SNAKES and SPIDERS
The good, the bad and – let’s face it, to many people, they’re all ugly.
Sean Poppy, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL) Outreach Program, is the guest speaker at the March 29th Transplants Garden Club meeting at 7 PM in the Town Center/Athletic Club.
Sean will bring live animals to help us learn about snakes and spiders native to South Carolina. We will learn how snakes are an integral part of our native wildlife, how to distinguish venomous from harmless snakes, and how to co-exist peacefully with these amazing creatures. Sean will also bring the only venomous spider we need to worry about: a black widow. All venomous animals will be secured in locked cages.
If the thought of live snakes makes you nervous, please take a moment to read this excerpt from “People Have Many Views about Snakes” by Whit Gibbons.
Snakes are a maligned group of animals. Part of their problem stems from being misunderstood; that is, most people know little about the basic biology of snakes. Understandably, being unfamiliar with something you think could hurt you leads to distrust and ill feeling.
Indeed, most Americans grow up with some mixture of fear and fascination about snakes. But I disagree with anyone who claims that humans have an innate or instinctive fear of snakes. Irrational fear of snakes is almost certainly taught, not inherited. And children can be taught to fear anything. Knowledge is the best cure of fear caused by ignorance.
To read more about the Savannah River Ecology Lab, visit their website where the left menu has links to the Outreach Program or visit the SREL Herpetology home page.