SNAKES AVOID MAN

Taranaki Daily News, 25 June 1931, Page 5

SNAKES AVOID MAN

SOME EXCEPTIONS TO RULE. FEW SEEN IN INFESTED AREAS. The first-hand study of snakes is not an attractive pursuit, but carried out at a respectful distance it may be most interesting, as was shown at a public lecture given in the Auckland University College hall by Mr. W. R. McGregor, Mr. McGregor, who is lecturer in zoology at the college, spent some months recently in Papua and Northern Australia, and was able to illustrate his remarks with personal experiences, a, very fine series of photographs and a collection of specimens both dried and preserved in glass jars. Bis address, which occupied nearly two hours, dealt with the structure, habits and life history of the whole snake family. As a general rule, said Mr. McGregor, snakes avoided man. They were acutely sensitive, to vibrations in the ail and the earth, the chief sensory organ being the long forked, tongue. It was possible to spend weeks in a. snakeinfested country and see fewer of the reptiles than could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Contrary to the rule, a few species were known to make unprovoked attacks on human beings. It was estimated that the number of deaths fj’om snake bite over the whole world was still about 100,000 a year, but most of them occurred among natives in India, and Brazil. The European, well-clothed and shod, ran comparatively little risk in countries where the reptiles abounded. As showing the relatively small mortality from snake bite in European communities, Mr. McGregor mentioned that whereas in A ictoria 350 died yearly as a result of motor accidents, snake bite had accounted for only 250 recorded deaths in the whole history of the State. “You would probably like to know how snakes would gel on 'in New Zealand.” he remarked- “ Personally, I think that the climate would be too wet and cold for them.”