OUTDOOR CORNER: SNAKES UNABLE TO SHED IMAGE

Ask most people to tell you how many different kinds of snakes there are in Missouri and they will tell you that they don't have any idea. Unfortunately, there are those who would answer the question by telling you that there are only two kinds of snakes in the entire world: there are snakes that are alive and then there are snakes that are dead. These same people are usually quick to inform you that the dead snakes are the "good" ones.

The notion that certain animals are "good" while others are "bad" (or evil) should not be applied to wild creatures. Because humans have the ability to think and reason, we make choices and distinguish between right and wrong (good and bad). Wild animals, on the other hand, act purely from instinct. Their actions are the result of thousands, often millions, of years of evolution and heredity. Still, we humans tend to look at other creatures and judge their behavior by human standards.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the general public perception of snakes. Since Biblical times, snakes have generally been portrayed as bad or evil. We grow up reading books, watching movies or television and listening to horror stories involving slithery, slimy, creepy, crawly creatures that lie in wait for some helpless victim to pass by.

Much of the fear that people experience toward snakes is because they are so very different from us. They are reptiles and therefore related to turtles and lizards, but snakes don't have legs and feet. Snakes don't have eyelids either. Instead their eyes are protected by a clear, non-movable scale so they don't blink. They don't even breathe like we do. Most snakes have an elongated right lung and either no left lung or, at best, a rudimentary one.

Snakes eat other animals but don't have arms and hands to hold their prey. Although some snakes literally "eat their prey alive," many species kill by constriction (squeezing to death) and a few by injecting venom.

Another difference between humans and snakes is that snakes are cold blooded. This means that they don't have a "normal"body temperature like humans. A snake's temperature will be the same as its surroundings. During the hot summer days, snakes often lay in shady areas to avoid over-heating.

They move about and hunt for food at night when temperatures are more moderate. As fall progresses, and temperatures decline, we see changes in their behavior. Cool temperatures at night cause them to become more active during daylight hours when temperatures are at their highest. This increase in daytime movement is not so much for finding food as its is for locating a site to spend the winter.

Because the snake's body temperature will continue to drop to the temperature of its surroundings, it must find a location that will protect it from freezing to death. Some snakes take up residence in vacated dens or holes left by other animals.

Snakes that spend the summer months along waterways, such as the Mississippi River, have adapted their behavior in order to survive. They actually migrate to higher elevations in order to avoid the frequent spring floods. Rock bluffs along the river also provide crevices and cavities that allow large numbers of snakes to congregate in a single location. Adult snakes moving to these den sites actually leave a scent trail that allows young snakes to follow them to the location thereby ensuring a large number of individuals at each location.

Snakes of different species literally intertwine into a living ball to share body heat and to retain moisture through the cold, low humidity winter months.

In southeast Missouri, visitors to Mingo National Wildlife Refuge, near Puxico, often observe a wide variety of snakes crossing the auto tour route as they migrate from the low-lying swamps to the adjacent bluffs. In southern Illinois, the Pine Bluff area of the Shawnee National Forest has so many snakes migrating out of the Mississippi River bottoms that some roads are closed to vehicular traffic.

For more information about snakes, the Missouri Department of Conservation has two excellent publications written by Mr. Tom Johnson, MDC Herpetologist. They are "Snakes of Missouri" and "Snakes and People." Both are available upon request from the Department. Write: Missouri Department of Conservation, 2302 County Park Drive, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701.

~Gene Myers is a Missouri Conservation Agent in Cape Girardeau County.