“Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?” – Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark
Humans often fear what they don’t understand and to most, snakes are a mystery. Snakes rely on crypsis so even when traversing through their world, we rarely see them. This void of direct knowledge is filled by myth and media, which portray snakes as cold-blooded killers and focus on how deadly and dangerous they are. It’s no surprise then that snakes provoke one of the most common phobias, even in the United States where we lack truly deadly serpents.
Though threatened by many of the same issues that affect other wildlife, including habitat loss, climate change, and disease, negative attitudes may be the biggest barrier to snake conservation because it often impedes efforts to address other threats.
For example, public outcry based on fear and misinformation recently halted a scientifically-sound conservation plan for timber rattlesnakes. A similar project at the same location was embraced by the community; but that project involved releasing eagles. Rattlesnakes are no less iconic or important to the ecosystem than eagles. In fact, they may help reduce the incidence of Lyme disease, which affects tens of thousands of people in the United States each year, by reducing the number of rodents that harbor this disease. But facts often play second fiddle to emotions where snakes are concerned.
Snakes are important components of biodiversity, serving as both predators and prey in nearly every ecosystem on earth. Some of the most feared and hated snakes (vipers, a group which includes rattlesnakes) may be the most effective predators on fluctuating prey populations. Unlike most predators, vipers are not territorial; they often share dens to escape freezing winter temperatures and select hunting sites where others have been successful. They live in greater densities than mammal and bird predators, as much as 100-1000 times denser than their mammalian competitors. Infrequent reproductive events (most give birth only once every two to three years) and their ability to fast make them resilient to prey population crashes. So they can have a greater impact on their prey, including those that can spread disease to humans, than their mammalian or avian counterparts.
But snakes are worth saving not because of what they can do for us, but because of who they are.
Adrian, a pregnant Arizona black rattlesnake guards one of her nestmates’ newborns. Photographed by Melissa Amarello.
Snakes, specifically rattlesnakes, share many behaviors with us, behaviors that we value. They have friends. They take care of their kids and their friends’ kids too. Within a community of Arizona black rattlesnakes, individuals do not associate randomly; they have friends (pairs of rattlesnakes observed together more often expected by chance) and individuals they appear to avoid. Mother rattlesnakes keep newborns from straying too far from the nest during the first few days of their lives, only gradually letting them explore farther as they approach time to leave the nest at 10-14 days old. They also defend their young from threats such as squirrels, who harass and may even kill newborns. But mothers aren’t the only ones caring for newborn rattlesnakes — still-pregnant females sharing the communal nest and even visiting males and juveniles assist with parental duties. Yet these gentle, caring parents are subjected to some of the most horrible treatment of any animal.
Each year, tens of thousands of rattlesnakes are taken from the wild to be displayed and slaughtered for entertainment and profit at rattlesnake roundups, which occur throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Alabama. Promoted as folksy, family-friendly fun, these events foster disrespect for native wildlife and the natural world, and are a gross example of wildlife management based on fear, rather than science. Professional hunters, not bound by ‘bag’ or ‘take’ limits, remove snakes from their native habitats and are awarded with cash prizes for bringing in the most and biggest snakes. Most snakes are caught by pouring gasoline into their winter dens, which pollutes surrounding land and water and may impact up to 350 other wildlife species. Rattlesnake roundups depend on the public’s misconception of snakes as dangerous pests that we cannot safely tolerate near our homes. No aspect of these events is sustainable, educational, or necessary.
If promoters and attendees of rattlesnake roundups knew what snakes are really like, would these events continue — who wants to kill a mom or someone’s friend?
World Snake Day is an opportunity to celebrate snakes and raise awareness about their conservation.
It’s no surprise then that snakes provoke one of the most common phobias, even in the United States where we lack truly deadly serpents. – This statement bothered me, especially where OP goes on to talk about rattlesnakes. There are multiple varieties of rattlesnakes in the US, and they’re all deadly. They may not be as dangerous as certain snakes from Asia or Australia, but they’re still deadly. We also have cottonmouths, also known as water moccasins, which are also highly dangerous, deadly and pervasive in the wetter part of the southern US, where rattlesnakes prefer the dryer western US – though I believe they can be found in the east as well.
However, just because they’re deadly doesn’t mean they should all die. But by saying that they aren’t “truly deadly”… it implies a lack of respect. Rattlesnakes and cottonmouths deserve respect because they can kill you. And there are deaths by both types of snake every year.
Nope.
Cottonmouths pose very little danger to adult humans, and this list here shows only two confirmed deaths where a cottonmouth was involved: one in 2015, and the other in 1971. So no, people don’t die of cottonmouth bites “every year.”
Rattlesnake venom is more dangerous, but here, too, statistics matter. Out of estimated 7000-8000 (yes seven to eight thousand) bites each year around five people die.
If you look through the list, another interesting thing sticks out: the vast majority of the people who died by snake bite in the US are men, which suggests that there are some behavioral factors at play. As in: man see snake, man kill snake. Only in the process, man also get bit by snake. In most cases, they live. Some aren’t so lucky. Snakes however fare significantly less well in these situations.
Now I’d like you invite you to check out the list of reported fatalities from dog attacks, which goes on much longer, and has upwards of 30 deaths each year that have been reported in the past decade. Nobody is describing dogs as lethal though.
The article was talking about rattlesnakes being social, having friendships and families, and trying to teach people to appreciate them for more than just their venom.
Now what the author of the article that I reposted probably meant (and me not being the author, this is just my interpretation) by “truly deadly serpents” would be snakes such as the inland taipan or the black mamba etc. – you can peruse the list of most dangerous snakes of the world and see for yourself that none of them come from the American continent.
Those snakes have venoms that are extremely potent and kill fast, where the chances of someone surviving the bite are very low, as opposed to rattlesnake bites. Many of the snakes on this list are also quite high-strung and will bite in defense with much less provocation, often repeatedly, delivering more venom with each bite.
Compared to them the rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, copperheads, and other venomous snakes that live in the US are much less deadly. And honestly, saying that they aren’t “truly deadly” doesn’t imply lack of respect, unless you’re only willing to respect life forms that can kill you.
ForLoveFromFear 
