There's nothing new under the sun. Some animals
suffer human hate and resentment unfairly. They are condemned by
mere prejudices, biases of all kinds and unreasonable traditions. These species
that have the bad luck of coinciding with human beings, are ignorant of these
meetings being fatal for them, and used to finish with the cold-blooded
killing of the animal, without a reason: toads, frogs, lizards, spiders,
snakes, insects, wild beast (the list is unfortunately quite long). Some
evolution psychologists claim that this peculiar hatred is embedded in our most
deep genetic structure, inherited by a long history of bad encounters, where
human beings have had to fight against an extremely hostile environment for
their own survival. But our genes don’t explain a hundred percent our behavior,
no matter what psychologies may say about the question. In other words, our
behavior is dictated not only by genes, but by our education and our own
cultural roots.
In our closest environment, this
happen with water snakes. A diabolical symbol from the very beginning of our
culture heritage, we don’t seem to care too much about the fact that these poor
animals are completely harmless for us. Even my grandmother used to tell me, in
my childhood, that water snakes smell pregnant women’s milk, and slither up the
beds during the night, and suck the liquid from the women’s breast while they
are soundly asleep. These tales were not unusual in the North. Maybe the great
disgrace for the Natrix maura or viperian water snakes, is their slight
similarity to vipers, used as a defense mechanism to scare predators. And what is a cunning strategy
for the survival in a pond or a river, became a terrible handicap when the
little snake face human beings.
Unfortunately, old tales are
still alive, at least in a way. Three days ago we had the great pleasure of
beholding a couple of little water snakes swimming across the channel in the
Parque del Príncipe, haunting frogs and little fish. Like many other occasions,
it was fascinating to observe how the fast swimming of the snakes alerted all
the closest frogs and start to flee at the sight of the predator. Frogs jumped
out the water: they instinctively know that a persecution in the water means certain
death for the amphibian and easy food for the snake.
Two days later we found one of
the snakes in the same place. But this time, the reptile was floating in the
water surface, showing its yellowish belly, swollen and undoubtedly dead. We
decided to take it out of the water, and examine the possible reason of its
death. There was no doubt. The unlucky snake was crushed in the inferior part
of its head, possibly by a wood stick or something similar. Therefore, it
wasn’t death by natural reasons. Someone killed it, out for fear, disgust, or
simply fun. The snake died because of human ignorance or cruelty. I tend to think that this kind of
fatal accidents is almost unavoidable, but why instead of nasty feelings, don’t
we start educating our tastes and preferences, and show some kind of awe and
mercy or even fascination for these particular animals? Instead of reacting in
a violent way, let’s express other more pacific sentiments forwards these
animals that, no need to be said, play an important role in the environment, eating
lot of bugs and insects that we consider a plague.
I can’t help but provide an
explanation that would avoid us to mistake a viper from a water snake. On the
right, we have a water snake’s head, rounded, with a round pupil (like most of
frogs), and flattened nasal orifices. Furthermore, water snakes tend to show
big skin layers in the very end of the mouth and sometimes on its neck. Instead
of this, vipers heads are triangular, their pupils are sticky (like toads), and
their nasal orifices tend to be pointed. Seen as a whole, water snakes´ bodies
are quite thin, with a long whipped tail. vipers, on the contrary, tend to be
fattish, sluggish, and with a short tail.
Some people might reply with the old argument: “I have no time to check
if it’s a viper or a harmless snake, therefore I kill them, just in case”. This
eternal lullaby has been heard for a long time, and it’s worthy to recognize
that viperian snakes look like a viper as a way of defence from predators. But if you find a supposed viper
inside the water, or still better, swimming in the very deep of the pond (as
viperian do), take for granted that it won’t be a viper. Moreover, if we still
listen the “just in case”, you must bear in mind that a Spanish snake will
never attack if it doesn´t feel threatened first. So let’s forget this preventive
war that we are always ready to declare when we meet a beautiful ophidian like
the water snake.
