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ASI Newsletter - May 2018

In recent years social media has come in handy with identifying snakes and teaching people more about snakes. Our Facebook page Snakes of South Africa has over 100,000 members and the African Snakebite Institute Facebook page close on 70,000 members. Sadly there is also a lot of misinformation and this travels rapidly via social media and E-mails.

In this ASI newsletter we look at some of the most popular snake myths that regularly do the rounds:

Man “hipnotises” cobra

A video clip of a man 'hypnotising' a cobra has been doing the rounds on the social media for quite some time.

There are a variety of snakes that 'play dead' when threatened, including the Rinkhals, Cape Cobra, Snouted Cobra and Twig snake to mention but a few.

In this video clip it looks like an Egyptian Cobra and the handler puts pressure on the snake as he strokes it (especially in the region of the heart) and the snake immediately shams dead. It is then nonchelantly picked up - a dangerous practise as the snake may strike out unexpectedly. This is risky and not recommended. 

Playing dead is just another self-defence strategy for some snakes. Fleeing is most often the first choice but if that is not possible some snakes spread a hood, inflate their necks, spit their venom, hiss loudly or play dead. Most predators do not eat carrion and prefer to kill their own meal, hence this strategy. The Rinkhals is a master at playing dead and can usually be picked up when doing so but the snake may bite unexpectedly when handled.

Man free handles and kisses Puff Adders

Another popular video and the man free-handling three Puff Adders is reportedly from Northwest Province. Not just does he freely handle and even kiss one of the Puff Adders twice, but he drops one and catches it in mid-air. Many snakes are reluctant to bite and in this video he really pushes his luck. While he is not bitten while  this video was shot, it is only a matter of time before one of these snakes will bite. Not a safe practise at all and certainly not recommended.

Giant Anaconda

There has been a number of films with giant Anacondas and the snake in these photographs is clearly one made for a film set. Although the bulkiest snake in the world, the Anaconda is not the longest (that would be the Reticulated Pythion of Asia at around 7.5 m) and reaches a maximum length of around 6.5 m. Giant snakes do not kill near as many people as is often claimed and in South Africa there is a single documented case of a python killing a young boy who was looking after cattle in the past 100 years or more.

Several photographs of a giant Anaconda have been doing the rounds on social media since 2010. In some of the photographs the snake is on the back of a low-bed truck. High resolution photographs reveal that the items posted are in fact toys.  The images were created for a student project entitled "Vietnam Army caught the giant snake" in 2010, according to www.snopes.com, a popular and credible myth-busting website. While it's possible that the students used a real (but dead) snake for some of the photographs, the animal pictured was definitely not the "world's biggest anaconda." Additional photographs of Anacondas that are not related to the student project are also added from time to time.

In June 2015, a story in which the same photographs were used, also included the following information:

The world's largest Anaconda was caught in Amazon forest. This snake had eaten 257 people & 2325 animals. It is 134 feet long and 2067 kg. This anaconda was caught alive by a long struggle after 37 days and killed by the Royal British commando force. 

The bottom line – just another Facebook hoax.

Puff adders and forced perspective

Myths and hoaxes. Photographs of giant snakes often do the rounds on the social media and new maximum record lengths for snakes are published from time to time - invariably around 10% longer than the known length. In most cases, however, the length of a snake is guessed and then there is forced perception where the snake is held close to the camera and the photograph taken using a wide angle lens. This Puff Adder photograph has been doing the rounds on social media and was reportedly 1.6 m long. In this regard we have good data of Puff Adder lengths for Southern Africa that has been collected by scientists for over 100 years and the maximum length reported for the region is around 1.3 m but much longer elsewhere in Africa (reportedly up to 1.8 m). The largest individual from Zimbabwe/Botswana measured 1.24 m (Snakes of Zimbabwe and Botswana by Broadley and Blaylock).

Harmless vs venomous

Another image doing the rounds on these Facebook groups is this one. 

Telling users how only venomous snakes have a single row of scales after the anal plate, while harmless snakes have dual (or paired scales) after the anal plate. General rule - if you have to look that closely you're in trouble!

This is obviously not true as many of the dangerous snakes in Southern Africa have paired subcaudal scales including the Black Mamba, Green Mamba, Cape Cobra, Vine Snake, Boomslang and Puff Adder to name a few.

6 meter mamba

Snake Myths. A monster 6 m Black Mamba has been doing the rounds on Facebook for the past 7 years, mysteriously appearing in Nelspruit, Richards Bay, the Gautrain construction site, Jwaneng Mine in Botswana, etc.

It was most commonly described as a picture of a snake that escaped in Louisiana when the Morganza Spillway was opened to relieve flooding pressures along the Mississippi River. It has also been circulated with text identifying it as a King Brown snake photographed in New South Wales (NSW), Australia; and a snake (of unidentified species) spotted in "Delray [Beach], near Tamarac, Florida." 

The bottom line is that it is indeed an Australian snake but not a real life example of what may be found there. According to a discussion thread on reddit, the snake is a sculpture situated alongside Uralba Street in Alstonville, NSW, where one of the site's members photographed herself with the artwork in January 2012.

Bottom line - a snake sculpture (see https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/statutory-snake/)

“Poisonous vs non poisonous”

The line illustration pointing out the differences between 'poisonous' and 'non-poisonous' snakes has been doing the rounds on FB and E-mail and may well work for parts of the USA but is not applicable to Africa. Please do not consider it good education. The top photograph is of a Brown House Snake, a common harmless snake in Southern Africa, the bottom photograph is of a Black Mamba, an extremely venomous snake. Snakes that are largely active in the day have round pupils and those that are largely nocturnal have vertical pupils. There is no easy way to distinguish between venomous and harmless snakes.

Baby rattlesnakes “drinking” milk from mother

Another hoax that has gone viral and I have been tagged in over 50 posts containing this photograph. Supposedly a dead Rattlesnake with babies (all dead) trying to suckle from the mother. I find it difficult to believe that some folks actually think it is true.

Rattlesnake and Marijuana Plant

It seems this photograph of a Rattlesnake from the United Snakes has gained viral status. 

We've been inundated with inquiries from people asking for an identification, apparently, the snake is from Boksburg, KZN North Coast, Polokwane, Transkei and Cape Town.

Don't believe everything you read on Facebook!

Snake in Cauliflower

Quite an old photograph of a snake in cauliflower and regularly claimed to be from a supermarket. While too little of the snake is visible for a positive identification it does resemble a harmless Marbled Tree Snake. From time to time snakes are found in the most unusual places while other such photographs are staged by pranksters and then go viral.

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