quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
These cases mentioned here are good examples of how humans misunderstand animal behaviour and then in the first case add a dollop of bar room BS.

Firstly, snakes don't run anywhere because they don't have legs. As for the headbutting, I think the polite term is probably bollocks.

Puffadders first line of defence is usually to play dead and it's not really that uncommon for people to not see them and tread on them and get away with it....... Mrs Shakari did it once many years ago when we were hunting eland. I saw the snake just as her foot was going down on it and knew if I stopped her, she'd stop with her foot on the snake, so I let her walk onto it and off of it again and then stopped her a few paces later and took her back to see what she'd just trodden on......... she's never let me forget that one!

As for the stand offs........ snakes, especially (from my experience) black mambas raise themselves up and (for want of a better word) freeze. The reason they're doing that is their senses are very different to ours (Lane might be able to comment further on this) and what they're doing is looking for movement that they can then strike at........ I'm no expert on snakes but was always taught that the best thing to do in these situations, esp with mambas is to freeze completely and that they'll then look at you for a short while (feels a lot longer than it is) and then be on their way........ that's what I was taught, what I've always done and it's always worked just tickety boo for me.

Incidentally, when their toungue is flicking in and out, what they're actually doing is trying to smell you......... I guess they probably think that a lot of us humans must smell like shit!

I tell you I'd smell like shit! snakes scare it right out of me. in fact, I have to go to the restroom now.

Red

RED
it has been suggested by some experts that when a snake raise up like that there getting higher so there since of smell it better. (according to animal show on TV)

DAMN SNAKES!! Set four pages off.

Snakes are our slimey friends! Just like Libs who know better than us!

and the black mamba, latin name dendroaspis polylepsis become most agressive when made to listen to mountains of drivel

Almost got bit by a copperhead yesterday,I broke his back and gave him to the fireants. It did bite one of my cats but it lived. And to all you glass dink whiners that call me all sorts of names over some of my post. Had four calls from Mexicans today,one wanted to go fishing on some of my land , one wanted to sell me some cows,another said his son was singing Italian opera in Mesquite, another wanted to know when she could come up from Ft. Worth and play bang the bone. The mexicans gave me the name catosilvaje means Wildcat.

quote:

Originally posted by catosilvaje:

The mexicans gave me the name catosilvaje means Wildcat.

Sorry to break it to you but I believe you have the spelling wrong. Try Gato Silvestre or Gato Salvaje depending on whether you wish to be know as wild in the sense of not being domesticated or wild in the sense of being a savage.

Thank you .I am not domesticated and probably am a savage,but that is the way my mexicans spelled it on the back of my pickup bed. So I will take literary lic. on this one. I appreciate the correction.

Just some pix from the pocket camera:

puff adder (Moz)


Mouth of Black Mamba (Caprivi)


boomslange (Caprivi)


false water-cobra (Argentina)

Snake Park clinic provides vital service to snake bite victims


From The Arusha Times
October 23, 2010

By: Elisha Mayallah

Over the years most hospitals in Arusha and the neighbourhood have been, increasingly, finding it difficult to treat ‘snakebites’. Then as luck would have it, the Snake Park located nearly 20km off Arusha town introduced a special clinic for treating snakebites at its base in the small township of Duka Mbovu in Monduli district.

Mr. Berry Bales and his wife Lynn are the owners of the Snake Park, which started operations in 1993 and brought ‘countryside’ tourism closer to Arusha. The Park has, largely, attracted varied segments of clientele, from local to international visitors, so far.

The clinic, a brainchild of the Snake Park, was started in 2007. Funded by the Snake Park, initially the clinic sought to treat snakebite cases in the Maasai land areas which are prone to snakebites cases during rainy seasons, but which also have one of the highest incidents of snakebites. Today patients with snakebites are flocking in from all over the country with the treatment being offered free to all.

Records available at the clinic have revealed that over 200 individual cases of severe snakebites have been treated. According to the nurse at the clinic, Ms Jane Lucas, a Maasai woman, the black mamba, red and black
spitting cobra, puff-adder and Egyptian cobra repeatedly do common
snake attacks to victims already treated at the clinic.

Snakebites from the poisonous snakes do affect the neuron system in the body and often lead to death. Black mamba, one of the most poisonous snakes in Africa is believed to kill its victim in less than 12 hours if proper medicare is not availed.

Skin tissue is another form of attacks in the body, which originate from snakebites occasionally leading to amputation of the affected area, if not treated in time. Jane Lucas, who is in her early 30’s, says: “Once beaten by a poisonous snake, do not move if possible from the scene (as the snake tends to run away after the bite) then the victim should ask for assistance to be lifted off by a car or a stretcher.”

She went on to pinpoint that a victim movement after the snakebite does best to quicken the poison circulation in the body. Another suggestion is to tie a rope or bandage or piece of the cloth at the ‘beaten’ area in the body. To avoid swelling around this ‘tie’, it should be released periodically while waiting for medicare. This, according to the nurse, helps to keep the poison in one area of the body, and prevent it to spread to the whole body.

Victims are also advised to drink a lot of water once beaten by snakes to help ease the poison in the blood circulation. Using local medicine to treat snakebites when beaten by snakes, Ms Jane discourages Maasai's and the public and asks them to seek medical attention immediately. Jane insists to victims to seek medical help at the clinic as soon as possible to avoid long and tedious medicare and loss of life.


Most patients treated at the clinic for snakebites originate from the Maasai villages such as: Longido, Ngorongoro, Simanjiro, Lolkisale, Ngaramtoni, Meserani juu and Meserani chini. The underlying reasons for snake bites in the Maasai’s land stems out from their traditional and habitual long walking in the wilderness tending cows, or finding water and sometimes while asleep, given that their houses are not properly covered to prevent snakes to move in unnoticed. Others areas include: Mbauda chini, Makuyuni, West
Kilimanjaro, Kondoa, Manyara, Dodoma and Dar es Salaam.

When I visited the clinic this past week I found five patients receiving treatment and admitted. One of the five patients was Mr. Siria Kimay, 64 years, from Simanjiro who was bitten by a snake on April 9, 2010. He first attended other hospitals (Itnaasheri in Arusha and KCMC in Moshi) and was later advised to come to the Snake Park clinic. Jane says, Mr. Kimay came with three deep wounds on August 4, 2010 and after being hospitalized his ailment is now getting better and he is out of danger, of being amputated. And he is likely to be discharged in a couple of weeks.

Another pair of children I found admitted at the clinic was Oiboo Norije (8yrs) from Sinya Longido and Jungu Lucas (6 years) from Korogwe Tanga, who have been receiving treatment for over three months at the clinic. Jungu is completely healed and waiting to be picked by his parents while Oiboo is likely to be discharged in two weeks.

The Snake Park clinic has a new building comprising 12 beds, six on the ground floor and the remaining on the upper floor. Beds are securely fitted with mosquito nets and patients are provided with clinic uniforms on arrival. A TV set is provided in each room with hygienic bath and toilet facility. Patients are served with breakfast, lunch and dinner – daily..

On departure, the Bales proudly tell me they are happy to provide this ‘noble’ service free to all, as part of their commitment to serve the local community.