Author notes

034. Hydrophobia?

usedbooks

on May 17, 2009

There are a lot of snakes (and spiders) where I work. Any time a guest says they saw one, I rush out to see if I can ID the species, but as of yet, I’ve seen only one snake, a beautiful rough green that my supervisor found in the bushes. Green snakes are amazing. They are very small snakes that live in bushes and eat insects (and are eaten by everything else). They are rich emerald in color and have big, round eyes, giving them an almost cartoonishly cute appearance. They are one of the most docile snakes around. They never bite (unless you’re a cricket), not even in defense. Holding a snake is a really cool experience, the smooth scales and strong muscles are almost indescribable. If you ever have the chance to hold a snake (preferably one of the more docile ones – though a bite from a garter or young black snake doesn’t hurt that much, not nearly as much as a hamster bite), do it!

Snakes are one of the few completely *helpful* groups of animals for humans. They do no harm to structures or food stores and eat all manners of vermin that cause problems. They don't attack people (though they do defend themselves if they can’t escape). Most species of snakes are nonvenomous and docile, many to the point that you could pick up, step on, or outright attack them and they would not show you a single tooth – though the poor things would try to get away as fast as possible. I am confounded by the number of people with a sheer hatred and terror of snakes. (A friend of mine is afraid of pictures of snakes in magazines, and snake-shaped things that she knows aren't snakes…) I’m not really a snake-loving hippie. I just wasn’t taught that fear. My mom taught me a respect for wildlife (dangerous or otherwise). You shouldn't molest any wildlife even if it’s not dangerous. There are dangerous snakes out there that should be removed from areas where children play. But when people are taught at a young age to fear snakes, they will not make the effort to tell a dangerous species from a docile one. And the poor little green snake, eating bugs and not even remotely resembling any biting or venomous snake, ends up included in the genocide. -_-

*Sets down the "Leave snakes Alone" sign.* That’s not the point of this comic, but I owed it to my little green friend to say it. ;-) The point is that naturalists are quirky people. They often become obsessed with the group they study and cannot fathom other people's negative reactions to them. The most deadly venomous animals on earth are in Australia. They even have a truly venomous mammal. And that brings me to the other reason for this strip, welcoming my sister's Australian boyfriend who is currently visiting us. My sis will be returning to Aussieland with him in June.

One more note: Becky and Dave had cameos in Times Like This. ^_^