While The Nature Conservancy works on complex global issues, the top stories of Cool Green Science are consistently about bird feeding, suburban wildlife conflict and common creatures like deer and earthworms. Local wildlife – the creatures that share our backyards and city parks – are of extremely high interest to readers of this blog. No matter what your opinion on snakes, it’s hard to argue with Steen’s breakdown of what the evidence actually says, whether on snake size or aggressiveness or mating habits. If you want me to believe something that is inconsistent with what we know about the world, then I will require evidence.”Įvidence, as I’ve written previously on this blog, is not a story of a ten-foot rattlesnake told by a slightly inebriated guy at the bar. “I generally do not frame conversations on snake myths to suggest whether something is possible or not but on whether something is consistent with what we know about the world or inconsistent with what we know. He does not dismiss wild anecdotes outright but explains his approach: Can you tell if a snake is venomous by the shape of its head, or of its pupils? Will cottonmouths chase you down or hop into your boat? Can you tell how old a rattlesnake is by the number of rattles? You may well think you know the answers to all these questions, but Steen shows what the best evidence suggests. Secrets of Snakes is organized by common questions Steen has heard about snakes. Photo © Chris Helzer / The Nature Conservancy Plains garter snake on gravel road on a warm spring day, Stockham, Nebraska. He also knows how passionately people will defend their snake anecdotes. He knows the most common snake myths because he’s heard them hundreds if not thousands of times. He writes for his audience’s needs, a lesson that unfortunately even many self-proclaimed science communicators never learn. ![]() ![]() I believe Steen’s interactions on social media help make this book so readable and relevant. And he began sharing what the science actually showed. He saw the same folklore repeated as established fact. He heard outlandish stories highly unlikely to be true. But folklore and legend are not science.Īs Steen blogged and became a popular biologist on Twitter, he encountered repeated requests for snake identification. Snake tales get passed from one generation to the next. They have appeared as central characters in our stories pretty much from the time we started telling stories. They’re one of the most recognizable creatures, regardless of geography. A side gig writing a nature column for a newspaper turned into a blog, Living Alongside Wildlife, that often addressed his favorite topic: snakes. He simply had a lifelong love of poking around swamps, and a curiosity about the creatures around him. Photo © Matt ModlinĪs a wildlife biologist, Steen didn’t set out to be a science communicator. It is hard to imagine a nature book being more fun. But Steen breaks down each myth, each story, in a breezy yet informative manner. Many of the myths in here you have likely heard, repeatedly. Which means this adage is basically worthless for snake identification.įortunately, wildlife biologist and science communicator David Steen has taken the most common snake myths, tall tales and snake safety rules and applied real science to them in his wildly entertaining Secrets of Snakes: The Science Beyond the Myths (Texas A&M University Press). It turns out the “Red on yellow, red on black” rule we all learned only works for some snakes, some of the time. It’s lucky I wasn’t inclined to pick up the snake, as I might have received a very nasty surprise. ![]() Every member of our varied group, including the guide, nodded in approval. ![]() “Red on black, friend of Jack,” I said, repeating a snake-safety rule I learned in school. In fact, I recall a dream trip to the Amazon Basin when our group came upon a snake on a night hike. A lot of what you know about snakes is probably wrong.
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