hasn't once been bitten by a venom- 

 ous snake. 



The lesson he and others have 

 learned is simple: Fear of snakes is a 

 human problem — an unwarranted 

 reaction to our slithery friends. 

 Respect their space and they'll respect 

 yours. When problems do occur, it's 

 often because people, not snakes, are 

 aggressive. 



Snake Basics 



Even those of us afraid of snakes 

 are probably still curious about them. 

 The slithery tongue, the slender body, 



the scales — the 

 snake's an interest- 

 ing creature, even 

 from afar. 



If we learned 

 more about these 

 cold-blooded 

 reptiles, we might 

 replace our fear 

 with fascination. 

 Perhaps instead of 

 running at the sight 

 of a snake, we'd 

 stop to study its 

 grace in movement, 

 its color, its 

 interactions with 

 the environment. 



This is not to say that we need to 

 become friendly with these reptiles. 

 That's not their nature. They want 

 distance and we should respect that. 



But the more knowledgeable and 

 understanding we are, the more we will 

 appreciate this maligned creature. 



The Body 



Snakes come in many different 

 guises — from mere inches to many 

 feet, from chunky and slow to speedy 

 and sprightly, from brightly colored to 

 dull brown — but all snakes share that 

 armless, legless, tubelike body. And this 

 shape affects the snake's makeup. 

 Although a snake is much like any other 

 vertebrate internally — with digestive, 

 reproductive, respiratory, excretory and 

 nervous systems — its parts are 

 adjusted to fit the available space. 



• The snake's right lung, for 

 example, is large, long and thin. The 

 left lung is often very small and even 

 missing in some species. Other species 

 may have a third lung, which stores air 

 for when the snake's mouth is full of 

 prey. 



• The kidneys and sex organs are 

 also elongated, and they are staggered 

 rather than side by side. 



Alvin Braswell 



• Snake eggs reflect the size and 

 shape of the snake. Some eggs are long 

 and oval; others are chubby and round. 

 Most snakes reproduce by laying eggs, 

 but many retain the eggs inside their 

 wombs and give birth to live young. 

 Eggs are created by the female and 

 fertilized by the sperm of the father 

 inside the mother. The female can store 

 sperm from the male for long periods. 



• Since snakes have long, skinny 

 stomachs and need plenty of time for 

 digestion (it usually takes a medium- 

 sized snake about four days to digest a 

 medium-sized mouse), they begin 

 digesting food as soon as it enters the 

 mouth using secretions from the oral 

 glands. 



• To store as much water as 

 possible in their slim bodies, snakes 

 lack a bladder and excrete a semisolid 

 uric acid much like chickens do. 



• A snake's skeleton has also been 

 adapted to function with the snake's 

 unique shape. For a snake to curve and 

 wriggle freely without injuring its 

 spinal cord, it has loosely locking 

 vertebrae that provide strength and 

 flexibility. 



• Because snakes are cold-blooded, 

 they can't regulate their body tempera- 

 ture. To keep it in a comfortable range, 



6 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996 



