Venomous Snake Warning

Gemma you mean where there are no snakes not beds keith

Edited by AGILIS - 25 May 2012 at 8:47pm

GemmaJF wrote: Can't the HPA do something useful like ban staircases? Apparently one of the largest causes of death and personal injury in the UK. It is now an established fact that nearly as many deaths occur in the home as in road accidents. Many of these deaths are due to falls, half of which involve stairs. There you have it, a clear thing for the HPA to do. That can keep them busy instead of wasting money scaremongering regarding wild snakes in the UK which have accounted for, lets think, eeer.....  exactly zero deaths in the past 100 years...

Injury from falls is right i would say

I remember when I fell off a gate back in 2006 and I was off work for at least 6 weeks, and when I went back to work I was still limited in what I could do. I apparently snapped a ligament in my knee and was very lucky it wasn't more serious than that (hospital staff said i was very lucky).

Can't imagine anything worse than that to be honest but it happened right in the middle of the survey season a

Top tip for prevention:
Don't climb over a gate if you can open it, especially if you are tired!!!!

Accident could have been prevented def but i was too lazy to open the gate....

Was just annoyed by people ringing  me constantly on the mobile, despite me saying i was off sick at the time.

cheers

regards
SE Reptile Ecologist

Well just back from a scorching boot sale this morning ,On the way going there at 6am radio Suffolk news reported that the Suffolk wild life trust is playing down their snake bite warning that they put out a few days a go, because of this hot weather according to them brings loads of snakes out I think its the opposite ,what a load of panic stricken bloody cretins to think these people hold some form of authority within the wild life trust, I am sure their raising the alarm has done a world of good within the public vigilantes beating the heaths with their anti snake sticks to rid us of dangerous beasts that lurk threatening their dogs and kids on a hot day keith

Edited by AGILIS - 27 May 2012 at 11:04am

26 degC on Mendip and definitely not the best conditions to see herps.  I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye of (I think) a Common Lizard and also what was probably a female Adder disappearing very quickly.  Otherwise diddly.

I did though see a superb pair of Redstarts - my first for about 20 years.

This snake bite scaremongering is similar to the bad press that sharks get.  Periodically a holiday maker will see a Basking Shark off a Cornish beach and assume it's a Great White.  Of course the newspapers love that, as "Benign Plankton Eater Seen Off Coast (Which is Actually Quite a Common Occurence)" isn't much of a headline.

I went to a lecture by the Shark Trust, about shark attacks in the UK.  Not surprisingly there've been very few.  As I recall the only fatality was many years ago when (probably) a Basking Shark knocked a small boat and someone drowned as a result.

Other UK shark attacks include a pub landlady who received head wounds, when a stuffed shark fell off the wall and onto her.  Then there was a chef who was driving to a resaurant with a 2m Porbeagle on ice in the back of his van.  When he braked sharply it shot forward and its teeth gashed his arm.

People kill 70 to 100 million sharks each year, primarily for their fins.  The fins are cut off and the sharks thrown back into the water to die.

Is there nobody or no body that could be lobbied to help protect British herps?  What about the HCT and/or Amphibian and Reptile Conservation people?  Apologies if I've missed reference to these organisations.



Edited by tim-f - 27 May 2012 at 7:04pm

Chris:  Think you should be ok, unless you are sleeping in a tent.

Gemma; That is very sad, and a reason why I don't want to move into the conservation sector, because they haven't got a clue on the needs for reptiles.

Regards
SE Reptiles Ecologist