or go goosebumps? From how you describe it, i imagine that might be an effect.
Happens to me when i can smell insects, particularly with bugs, not that one can smell them very often, but i often try to smell all sorts of things , and then i also have a definite sense of alieness. Not with bees though, but i'm used to bees, my dead having been keeping them for decades, and there is also the smell of wax and honey. Maybe humans don't mind the smell of bees anyway, evolution sort of thing.
Is it true that many serpents sometimes live together in caves?
You see, i can find no end to things to ask about serpents.

I don't have a "primal" response to the odor of snakes. As I said, it's not strong enough to smell just walking by. I'm not particularly afraid of non-poisonous snakes, and I won't get close enough to a rattler to smell it unless it's already restrained or dead!

On the other hand, I have a very definite reaction to the SOUND of a rattlesnake! I automatically freeze until I locate the snake. Even after I know where it is, and that I'm safely out of reach, the hair on my neck stands up, and my breathing accelerates. My body definitely recognizes that noise, with no concious thought involved! I've moved and/or killed enough rattlers that I can control my initial fear response, though.

You will sometimes find dens of rattlers, though I mostly see individuals. I think denning is most common with very young snakes, and perhaps in the winter for warmth. There might be other examples, but that would be my educated guess.

Can't say I've ever smelled insects, other than bugs that have a very strong odor, like stink beetles or vinegaroons!

Warrior ranger the serpent killer, are you! Lor' what luck! Because that brings me right to my next questions, which are probably stupid ones, but i would like to be sure.
Do snakes bleed when cut, or when it has it's head chopped off?
Is it a lot of blood?
Does it gush or trickle?
Is that blood red?
And does the serpent then go into post mortal movements, like the proverbial headless chicken?
You can see i have got to the place where the hero comes to grapple with the giant serpent...
it's great help what you're telling me, there is nothing like consulting the person with direct knowledge, apart from making the experience oneself!

Snakes do bleed when they're cut, and their blood is red. But there's not a lot of it; it's more of a trickle than a stream. You won't see a snake spurt blood like a person with a severed artery, for example!

And yes, snakes will continue to thrash around even after they're dead. I don't kill non-poisonous snakes (and only rarely kill poisonous ones anymore, unless they're in my yard and posing a threat) but anytime I kill a rattler, I cut off the head and bury it. That's standard procedure around here. The general thought is that if you leave the head attached, and the snake is still thrashing around, one of their fangs might hit a human or animal and poison it.

I don't know how likely that really is, or if venom would be injected if it did happen, but I figure better safe than sorry. The body can thrash around as long as it likes, once it can't hurt me anymore! I have personally seen the dead bodies moving over 1/2 an hour after they're killed; I've heard rumors of them thrashing for even longer.

And, finally, it's also standard to cut off the rattle as a trophy. Dunno why, but I always do anyway!

Thanks warrior ranger, you've been the goods, you really have! You didn't fry and eat one or more of the defeated crawlers by any chance? I'm wondering about the texture of serpent meat, if it would be similar to lobster, or rather croc, which is like chicken, only a little bit more stringy and tends to have intramuscular fat in parts. My enjoyment of the croc meat was a bit bit impaired though, it was a mistake to watch the beasties feeding hour before sitting down in the croc restaurant.

I have had rattlesnake once before, years ago. It had been fried up on a grill. It didn't really impress me too much one way or the other; the texture was kinda like chicken only more rubbery, and the taste was just sort of gamey. I'd eat it again, but it didn't strike me as the delicacy some people claim. Maybe how it's prepared is critical?

To get much meat off a snake, it has to be a really big snake, or you have to kill a lot of them. I'm not much of a cook, so I don't usually bother trying to make a meal of them if I have to kill one. With rattlesnakes, you also have to get a quick, clean kill to safely eat them. For some reason, the snake will start biting itself (honestly!) if you've got it trapped and wounded but it can still move its head. And if it bites itself, you have to assume that the meat is tainted with their venom, and not safe to eat.

If you can get its head pinned and cut off immediately, you're in business. That can be easier said than done with an angry, moving rattlesnake! My weapon of choice with them is usually a shovel, so if your first stike is true, you've got it made. If you miss and hit the body, you've got a fight on your hands. Some people shoot them, but that's noisy, and you've still got the same problem of trying to get that first shot right into their head. I'm a decent shot, but not that good!

Fighting them is intimidating, but once you know how to do it not terribly dangerous, if you're careful. They can strike roughly half of their body length, so you don't get within that distance. If they're long enough to get past whatever you're using to attack them (shovel, hoe, machete, etc) you either get a bigger stick, get a gun, or call it a day and leave them in . Anymore, I prefer leaving them in when I can, as I've realized what important rodent killers they are. But if they're in my yard, threatening me or my animals, they're history!

We've also got catch poles we can move them with, while they're still alive. It's basically a pole with a loop of rope, and you grab them by the neck so they can't bite you. Then you stick them into a container (trash can, bag, whatever's handy) take them out where they're not a threat, and release them again. Carefully! Some folks say that snakes who've been moved, even if they're unharmed, don't do well, but I figure they've at least got a fighting chance as long as they're still alive!


warrior ranger, aka dances with snakes

PS I'm attaching a link to an article from our local paper, about the Rattlesnake Roundup they have every year. I went last year, it was pretty amazing. THAT was one instance where the odor of the snakes was obvious...they had hundreds of snakes in a glass cage, and you could hear and smell them as soon as you walked into the room. The snake handlers were nuts! They were letting live rattlers crawl all over them, dangerous stuff.

Anyway, here's the link if you're interested:
http://www.alamogordonews.com/Stories/0,1413,160%257E9596%257E531631,00.html?search=filter

again!

We haven't got any such event in Europe, haven't got rattlers in the first place. In europe the idea of rounding up serpents and drowning them would be received very illy, but one reason for that may be that we are not used to deadly serpents, and a few snakebite casualties would probably turn feelings round quite fast.
We do have one poisonous viper, at least so i'm told, i never saw one, it's very rare and therefore protected, it's not very poisonous either. And we have one snake that acts dangerous but isn't. A collegue of mine has one living in her garden, that hisses at her from the bushes, making her jump out of her shoes each time. She heartily detests it

Yeah, bullsnakes are marked a lot like rattlers, and they also mimic them. They'll shake their tails like they're rattling, and make a hiss that sounds a lot like the rattle. Pretty impressive if you can't quite see well enough to make a positive ID...

i'm nearly finished with my serpent story, at least the biology is right now, thanks to you!

*bows*

Always glad to be of service!

Now that's rather incautious of you, as it lays you open to more buttonholing, on vultures, desert rats, coyotes, foxes, wildcats... i say, what sort of ruminants would you have there in your desert, gazelles lacking?

No gazelles in the state!

The only grazers we have right here are deer, specifically Mule deer. There are a few white-tail deer around the state, but they're fairly rare. Antelope are pretty common, though I don't see them here in the park.

At White Sands National Monument, they have oryx. They were introduced years ago for big game hunting, and really took root. First time I saw one, before I knew the story, I thought I was hallucinating! They're native to Africa, I believe.

I'm afraid that concludes today's lesson, as I'm off to work!

Back briefly for lunch...we also have elk, in the mountainous areas.

Elk is native to America, isn't it? Is it the same kind as the Skandinavian one, do you happen to know? If it was, it would kind of confirm one of the migrations, the one across Behring street, wouldn't it?

About transferring animals and plants between the continents, i'm in two minds about that. One can completely transform the face of a landscape that way. So is that good or is that bad? There are so many examples when that was bad, but on the other hand, where would we be, thinking of cotton in prehistoric times and spuds and corn not so long ago. I love spuds, and it does seem very European to me now!

Since my major was in Parks Resource Management, not Wildlife Science, my biology is a bit weak ... I'm thinking that elk are native, although they originated in the Great Plains, then gradually moved west into mountainous areas. I wouldn't be a paycheck on that, though, and I don't have an appropriate textbook handy to check. So don't treat that bit of trivia as gospel!

Overall, I think introduced species have done more harm than good. There are success stories, like pheasant, which were introduced from Asia, and are now a well-loved game bird.

But there are also horror stories, like a tree (shrub) called salt cedar, or tamarisk. It was originally introduced for erosion control along waterways. Unfortunately, it succeeded too well, and has out-competed native cottonwood and willow here in the Chihuahuan desert. It is horribly water-consumptive. Scientific estimates say that an adult salt cedar near a water source (lake, river, pond, etc.) can consume over 100 gallons PER DAY!

It has pushed out the native trees, it is too small and twisted to use for wood or shade, and it uses water way out of proportion to its size. They're d@mn hard to eradicate, too. You can't just cut them down, they'll resprout from the roots. You have to use fire, chemicals, or some other process to get rid of them. They're an ecological disaster!

So, in conclusion to today's lecture, introduction of non-native species is a risky proposition!


I'll be waiting for the next topic!