Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Balancing act
In the face of almost insurmountable odds I still plan to slip in my little Baja Anecdotes in between electronic melees. Here's one about snakes.
Snakes don?t know anything about ?Transitional Zones?. It matters little to them where they live as long as they can find a lizard now and then.
Here?s a little rundown on snakes in my neighborhood.
This almost desert runs from the seashore all the way to the nearby mountain tops to a height of 6900 feet. By far the most successful snake in this
zone is the Western Coachwhip. One might encounter a couple of hundred of these snakes to just one of other species. The coachwhip comes in many
colors, can grow to over 8 feet in length, is non venomous. In my neighborhood they are seen everywhere ? I?m usually asked to come and remove them
from my neighbor?s yards and patios, the Internado (school kids dorm just across the street from my house). When cornered or molested they become
very aggressive ? I still have the scars to prove it. The cooks at the Internado giggled like their little dinner guests when I was bitten several
times while removing a small but feisty coachwhip from the kitchen.
My Mexican neighbors fear and hate most snakes ? any snake with a distinct pattern they refer to as a corolio, a coral snake. While there are a few
coral snakes in this zone they are rare and while dangerous their size means they are little threat to people. Unfortunately lots of harmless snakes
like kings, gopher snakes, long-nosed snakes and more are killed out of fear that, because of a colorful skin pattern, they are venomous.
The country is crawling with rattlesnakes ? Western Diamondbacks and Speckled Rattlesnakes.
The lyre snake lives here in great numbers. They are venomous but carry only a mild poison in rear fangs. They are small snakes with small heads
which reduces the threat of being injected.
Once some construction workmen at my neighbor?s house captured a small snake ? because of the pattern they were careful not to handle it. I handled
it, took it back to my house where I could identify it in a natural science book. I took the book and the snake, a Night Snake, back over to them and
watched their very quizzical looks as I explained the snake?s poison was not in its fangs but in its saliva.
On a summer day trip to the mountain ranchos with a couple of my Mexican pals I spotted a gopher snake crossing the dirt road, captured it and showed
them just how docile and harmless the creatures are when handled with care. Once convinced the snake was no danger to them they played with the thing
like smiling schoolboys the whole afternoon. After a few minutes they even accorded this five foot long snake the gentleness one might use in
handling a baby chick; so profound was their wonder and pleasure in the experience (and out of a deference to my watchful eye and pleading for caution
in its care).
My house sits on a sand lot. Delicate Sand Snakes live beneath the surface. At night they often venture above ground leaving their telltale tracks
all over the yard. When we have house guests in the summer I point out the tracks, explain that the snakes are so small their food is nearly
microscopic ? mouths so small as to be invisible to us without some kind of magnification. This long and necessary courtesy seems often lost on some
of my lady guests who can be seen walking about the yard as though on tiptoe.
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Sharksbaja
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5814
Registered: 9-7-2004
Location: Newport, Mulege B.C.S.
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YIKES!
To some. I truly have mixed feelings:
http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=9413#pid71604
Now I can really wonder thanks for the info, Osprey
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jrbaja
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4863
Registered: 2-2-2003
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Damn Sharks
I've heard about those PV boys! Tough lot!
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MrBillM
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 21656
Registered: 8-20-2003
Location: Out and About
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Mood: It's a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Day
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Serpientes
One area of commonality I have with my Mexican neighbors and friends is that I KILL every single poisonous snake that I come in contact with. Too
many close encounters and near misses. I don't give them a second chance. Unlike them, I spare the other ones.
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Bruce R Leech
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6796
Registered: 9-20-2004
Location: Ensenada formerly Mulege
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Mood: A lot cooler than Mulege
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on my ranch I let them be . we have a lot of rattle snakes. if you kill a few there will just be more move in . they keep the rodent population down.
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
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Gypsy Jan
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4275
Registered: 1-27-2004
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Mood: Depends on which way the wind is blowing
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Osprey, keep on educating
your neighbors.
As was already mentioned by Bruce, poisonous or not, if you know about the critters in your own backyard and respect their behavior, all snakes on any
property will help keep the vermin under control.
Leaving the snakes in place helps to keep the environment in balance.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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MrBillM
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 21656
Registered: 8-20-2003
Location: Out and About
Member Is Offline
Mood: It's a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Day
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Thanks Bruce
I'm Glad to find out that I'm doing the right thing to control the rodent population by killing Rattlesnakes.
If killing them means more will come in, then I should have plenty to control rodents.
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jrbaja
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4863
Registered: 2-2-2003
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DanO
Super Nomad
Posts: 1923
Registered: 8-26-2003
Location: Not far from the Pacific
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DanO's Baja Rule #2 for kids
Well, it's actually for everyone, but kids (mine anyway) seem to need to be reminded of this on an hourly basis. Here's a sample of that dialog:
Dad: "Hey guys, remember Rule number 2? Never put your hand somewhere you can't see."
Son 1: "Why Dad?"
Dad: "There might be snake in that hole that could bite you, or a spider or a scorpion, and you might get really sick or die."
Son 2: "What's Rule number 1?"
Dad: "Always keep an eye on the water when you're down by the tidepools."
Son 1: "Why Dad?"
Dad: "A rogue wave might get you and you could drown."
Son 2: "What about Rule number 3?"
Dad: "Always put on sunscreen before you go outside."
Son 1: "I know that one. That's because you might get a really bad sunburn and get sick and stuff."
Son 2 (to Son 1): "Are there any rules that aren't about dying or getting hurt or sick?"
Dad: "Sure. Be attuned to what's going on around you. At your age you take in a lot more information than grownups. The have this tendency to
filter out what they've already experienced. But everything is new to you guys, so you should enjoy it all as much as you can. These things'll stick
with you the rest of your lives."
Son 2: "Like what?"
Dad: "Oh, like the sound a quail's wings makes when it takes off in front of you, or how lizards do pushups sometimes in the sun. Or how things
smell on a really hot afternoon."
Son 1: "You mean like the pipe from the septic tank?"
Dad: "Uh, well, that would be one thing, but I was really thinking more about the smell of the sagebrush and the dust, or the seaweed down by the
beach."
Son 2 (to Son 1): "Or the cow poop in the road!"
(Uncontrolled fits of kid laughter)
Son 1 (to Son 2): "And the stinky mud by the lagoon where the cows poop!"
(More kid laughter)
Son 2 (to Son 1): "And that dead cow we saw that one time!"
Son 1 (to Son 2): "Oh yeah, I remember that! And that really stinky place that we drive by where they put the fish in cans and the seagulls eat the
fish guts, that's so gross!
Son 2 (to Son 1): "Whoa, what about Uncle Scott's farts?! Hey Dad, does that count?"
Dad: (Sigh) "Yeah, sure, whatever. Just remember not to get killed or maimed and try to enjoy life's stinky moments."
Son 2: "What rule is that?"
Dad: (shakes head and mutters absently to self while walking away)
Son 1 (to Son 2): "Hey, let's play GameBoy."
Son 2: "Okay. I get to play Sapphire first."
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