In a message dated 2/8/05 10:53:11 PM Eastern Standard Time,
tomory@XTRA.CO.NZ writes:
<< Having come from Africa,where like many other countries, snakes are a
normal part of life, Tony and I were quite astonished at the deep fears
Kiwi folk seem to have of snakes of any kind. To them there are no
harmless snakes, but all are ravening monsters lying in wait to pursue
them and bite them. >>
For some reason this seem to be an inborn fear. Look ot the form the devil
supposedly took in the garden of eden to tempt Eve.
Mary Ann
James Allan wrote:
> Would you like me to ship you a pair:>) They love rodents.
> On 6 Feb 2005 at 20:00, John D'hondt wrote:
> There is a good side to everything. No snakes in Ireland but we
> have plenty of rodents eating crops. I'd gladly exchange our rats
> for your rattle snakes.
NZ is another country which has no snakes at all, even harmless ones,
though Australia just across the Tasman sea, has plenty, some very
poisonous.
It is absolutely forbidden here to import or keep a snake, though over
the years a few folks have attempted to bring in some of the harmless
ones, but all these have met their end at the hands of Authority.
We do get a flurry of alarm from time to time when some snake either
from OZ or Asia attemts illegal entry by hiding in a shipping container
and one rare old scare occurred in Wellington a few years ago when some
joker laid out a cast skin in the Wellington Botanic gardens for the
staff to discover. You can imagine the frenzued activity that caused!
Having come from Africa,where like many other countries, snakes are a
normal part of life, Tony and I were quite astonished at the deep fears
Kiwi folk seem to have of snakes of any kind. To them there are no
harmless snakes, but all are ravening monsters lying in wait to pursue
them and bite them.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ.
Want to know all about NZ? See the world's first National On-line
Encyclopedia!
--=======AVGMAIL-420A9161469F======= Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=------------090907050909000202070008 --------------090907050909000202070008 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I'm like those Kiwi folk. I don't even want a rubber snake near me! Lynne > normal part of life, Tony and I were quite astonished at the deep fears > Kiwi folk seem to have of snakes of any kind. To them there are no > harmless snakes, but all are ravening monsters lying in wait to pursue > them and bite them. >> > > > --------------090907050909000202070008 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I'm like those Kiwi folk. I don't even want a rubber snake near me!
Lynne
Having come from Africa,where like many other countries, snakes are a normal part of life, Tony and I were quite astonished at the deep fears Kiwi folk seem to have of snakes of any kind. To them there are no harmless snakes, but all are ravening monsters lying in wait to pursue them and bite them.
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In a message dated 2/9/05 6:15:37 PM Eastern Standard Time, dhondt@EIRCOM.NET
writes:
<< It is easy to understand that the autorities are wary of snakes in NZ. You
have such a specialised avifauna that snakes could do major damage. In
Ireland there is hardly an ecological impact to be expected. The country is
too cold for snakes in the wild and there is hardly any wild fauna left in
many places thanks to unlimited cat procreation mostly.
john >>
How could Ireland be too cold for snakes when we have them here in New York?
We get a heck of a lot colder than Ireland.
Mary Ann
It is easy to understand that the autorities are wary of snakes in NZ. You
have such a specialised avifauna that snakes could do major damage. In
Ireland there is hardly an ecological impact to be expected. The country is
too cold for snakes in the wild and there is hardly any wild fauna left in
many places thanks to unlimited cat procreation mostly.
john
> It is easy to understand that the autorities are wary of snakes in NZ. Y=
ou
> have such a specialised avifauna that snakes could do major damage. In
> Ireland there is hardly an ecological impact to be expected. The country=
is
> too cold for snakes in the wild and there is hardly any wild fauna left =
in
> many places thanks to unlimited cat procreation mostly.
> john
> --
Whacha sayin=B4John? Too cold in Ireland, that balmy country with palms n=
o less!
Freezing Denmark has 2-3 snake varieties that do great. They just hiberna=
te like all cold-blooded animals do (I think). One is mildly poisonous, o=
ne is a green garter snake, one a water snake.
Carol
Gosh, John, wild snakes (including rattlesnakes) survive our 25?? below zero
temperatures, and I'm sure Ireland doesn't get that cold. BTW, rattlers
snuggle up in some secluded place, there may be hundreds of them in a ball,
hibernating through the cold. So folks looking for rattlesnakes to provide
venom for medications literally "sniff them out," and roll the ball of them
into a large box (such as for pianos)for shipment to a lab. I've heard the
smell of a ball of rattlesnakes is quite fetid and noticeable. Margaret L
The country is
East of the Cascades in Washington State, there are plenty of rattlesnakes.
West of the Cascades, none. Some dimwit student at Central Washington State
university did an experiment with rattlesnakes, and when he was finished, he
took them home to Seattle and released them. There was a major stink until
the last one was captured. I hope they fined him sufficiently. Margaret L
The natural fear of snakes might in part might have come from that incident.
Everyone might inherit the fear of the suffering that occurred to Adam and Eve
after they ate the apple.
Behalf Subject: Re: Living with snakes (wasUrban education)
Adders and grass snakes could survive here John. If the common lizard
can
survive, so could they.
***************************************
As would our rattlesnakes and copperheads, not to mention the plethora
of other, non-poisonous snakes that endure the harsh winters of
Pennsylvania. A couple years ago about this time of year, I was walking
down our road and saw a little garter snake sunning himself/herself ON
THE SNOW...it must have been as anxious for spring as I was!
Deb
Adders and grass snakes could survive here John. If the common lizard can
survive, so could they. And the common lizard is found all over Ireland.
Including our polytunnel on occasions.
kathryn
Mary Ann Mikulski wrote:
> How could Ireland be too cold for snakes when we have them here in New York?
> We get a heck of a lot colder than Ireland.
AFAIK, there probably were snakes in Ireland before the last Ice Age,
but that killed them all off and they simply have failed to get back
there again since! (Apologies to any Irish people who still think it is
all due to St Patrick!!!)
Of course - like us here in NZ - they may start to get some snakes
coming in hidden in cargo containers through the ports!
Here the occasional one arrives that way, and there is always a big
"Hoo-Hah!" while the appropriate Ministry gets to work to make sure
there are no more undiscovered ones!
Tony
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ.
Want to know all about NZ? See the world's first National On-line
Encyclopedia!
And there must be loads of rattlesnakes in the Catskills and Adirondacks. They lived in the mountains around my home city, where it got down to -30F just about every winter.
Carol
Whacha sayin??John? Too cold in Ireland, that balmy country with palms no
less!
Freezing Denmark has 2-3 snake varieties that do great. They just hibernate
like all cold-blooded animals do (I think). One is mildly poisonous, one is
a green garter snake, one a water snake.
Carol
We have been over this before Carol. True it does not often freeze badly
here and at the very coast where some palm trees are almost never. Problem
is our summer temperatures that are at least one third lower than in
Denmark.
Perhaps you could send me a couple? I'll keep them inside and safe:))
john
> How could Ireland be too cold for snakes when we have them here in New
York?
> We get a heck of a lot colder than Ireland.
> Mary Ann
Ireland does not get cold enough for hibernation but the temperature would
still be too low for a snake to move and catch prey. And there is not much
difference with our summers. We talk about a heat wave when temperatures
rise above 20C.
People have tried to release European garter snakes in Ireland and all these
attempts have failed.
john
> Adders and grass snakes could survive here John. If the common lizard can
> survive, so could they. And the common lizard is found all over Ireland.
> Including our polytunnel on occasions.
> kathryn
Lacerta muralis is quite scarce here Kathryn. I have only ever seen one
alive here and found two dead with years in between. It is the same for
other animals. I heard from a neighbour about a sighting of a red squirrell
a few miles away about a dozen years ago. Then a few weeks ago I saw my
first and only squirrell here climbing an electricity pole. Not much food up
there then so I have some doubt about the health prospects of the squirrell
population here.
I would love to get a few snakes as pets. Any idea where I can get a few
orfaned adders and/or grass snakes?
john
> It is easy to understand that the autorities are wary of snakes in NZ.
You
> have such a specialised avifauna that snakes could do major damage. In
> Ireland there is hardly an ecological impact to be expected. The country
is
> too cold for snakes in the wild and there is hardly any wild fauna left
in
> Whacha sayin=B4John? Too cold in Ireland, that balmy country with palms =
no
> less!
> Freezing Denmark has 2-3 snake varieties that do great. They just hibern=
ate
> like all cold-blooded animals do (I think). One is mildly poisonous, one=
is
em
> is our summer temperatures that are at least one third lower than in
> Denmark.
> Perhaps you could send me a couple? I'll keep them inside and safe:))
> john
That is true, that snakes love their heat. Our poisonous snake suns itsel=
f starting in April. and you never find it in the shade.
Why is so cold in Ireland? You have the Gulf Steam, don't you? We don't. =
Our only saving grace is that it often blows from the east, Russia, prett=
y hot in summer.
Carol
In a message dated 2/12/05 1:10:55 PM Eastern Standard Time, kmarsh@IOL.IE
writes:
<< My one
and only successful attempt at levitation occurred when I was running down
a field path in Kent and realised that my foot was about to land on a big
sleeping adult - I swear I went up again without any ground contact. >>
ROFLMAO
Mary Ann
Years ago we had a small fire at our house. I was laying on the
floor watching the telly and had fallen asleep. My ex-wife yelled
there was a fire up stairs. She swears I went 20ft. and climed the
stairs without first running across the floor. Two of my boys were
already on their way out having ran through the closet fire and
downstairs to the outside. The third stood safely in his bed room
door way to scared to move. He was only three. I took his hand
fearing if I tried to carry him we would both be in trouble. We
went downstairs and outside. They had to give me a few sniffs of
oxygen. I never smelled the smoke nor could I remember being
affected by it until I was outside. Talk about adrenalin. A lot of
close and stuff that did not burn smelled so bad they were thrown
out.
Had my dad been still living I would bet he could get the smell
out. One thing dad new was how to wash clothes. He had many years
of commercial experience. Didn't read to well but he could wash
clothes.
It doesn't exist officially around here at all John, but practically
everyone I know with an organic polytunnel has met one occasionally in it
and it seems to turn up sometimes on sand dunes and warmer spots such as
Howth Head. How it came to be in our marshy few acres I have no idea and I
know it has been spotted up at Bellewstown race track which is the coldest
spot for miles around.
We too saw a red squirrel about a dozen years ago but they seem to have
disappeared locally now - plenty of greys of course which is probably why
the reds are gone. I wish I knew someone with spare grass snakes. We always
seemed to have them in the compost heaps in my Yorkshire girlhood - I think
that was the only place warm enough for them that far north. My brother
still gets them in his moorland garden, much colder and wetter than ours.
I'm not sure I would like adders around the place - I know they don't have
enough venom to kill a healthy adult but I'm still nervous of them. My one
and only successful attempt at levitation occurred when I was running down
a field path in Kent and realised that my foot was about to land on a big
sleeping adult - I swear I went up again without any ground contact.
kathryn
- plenty of greys of course which is probably why
> the reds are gone.
No greys at all here so far here and really I thought that the greys
outcompeted the reds because they had a better enzyme to get rid of tannins
in acorns. Where acorns don't make up a major part of the diet there should
not be a major difference between success in the two species. That we have
any squirrells at all is amazing enough. I am almost certain the few we see
spilled over from the Killarney national park. But that means they crossed
30 miles or so of very inhospitable land to get here.
I wish I knew someone with spare grass snakes. We always
> seemed to have them in the compost heaps in my Yorkshire girlhood - I
think
I have some experience with that levitation as well. But on the other hand
there were places in the Ardennes in Belgium where adders were really thick
on the ground and you could sit in between them in the sunshine and they
were very inoffensive and after a while one could stroke them without
getting bitten.
john
