Boardroom snake experiment helped putrisk in perspective:[SU2 Edition] Barry Kent MacKay

Boardroom snake experiment helped putrisk in perspective:[SU2 Edition]
Barry Kent MacKay. Toronto Star Toronto, Ont.:Jun 10, 1990. p. G11

People:	Johnson, Bob
Author(s):	Barry Kent MacKay
Section:	SPORTS
Publication title:	Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Jun 10, 1990. pg. G.11
Source Type:	Newspaper
ISSN/ISBN:	03190781
ProQuest document ID:	472007981
Text Word Count	950
Article URL:	http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=309&VInst=PROD&VName=PQD&VType=PQD&Fmt=3&did=000000472007981&clientId=17280

Abstract (Article Summary)

Last weekend, the boardroom of Metro Toronto Zoo hosted a massasauga rattlesnake workshop as part of a conservation project funded by the Zoological Society of Metro Toronto. Cottager's associations were well represented. Most massasaugas in Ontario occur in cottage country, on the Bruce Peninsula and around the eastern shore of Georgian Bay.

Fear of snakes is so great that the massasauga has been heavily persecuted. So have other species of snake - some, such as the fox, milk and water snakes, because to the untrained eye they look a little like a massasauga - others just because they are snakes and some people automatically hate all snakes.

Fear of snakes is so pervasive that many people kill every snake they see. There has been no snake bite death in Ontario for two decades, "but let it happen," says [Bob Johnson], "and it's open war on snakes."

Full Text (950 words)

The snake on the boardroom floor was deadly poisonous. The group of people standing around him were at risk. But we're at risk each moment we live and it soon became clear that the risk to us at that time was close to nil.

Pervasive fear

Workshop chairman Bob Johnson pointed out that the number of people killed driving to and from cottage country when their cars strike deer is a whole order of magnitude higher than snake bite fatalities, and yet few people want to slaughter every deer they see in fear for their lives.

Fear of snakes is so pervasive that many people kill every snake they see. There has been no snake bite death in Ontario for two decades, "but let it happen," says Johnson, "and it's open war on snakes."

While it's harder to evoke as much sympathy for reptiles as one might have for a bird or mammal, Johnson wonders if people would be so cruel to snakes if snakes could scream with the pain of their suffering. In their silence snakes may seem to exist on the alien side of some border dividing us from creatures deserving of compassion, but they feel pain as much as any creature.

The zoo has embarked on a two-year effort to reach cottagers, campers and anyone else likely to be directly involved with massasaugas. Responses range from antipathy, through apathy, to full support for the project. Growing numbers of people take a live-and- let-live attitude toward the massasauga.

Wayne Weller showed that prior to 1984 the species was widely distributed, but his records show a serious decline in recent years. What particularly alarms the experts is the break that has developed between the two main populations: those on the Bruce Peninsula and those on the east shore of Georgian Bay.

"This shows what could be the beginning of the end for a species," Johnson says. The break in gene flow between the two major populations represents a reduction in the ability of the species to adapt to changes in its environment. Certainly Weller's map of the reduction in the species' range size portrays a species in trouble.

Habitat destruction is a major cause of decline in the massasauga. Although different populations appear to have different habitat preferences, massasaugas tend to hibernate in low, wet areas, such as spruce bogs, but spend the summer in higher, drier areas. The routes the follow between these two environs can be very specific, possibly only a few metres wide. This makes the massasauga rattlesnake particularly vulnerable to habitat disturbance.

However, they are also killed by people who fear them. Each snake counts. Massasaugas give birth to a maximum of eight young. About 90 per cent of newborns die, killed by crows, fish, bullfrogs, passing cars, people or are frozen when they attempt to hibernate too close to the surface of the ground. "You may," said Johnson, "have three adults who are all that survived out of hundreds of newborn snakes."

While one cannot deny that massasaugas are poisonous and that basic precautions must be taken in rattlesnake country (wear shoes or boots; use a flashlight at night; keep clear of massasaugas) in fact the risk, in the relative sense, is minimal. In the worst case scenario, you will not die if a massasauga bites you, unless you work hard at doing the wrong things. The right thing is to go to the hospital.

The victim will not be given anti-venom as it is often not necessary. In 30 to 50 per cent of massasauga bites, no venom is injected. Even when venom is injected, it is, of itself, not toxic. What can do you in is the secondary effects of infection, gangrene, tissue mortification and shock, all of which can be treated without resorting to anti-venom.

Significant pain

Anti-venom is used only, if at all, in very small amounts, and then only if the patient has no adverse reaction to its horse serum formula. There is significant pain associated with a bite, but death cannot occur unless medical attention is withheld. Recovery is complete.

But all of that is quite academic as the likelihood is that you will not be bitten. That is why Johnson had placed the rattlesnake on the floor of the boardroom. The demonstration was convincing. The snake seemed to be intent upon doing everything possible to avoid biting.

Johnson was not attempting to minimize the risk of danger poised by this small snake. Instead, he wanted to put that risk in perspective. What was curled on the carpet, tail rattling, was not an evil, hateful killer, but a handsome little snake who, in spite of ample provocation, gave every indication of wanting nothing more than to leave us alone and be left alone. That, to me, seems to be a fair arrangement.

Cottagers interested in the zoo's massasauga rattlesnake conservation project should contact Bob Johnson, Metro Toronto Zoo, P.O. Box 280, West Hill, Ont. M1E 4R5.

* Barry Kent MacKay is a freelance writer involved in animal welfare and conservation issues.