Wild man Andrew Ucles catches a handful of highly venomous snakes to for use in flushing out a wild rabbit. Hare-raising, indeed.
… Read the rest
Tag Archives | Snakes
The Care and Maintenance of ‘Satan’
I used to have a terrible snake phobia. It took about a year of concentrated effort to rid myself of it. These days, I’m not afraid of snakes at all, with the exception of one particular snake known as “Satan”. Satan is sixteen feet of very ill-tempered Burmese python that has become the unlikely mascot of YouTube program Snake Bytes TV. Check out Satan’s care regimen for a taste of what the guys have to deal with on a regular basis.
Florida Launches ’2013 Python Challenge’
Picture: CGrapes429 (PD): Burmese Python in Florida Everglades
Rednecks: When you absolutely, positively, got to kill every motherf*ckin’ python in the swamp, accept no substitutes.
Burmese pythons have been threatening Florida’s ecosystem for years, so the state is turning to the public for help in the form of a hunting contest to cull the population.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has announced the 2013 Python Challenge beginning in January.
“We are hoping to gauge from the python challenge the effectiveness of using an incentive-based model as a tool to address this problem,” says Florida Wildlife Commission spokeswoman Carli Segelson.A grand prize of $1,500 will be awarded to the person who kills the most pythons, and $1,000 will go to the person who bags the longest one. According to the rules, road kill will not be eligible.
Participants will pay a $25 registration fee and complete an online training course.
Iran and America Joined at the Hip by Snake Venom Antidote
Picture: Julie Anne Workman (CC)
When the US government needs anti-venin effective against Afghanistan’s venomous snakes (there’s eight species, by the way) it turns to Iran…
The US leads the charge when it comes to economic sanctions against Iran—but when American soldiers’ health is at stake, the military is willing to do a little business with the Islamic republic. Iran produces antivenin against the poisonous snakes of Afghanistan; our own antivenins are toothless against such bites, as they’re made from domestic species. Working through a middleman, the US has bought 115 $310 vials of the stuff since January 2011, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Journal’s reporting has prompted a military review to see whether the practice violates sanctions rules. If so, a government waiver may be needed.
Check your tourniquet and keep reading.… Read the rest
Japanese Snake Robot Swims Into Your Nightmares
The Snake Venom That’s Better Than Morphine
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One wonders what a Black Mamba high might be like (although the story seems to suggest there might not be one) … from BBC News:
A painkiller as powerful as morphine, but without most of the side-effects, has been found in the deadly venom of the black mamba, say French scientists.
The predator, which uses neurotoxins to paralyse and kill small animals, is one of the fastest and most dangerous snakes in Africa.
However, tests on mice, reported in the journal Nature, showed its venom also contained a potent painkiller.
They admit to being completely baffled about why the mamba would produce it.
The researchers looked at venom from 50 species before they found the black mamba’s pain-killing proteins – called mambalgins.
Dr Eric Lingueglia, from the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology near Nice, told the BBC: “When it was tested in mice, the analgesia was as strong as morphine, but you don’t have most of the side-effects.”
Morphine acts on the opioid pathway in the brain.
Rock, Rock, Rock Python!
According to the UK’s Mirror News, a couple on safari picked up an unwanted hitchhiker: a 16 foot-long rock python. The car’s owner flipped the hood and waited for it to exit the vehicle, thereby crossing what I call the “Oh, hell no!” barrier.
Rock pythons are a relatively common form of constrictor found in Africa’s tropical jungles, where they commonly reach lengths of 20 feet. While the rock python, like most snakes, normally avoids contact with human beings, when cornered they can quickly become aggressive. There are several documented incidences of the species killing and even consuming people, mostly children. Despite this, they’re readily available in the American pet trade, a fact that came under national scrutiny following the 2009 death of a two year-old child that was strangled in her bed by her mother’s boyfriend’s escaped python.
Rock pythons, like several other breeds of exotic constrictors, have established breeding populations in the Florida everglades.… Read the rest
Read this Proclamation to the Snake Worshipers! This Practice Must Stop!
- Handling serpents at the Pentecostal Church of God. Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946 (Photographer: Russell Lee)
American Evangelicalism is best know these days for its brash political pandering and social engineering attempts, but deep in the Appalachian mountains the tantric tremor of serpents and strichnine has been a staple of worship in some churches since 1910 when George Went Hensley brought the practice of snake handling to his pastorage of the Cleveland Church of God in Cleveland, Tennessee.
Dismissed by the orthodox on all sides, scientific, skeptical and religious, these folks cook up some of the best rockabilly that you’ll ever hear (check out the Jolo, West Virginia snake handling clips on YouTube if you don’t believe me) and the only trouble they cause is usually one of their own members dying from a snake bite. The extreme nature of their rites reflects the dismal living conditions that attend the areas where these churches find a home.… Read the rest
What Snake Venom Does to Blood
From YouTube user fragancemad (thanks @timfbmx and @joerogan for tweeting):
I was doing some research for Cobra parfum by Jeannes Arthes and came across this video about snake venom by mistake – it’s so incredible that I just had to upload it to YouTube. Basically, a single drop of this venom (from a Russell’s viper) is dripped onto a petri dish of blood, and in seconds the blood clots into a thick chunk of solid matter.
Serpent-Handling West Virginia Pastor Dies From Snake Bite
Handling serpents at the Pentecostal Church of God in 1946.
Reports Arlette Saenz on ABC News:
A “serpent-handling” West Virginia pastor died after his rattlesnake bit him during a church ritual, just as the man had apparently watched a snake kill his father years before.
Pentecostal pastor Mark Wolford, 44, hosted an outdoor service at the Panther Wildlife Management Area in West Virginia Sunday, which he touted on his Facebook page prior to the event.
“I am looking for a great time this Sunday,” Wolford wrote May 22, according to the Washington Post. “It is going to be a homecoming like the old days. Good ‘ole raised in the holler or mountain ridge running, Holy Ghost-filled speaking-in-tongues sign believers.”
Robin Vanover, Wolford’s sister, told the Washington Post that 30 minutes into the outdoor service, Wolford passed around a poisonous timber rattlesnake, which eventually bit him…
