SNAKE STORIES

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 1576, 16 February 1927, Page 7

SNAKE STORIES

PYTHON'S HEALTHY APPETITE DANGEROUS AUSTRALIAN VARIETIES •; Although captured! when fully grown, the 19ft python recently'added to the collection at the? Zoo is .taking the changed circumstances of his life philosophically (writes 'iH.S.," in the Melbourne 'Argus').' The surest sign'of this is that he eats well. For the first six "weeks he would; take nothing; 'but, one day, when "Pambo," the snake expert, went into his quarters as usual the reptile, instead of gazing at him with lacklustre eye, as he had been doing, raised • his, sinister .head,' in ;■_ a. threatening manner. This was interpreted rightly as a sign of hunger. After the python had swallowed six large Muscovy ducks and six fullsized rabbits, he indicated that he had : eaten his fill by refusing a seventh rabbit. The view used to be held that a python would not>eat any bird or beast which it had not killed, and therefore pythons were supplied with live prey. The terror of the victims was. something orieiwouldinot willingly witness' a second time. In France it used to be held, also, that feathers were .to snakes, so before being sacrificed birds were plucked alive. This practice is referred to in Daudet's ' Tartarin of Tarascoh.' These horrors are things of the past, I believe. At the Melbourne Zoo, the Muscovy .ducks and the rabbits,' after having been killed as mercifully as possible, were thrown to the python whde the bodies were still warm, i and apparently he was satisfied to let someone else do the killing. _ It was a month before he recovered his appetite, and .since then he his had a meal every four weeks on an average. No snake has a more diabolical temper than the python. The python at the Zoo is no exception. He knows those who feed very well by this time, but, though they are bringing him' just what he wants, the keepers have to; take the utmost care in presenting him! with his food. "Pambo, for instance,-' pushed a Muscovy duck toward thej snake the other day so that it might;, he iu a more convenient position to reach. For some reason the python resented this, and, making a lightning' 'strike at the hand that was feeding him, gashed " Pambo" deeply across the thumb. python has no poison? fangs, but the* long, back-curving teeth can inflict a terrible wound. Fortu-< nately, in this case the snake, nearly; missed his aim. Had he j obtained aj grip instead of giving a glancing blow.what might ,be called a " difficult situa-4 ' tion' would have arisen, for if the py-5 thon had once succeeded in getting a'; coil round the keeper's body it might not have been possible to prevent it; from exerting a deadly constriction. It} is strange'that pythons have the power.; of inspiring fear in animals which 'theyj could not possibly' injure. Some years! ago the animals belonging to a German' circus suddenly showed" every symptom? of terror in the, dead of night. Thiff terror ihfected not the smaller animals; only, but also the lions, tigers, and ele-4 phants. 1 . In the semi-darkness the tehdants could hot at first see anything! to account for the panic; but presently! someone detected, moving in front 'of; the elMhants' quarters, a large pythonwhich had escaped from 1 its *box. This! was the cause of the commotion.' .It; is probable that, a python would never; in any circumstances, attack one of th<>' large, carnjvora. ;.■.*• If ;it did it would invite almost certain death; certainly it,, would never attack an elephant. Whyjl then, should these ..-janimals show suchi terror' of something which could nothurt them? ,\ ;lj DOGS AND 'SNAKES.. : . ■< : n

Dogs have been endowed with an,' unerring instinct which warns them, against venomous snakes—an instinct: which has been denied to man. I saw evidence during some years which I; spent jn Texas. In the„ part of * the; State iriSvhich I residedjtere were <v dozen or more species or snakes, but the only venomous ■ ones were, the rat*; tlesnake and the mocassin. ', 'My dog; Jack was an • energetic ene'my of: snakes, but he always left "rattlers''; and mocassins alone. And there tveretwo others which I left alone—until Ij knew better. One- was a dark''' brown, snake, banded almost exactly like our tiger snake, and altogether so closely, remembling the tiger that had I seen a specimen in Australia I should: have taken it for one. Yet it was a small, harmless specimen of the constrictor species. Jack:,killed one, and. I examined its inouth. This was furnished • with a number of smaJ teeth, but there was npt a sign of-fangs. Another and very much rarer snake which Jack killed one day •vas whajb we called a. spreading, adder. It looked "bad" with its markings of livid red spots on % dull ochre ground. 1 had been particularly warned against •■ it, but Jack attacked it without hesitation. It, too, proved to ibe : fangless. Yet another snake, rare inlthose parts, had a slender emerald-green;, body, with a peculiar lustre which suggested metal. Underneath scales were pink; and the small, spear-shaped head resembled a piece of polished , jet. These snakes used to cling .'to rushes' on the lookout for-flies. Although Ti was assured that if I were bitten by; one J. "should make a die of it,'! ;I took a opened its tiny mouth with.a twig I saw that it, like "the spreading adder and the ringed snake, was. innocent of fangs. '- ';;,;. / .. .■

INCpMPLE™ COLLECTIONS. : Jn- the Zoo, land) 1., bein the Zoos in the. other capital \ cities, the collections "W sriakes*lack variety. This should not be so; for there are probably more than 200 varieties in Austraha. • ; L 1 the Mel-, boiirne> Zoo We have specimens ;of "thes tiger snake, the brown snake, jthe cop-per-head, the death .adder* snake, and of an unspecified yellow reptile with olive green captured in South Australia. This is a very rare; snake'fortunately, for it is exceedingly aggressive, and probably; more venomous ;>than .the tiger, snake'. Then .we have; a carpet shake,; arid so' ,far as-rT can recoiled tliiscpinpletes' the list. Among, the .absentees ine some which are said to be 1 more venomous than any of those enumerated. V A ..very, small golden-coloredisriake,. \uth a black head,* found injthe Lake. Eyre district,; is one "of them.; ,-IY know., of. the.case of a man who' was, .treated almost immediately after he'.was bitten,"but he diedi The bite, was* on the chest, so it; was not;possible:to .apply, ligatures. 1 Still, considering - the minute* ■quantity'of' poison that had been iq'ected, and the fairly, deep incisions that;.were made to receive crystals of permanganate of potashjf it

would have been thought that recovery was assured. The aborigines. are greatly in dread of this snake. ; In' certain' circumstances-the brown snake is perhaps the most dangerous of all Australian shakes—"dangerthat, is, as "distinguished*, from " venomous." In the bush it is timid —far mbre'tiniid than "the tiger shjike —but if caught in a confined space it becomes exceedingly aggressive. You may go into the compartment reserved for tiger snakes at the Zoo with some, confidence, for if you do not molest them they will let you alone,'though there are more than thirty of them to deliver a massed attack. But you would be wise to keep out of the compartment in which three brown snakes are 'contained; for they will at /once attack ah intruder. Not long ago one of the keepers was bitten on she thumb, though he was oh the lookout for an attack. It is the activity of this' snake which renders it so difficult to avoid if it makes a determined attack.; i '"■■'