The Fate of Serpents

Explanation: Such is the fate of serpents in the jungle. The stars of this week's photos are Olive House Snakes (sometimes also called Forest House Snakes).

Although these snakes may bite easily, they are essentially harmless and usually good-natured. They feed at night on small mammals, including rodents, so they may actually be beneficial to have near villages.

I encountered these wonderful serpents on a trail outside a village in western Democratic Republic of the Congo. They had just been clubbed to death by a local villager who did not know they were harmless and even potentially beneficial.

When living in dense forest, one needs to be extremely careful if encountering any snake. Especially in tropical Africa, many snakes can be highly venomous and extremely dangerous, particularly if they occur within villages, as they can readily enter the huts at night.

I could not fault the man who dispatched these beautiful reptiles, nor can I expect villagers to know how to identify snake species and their attributes.

This snake could be identified to species because the scales
under the tail -- the so-called subcaudals -- are undivided.
The belly (ventral) scales are yellowish, the eyes red, and
the back (dorsal) scales are smooth and olive-brown
or blackish.

I later had the idea of producing a set of plastic-coated field cards with photos, names, and information on the snakes of the region, as way to educate the residents and avoid unnecessary carnage ... but quickly realized that such a plan would likely fail for several reasons. Few people encountering a snake would likely have the field cards with them, nor would they take time to identify the species. Also, it would be virtually impossible to create and distribute the cards to the multitude of villages that are so incredibly isolated.

And mostly, the people there have a deeply ingrained -- and understandable -- fear of snakes that no such information kit could ever overcome.

Such is the fate of serpents in the jungle and the daily life of its human residents.

EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week