In the glass cases are Eastern coachwhips, green snakes, pine snakes, Eastern and Southern hognose snakes, Eastern king snakes, a reticulated python and a Burmese python. There's an anaconda, a Gabon viper, a boa constrictor, a Western diamondback rattlesnake, a copperhead, a water moccasin and an Eastern diamondback rattlesnake. He likes the snake for its graceful motion and patience. Saxon points out that snakes are afraid of and avoid humans, are mostly harmless and not aggressive, and will only bite for food and fear. If not for snakes, there'd be a lot more rats and mice, he said.
Some people say the only good snake is a dead snake.
As children gather later to pet a snake, Penny White of Altamont, Ill., watches from a distance. Some things in life are meant to be only thought of. Herps in the News Gator trappers are bummed because the Asian economic crisis has reduced demand for gator skins to the point where it s no longer profitable to hunt nuisance gators. The shells are used for decoration, while the meat is served in upscale Muscovite restaurants, Traffickers snare the tortoises as they leave underground burrows in spring. We re going to involve the public as part of a larger solution, said Sam Droege, a U.S. Geological Survey research biologist.