Crotalus molossus.
What comes to mind when you imagine a snake? A rattler hissing and shaking its tail, ready to strike? A coral snake and the common identification rhyme “Red touches black, venom lack. Red touches yellow, kill a fellow”? Do you coil (pun intended) in fear? You’re not alone. Fear of snakes ranks in the top phobias for adults. This fear is called “ophidiophobia,” and is one of the most common under “herpetophobia,” a fear of reptiles.
The origins of this fear sometimes are not terribly clear. Anthropologist Lyne Isabel argues that ophidiophobia is an unconscious evolutionary reaction we developed during our time as primates when our main predators were snakes. Primates actually have snake-specific recognition mechanisms. Indeed, many primates will preemptively attack and sometimes kill snakes, even if the reptile poses no harm. Humans today certainly don’t shun this practice either.
While some large species of snakes can consume human beings, it is extremely rare. Fear of being bitten by a venomous snake is perhaps more understandable than that of being eaten by one, but the odds of being bitten by a venomous snake in the U.S. are estimated at 1 in 37,500, and the vast majority of these bites are not fatal. Keep in mind a much more life-threatening activity: driving your car. In 2019, the odds of being killed in a car accident during your lifetime are far more frightening at 1 in 107, yet very few of us are terrified of cars or driving. The Washington Post published a 2015 article that puts the likelihood of death by snake into a rather interesting perspective, as in, you are more likely to be killed by a cow than by a snake.
Some researchers think the evolutionary explanation of ophidiophobia isn’t everything. It doesn’t explain why fear of other predators like big cats or wolves doesn’t rank in our top phobias. In this case, our modern fear of snakes is not just about evolution, but also what stories we tell about them in our cultures, through news or word-of-mouth, good or bad, true or not.
Let’s go back in time a bit to early human culture. As mythological symbols, they are one of the oldest and most widespread. These symbols weren’t always negative. In Ancient Crete, they were worshipped as guardians, associated with regeneration and their Great Goddess in her birth mysteries. The Hopi performed annual ritual dances with live snakes to celebrate the union of two spirits: Snake Girl and Snake Youth, and would release the snakes into their fields to assure good crops. Kundalini, which is a form of divine feminine energy in Hinduism, is represented through a coiled snake. Many other cultures also see the snake as a symbol of rebirth, associated with the snake’s sloughing of their skin. They are also symbols of sexual desire. The deified Greek physician Asklepios, as god of medicine and healing, carried a staff with a serpent wrapped around it. This has become the symbol of modern medicine.
The psychoanalyst Joseph Lewis Henderson and the ethnologist Maude Oakes have argued that the serpent is a symbol of initiation and rebirth precisely because it is also a symbol of death; this less reassuring idea seems to be what modern humans focus on exclusively.
human features we focus on: the motionless stare, the scales, and of course, those fangs. What is a snake without fangs? Still a snake, it turns out. Herpetologist Dr. Harry Greene gave a fascinating talk that corrects some of the common misconceptions about things like a snake’s dental realities. Only about 20% of snakes actually have fangs. About 50% of other snakes without fangs mimic the behaviors of venomous ones that do, suggesting there is an evolutionary advantage to behaving like a venomous species. Evidence suggests that the evolution of fangs has helped facilitate the diversification of snakes.
Fangs evolved to deliver venom for immobilizing and digesting prey. Almost all venomous snakebites are inflicted by pit vipers. Here in the Lone Star State, this group includes ten types (species or subspecies) of rattlesnakes, three types of copperheads, and the cottonmouth. When they bite, they inject venom to immobilize and digest prey.
But just because a snake has fangs and venom does not mean it’s rearin’ to bite anything that passes by. Pygmy rattlesnakes and massasaugas are reclusive. Copperheads are docile and only bite when stepped on or prodded. Despite the reputation of cottonmouths being prone to chasing people (they don’t) they are the least likely of all pitvipers to bite. The Mojave rattlesnake, often considered to have the most virulent of rattlesnake venoms, are like desert hermits, often living in inhospitable parts of the Trans-Pecos.
Also, not all pit vipers actually have massive stores of venom. Pygmy rattlesnakes and massasaugas have little venom. No pit viper is capable of squeezing out more than a quarter of its capacity per bite.
This isn’t to downplay the seriousness of a snake bite. But in most cases, people overreact. Many attempted medical remedies actually cause more damage than good. An old but still relevant article in the Texas Monthly describes various dangerous tactics people have employed. One method includes cutting open the site of the wound, which doesn’t alter the body’s reaction and can cause a loss of limb. An anticoagulant in the venom of pit vipers makes it hard to stop the bleeding. Another method is “ligature cryotherapy,” which is chilling the wound site after applying a tourniquet. The intention is to isolate and slow the venom. What actually happens is that the limb does not receive proper circulation, and tissue is destroyed from exposure to very cold temperatures. Think frostbite.
But make no mistake. Being bit by a venomous snake, even when one leaves the bite alone and seeks medical care, isn’t a walk in the park. The site of the bite may swell, bruise, and be painful, and envenomation can cause nausea, tremors, clammy skin and vomiting. What’s actually going on at the cellular level is that tissues are being digested by powerful enzymes.
What’s the best way to avoid all this? Just use common sense. Be aware of your surroundings if you are outside, and it may seem obvious, but don’t stick your hand into dark holes. While many of us may not worship snakes or see them as guardians, it’s completely possible to rethink them as more than just beasts with a bite. They, in fact, play a very important role in biodiversity and ecological balance, in addition to biomedical research.
When it comes to the environment, they are predators and thus keep populations of things like rodents under control. Rodents do all sorts of damage to crops, and are carriers of many zoonotic diseases like hantavirus that affect humans. Snakes help keep this in check.
But snakes too are food sources for animals that are ophiophagus, meaning, animals that eat snakes. Some of these animals include hawks and skunks.
Snakes also facilitate something called “secondary seed dispersal,” which means when they eat something that eats seeds, these seeds pass through the snake’s digestive tract intact. This assists with plant dispersal.
Finally, snakes are important sources of medicines. There are many drugs derived from snake venom that benefit us. Some of these medicines target diseases or conditions like hypertension, cardiac failure, sciatica, and angina.
Thanks to Tom Devitt, Research Scientist in the Department of Integrative Biology, for his edits on this article.
Sources:
Beri D, Bhaumik S. - Snakes, the ecosystem, and us: it’s time we change. The George Institute of Global Health. July 2021. Available online at www.georgeinstitute.org. The article is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Fritscher, Lisa. “Ophidophobia and the fear of snakes” Very Well Mind. (accessed online https://www.verywellmind.com/ophidiophobia-2671873)
Ingraham, Christopher. “Chart: The animals that are most likely to kill you.” The Washington Post, June 16, 2015. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/16/chart-the-animals-that-are-most-likely-to-kill-you-this-summer/)
Leahy, Stephen. “Man Bitten By Shark, Bear, and Snake Had Odds of 893 Quadrillion to One.” National Geographic, April 27, 2018.
Odds of Dying, National Safety Council, (https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/all-injuries/preventable-death-overview/odds-of-dying/)
Snakes are Dangerous! With Harry Green, Snakes are Everything, episode 4. July 16, 2021 (https://www.snakes.ngo/snakes-are-dangerous/)
Tennet, Alan “Fangs” Texas Monthly, July 1981.
