Venomous Snakes

Venomous snakes were everywhere in the rain forests of Guatemala. The odds of running into a venomous snake were very high. Just from raking leaves there would be the occasion I uncover a Jumping Pit Viper. I decided to familiarize myself with venomous snakes.

This led to the designing and constructing of a large snake house with a herpetologist (from Guatemala), who as well taught me how to care for, feed and handle the snakes. In addition I also had an expert snake handler from Texas, U.S.A. and a veterinarian from Guatemala who specialized in reptiles teach me their skills.

I participated and volunteered with CONAP (The National Council for Protected Areas in Guatemala) which basically would encourage, promote and enforce the conservation of wildlife as just one of their many objectives.

I have met some great people in this organization that really care about the future. In their effort to prevent Morelet Crocodile from becoming extinct, on chosen nights, we would spend the entire night on a boat counting the population of crocodiles for that lake, then comparing that with last months numbers. Just to mention, one night we counted seventy five crocodiles in on lake.

In the end, I understood the importance of snakes to the rain forest. One benefit would be, snakes control the population of rats very effectively. Another benefit I found to be extremely useful was the recognition of which snakes are deadly (venomous) and which snakes are not.

I never thought that I was going to be working with venomous snakes one day. It most certainly taught me the discipline of “being in the moment” and “focused”. I would try to be as focused as possible and try not to think about anything else but what I was doing when being around or handling venomous snakes.

Once I learned the personality or characteristics of a particular snake and met one in the wild, I would feel fairly comfortable knowing what its movements will most likely be. Most venomous snakes would like nothing better than to get away from us. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out like that as we are the ones that do not know we are approaching them.

I have done this for years and am extremely grateful for the experience and knowledge. I have to say that this is a very dangerous past-time or occupation.

If it is too cold, they will basically stop eating as their metabolism almost comes to a halt and they become very inactive.

I would always advise people not to sit on rocks in the rain forest. It may be relaxing to absorb the forest, but we will never hear a snake approaching. Before we know it, there is a snake at our feet. These snakes have stealth, camouflage and amazing senses.

Pit vipers act like super computers. They can calculate with extreme accuracy. This is due to the pits you see usually just ahead of their eyes. These pits tell them what is approaching and the size of the object. They also give accuracy of a guided heat seeking missile when striking a target. Pit vipers also have the ability like other snakes to feel vibration from a great distance. They know you are coming long before you see them, if you see them at all.

They are not fooled easily either. If I used a branch to distract a snake, its focus is never taken off me. It does not even look at the branch, even if I nudge it with the branch.

Here is were their heat detection comes into play. They know what is producing heat. I also think their senses go further than that. I did an experiment with a heat lamp and an electric barbecue lighter as heat sources. Wherever I held the heat source, it did not change the snakes focus. The snakes focus would still remain on me.

I learned that the pit vipers can see a difference between artificial heat and body heat. Although I have seen the snakes have no preference when it came to warm up their own body heat. They will use anything that is warm for bringing their bodily temperatures up when needed.

This also proves to be very effective as night vision for the pit viper. They can see any living thing that produces heat day or night. Another interesting point I noticed is that even when they use their pits to detect heat, they are not completely dependent on the these pits to detect life as for one I witnessed they recognize other snakes and other reptiles. Which are as well cold blooded.

A clean work space is also just as important. Sometimes, the snakes would flip off the hook stick and land on the floor before we had a chance to put them in a temporary holding tank. A clean floor will not give them a place to slip into making it more difficult to regain control. I would like to mention, that snakes do quite a bit of falling and are quite good at it. I have seen snakes falling or jumping from trees or bush branches many times.

This snake is said to have such a powerful venomous bite, that when a cow is grazing in a field, the snake would tag the cow in the head, usually ending in the death of the cow. This would be a significant loss to a farmer in Guatemala.

There is a saying for this snake, “If you come across this pit viper – reverse your course and leave”. The Fer de Lance has an aggressive behaviour and moves very very fast. It is the largest pit viper I worked with as this one in the photo is almost two meters in length and very stocky. Its bite can deliver a large amount of hemotoxin which most certainly can be fatal. It also proved to me to be the most unpredictable snake that earned my respect when doing maintenance in its tank. It doesn’t just strike at you, it launches at you like an arrow and keeps coming. Hence, its name. This snake is a handful of nightmare and does not make a good pet.

I have come across many of these snakes in Guatemala. I even found a Fer de Lance making its home behind my house. This is not the snake someone wants living next door. This snake has earned a bad reputation in Guatemala and is greatly feared. Many will want to kill this snake on sight, and many have been bitten by this snake trying to kill it.

I injected an antibiotic and applied topical iodine on the wound. When injecting a snake with something like antibiotics, I position the needle between the scales and avoid any organs. It healed nicely, but left a scar.

The constrictor family is definitely a show of strength. The snake in the picture is three metres in length. Any small animal would be considered food. They literally squeeze their prey out of breath and have a nasty bite. The Boa Constrictor seems to be in the gecko family (as I call it) as it can become comfortable with you if you spend a lot of time with it unlike my experience with venomous snakes.

They are not venomous, but I would not recommend large ones as pets. They can be extremely dangerous. I have seen myself a Boa Constrictor attack someone that was trying to pick it up. The snake gave a nasty bite to the face. Their bite is quite painful as they have approximately seventy sharp teeth; the larger the snake, the larger the teeth.

Snakes that grow up in the wild, do not have the massaging that snakes raised in captivity have. I have seen many people make this mistake. These snakes are not accustomed to being handled on a regular basis. I would be extra careful with wild snakes.

This is a beautiful but deadly snake. It is said that the coral snake has an extremely potent neurotoxin. Don’t let their size take away the attention they deserve. The coral snakes venom is so strong, that it only has to scratch your skin when it bites. Many will think that they were not bit directly. About four hours later the venom will start to take effect from a scratch and it may be too late.

What we do if this has happened – we do not wait. We take a scrub pad and under running water scrub the area hard. Our goal is to remove as much venom as possible if not all of it. Then we would make our way to a town with a hospital, just in case some venom entered our blood. If nothing happened it becomes a shopping trip. I have studied a few coral snakes and one thing I found interesting is what they eat.

In my experience it would not eat frogs or lizards. It preferred small venomous snakes. It would bite the snake right behind its head (very strategic) and hold on until it is dead. Then swallow the whole snake, head first. This snake is important to the rain forest as a population control of other (venomous) snakes.

This is a beautiful snake that always looks like it is angry. It was one of the more calmer venomous snakes I had to work with. It is very easily recognized because of its beautiful orange stripe that goes right down its spine. It is not very large unlike their brother, the Hognosed Pit Viper which is much stockier. I have only seen these snakes at a length of about sixty centimetres. Its fangs are equipped with hemotoxin venom.

So, size in the venomous snake world does not matter. A bite from this snake can cause serious problems including death. The Yucatan Hognosed Pit Viper enjoys a mouse for a meal about every three days during the summer. This snake as well loves the cover of leaves, making it very difficult to spot in the rain forest.

The Beaded Lizard can be found in Mexico and Guatemala. The brother of this lizard is the smaller in size Gila Monster. There is something unique to these two lizards, they are venomous. When this lizard bites it delivers a hemotoxin venom which is in its saliva. It will usually hold on to its bitten victim ensuring a venom delivery. Now, I will say in my experience this lizard is usually very calm and I was able to handle him easily with my leather gloves on. I have heard if this lizard is poked or probed, he will bite.

I only fed this lizard uncooked scrambled eggs which seemed to be the food of choice. I have tried certain reptiles and even small rodents, but the chicken egg was the winner. The home we built was filled with all kinds of hiding spots for him. It included an empty turtle shell which became his favourite spot to be. He basically moved around at a relaxed pace, but he has demonstrated that he can be very fast when he wants to. The lizard in the photo had a role in a popular television show.

Scorpions are everywhere in Guatemala. The most common are of the Tityus species. Although I have seen what looks like a Bark scorpion as I have seen scorpions that have a gold tan transparent colour with a hint of purple or red to the bodies and they were not that big.

The Tityus scorpion is fairly large and black with possibly tan coloured legs. I would find these everywhere, including my bed sheets in the morning. I had to become used to their behaviours. In the day, it is too hot for them, so they would look for a cooler place like under a rock or my house. At night it would be too cool for them, so they would look for a warmer place like under leaves or my house. I have learned that scorpions are determined to get to where they want to go. I have tried to seal my house from them, only to hear them trying to squeeze through a small opening.

A sting and venom from a scorpion is painful to humans, as well as possibly fatal. Especially if one is prone to allergic reactions. I have seen a young kitten run up to a scorpion, and the scorpion stung the kitten. The kitten died.