11/5/2010 Coral Snake Sighting

     My supervisor at work took these two great pictures of a beautiful Florida Coral Snake. Like me he has a respect for native species, so he took the picture and left the snake alone. I don't kill anything native unless I have to. The Coral Snake is America's version of the Cobra. Like Cobras it has a neurotoxin venom (a venom that works on the nervous system).
     Most people bitten by poisonous snakes were trying to kill the snake when bitten. Religious snake handlers bring up the statistics and people like me who handle poisonous snakes make up most of the rest, with true accidental bites being extremely rare. That's why they make such great news. Many more people die each year from domestic dog attacks (33 in 2007, 23 in 2008 and 30 in 2009) than from poisonous snake bites (6 from year 2000 to now).