I place here the following story from yesteryear as a lesson in nature and human stupidity. It is a vital tale of two snakes engaged in combat, and how as stupid child ended up shooting the black snake which preyed upon the rattlesnake.
If people would just stop killing things they do not intend to eat or use, and observe how nature truly works, it would be of benefit to all.
It reminds me of my brother in law and godson who on a hunting trip decided to kill a "snake" and the brother in law who is a dude, had photographed and was showing it off as his apparent daring on an antelope hunt, killing a cold blooded slow snake in the cold.
The snake was a king snake, like the black snake in the story below. These snakes are designed to kill other snakes, especially poisonous snakes that will kill people.
I sat for a time listening to the glare eyed tale. I am a hunter, but I gave up killing things for killing them after as a young child I killed a tree swallow which still pains me, as I was without tutor.
In the silence, I happened to mention that the snake which the brother in law killed, was probably an endangered specie and if the wildlife people found out, there probably would be a large fine involved.
Silence is interesting in the silence which followed being deafening, in soon enough the photo disappeared and so did the bragging along with the story.
Killing for reason is a necessity. Killing because one is too stupid to think beyond reaction is heinous.
I will leave this with the following story as an illustration in you can not bring life back once it is ended no more than you can destroy America and expect it to come back to life again, a corpse is a corpse and a cadaver is a cadaver.
Quote:
Some rocky ground just ahead, amid which grew a number of small trees and bushes, promised to offer us the sort of place we were looking for. We had just reached it, when I, happening to be a little in advance of our Dominie and Dan, saw a squirrel running along the ground towards a tree, with the evident intention of ascending it. We had already as much game as we required, so I refrained from firing. Just as the little creature had gained the foot of the tree, the ominous sound produced by the tail of a rattle-snake reached my ear, and the next instant an unusually large reptile of that species, darting forward, seized the innocent squirrel by the head, and began to draw it down its throat, the hind-legs of the little animal still convulsively moving.
I beckoned to Mr Tidey and Dan, who ran forward to witness the operation, in which I knew they would be much interested. Of course we could quickly have put an end to the snake, though we could not have saved its victim. The reptile had got half the body of the squirrel down its throat, when I saw the long grass close at hand violently agitated, and caught sight of a large black snake moving rapidly through it. The two creatures were well matched as to size. It was the evident intention of the black snake to attack the other. Instead of attempting to escape with its prize, the rattle-snake, though it could not use its venomous fangs, which would have given it an advantage over its opponent, whose teeth were unprovided with a poison-bag, advanced to the encounter. In an instant the two creatures had flown at each other, forming a writhing mass of apparently inextricable coils. In vain the rattle-snake attempted to get down the squirrel so as to use its fangs, the animal sticking in its throat could neither be swallowed nor ejected. The struggle was truly fearful to look at. Round and round they twisted and turned their lithe bodies. In the excitement of the moment we cheered on the combatants, who appeared perfectly heedless of our cries. By the most wonderful movements the rattle-snake managed to prevent the black snake from seizing its neck with its sharp teeth, or coiling its lithe tail round the other.
Had the rattle-snake succeeded in swallowing the little squirrel, one bite with its venomous fangs would have gained it the victory. For some time the result of the combat appeared indecisive. In point of size the two creatures were tolerably well matched, both being upwards of six or seven feet long, with bodies of about equal thickness, but they differed greatly in the shape of their heads, and still more so in the form of their tails, that of the black snake being round and tapering to a fine point, while the thick rattle of the other was clearly discernible as they writhed and twisted round and round, its sound never ceasing while the deadly struggle continued; that and the angry hiss emitted by both alone broke the perfect silence which otherwise reigned around. At length the black snake succeeded in seizing the body of its antagonist at some distance from the head, when by a sudden whisk it encircled with its long tail the neck of the more venomous reptile. It then gradually drew the body of the latter within its coils until it had firmly secured its throat. In vain the rattle-snake attempted to free itself. At length, to our infinite satisfaction we saw the head of the venomous reptile drop towards the ground, and we no longer heard the rattle of its tail; still the black snake, which had from the first kept its sharp eyes intently fixed on those of the rattle-snake, did not appear satisfied that life was extinct, but held it in a fast embrace, carefully avoiding the risk of a puncture from its fangs.
“Hurrah!” shouted Dan when he saw the victory gained by the black snake. The reptile, the combat being now over, was startled by the sound of his voice. For an instant it looked at us with head erect, as if about to spring forward to the attack, when Dan, before Mr Tidey could stop him, lifted his rifle and fired. The big snake fell, and, after a few convulsive struggles, was dead beside its conquered foe. “I wish that you had let the creature live,” said Mr Tidey; “it would have done us no harm and deserved to go free; besides which it would probably have killed a number more rattlesnakes.”
William Henry Giles Kingston. With Axe and Rifle
I have doubts about the effect of a rattlesnake venom on a black snake as early naturalists who are making excuses for stupid siblings tend to be biased, but the base of the story is a lesson.
I kill numbers of varieties of spiders in my home which my predator Granddaddy Long Legs are not encasing in webs. I always put out wolf spiders though, always protect my garden spiders and I do not kill barn spiders.
I will kill poisonous spiders as I would kill a poisonous snake as readily as a wood tick. There are rules in this in not all nature is good or evil. Nature requires husbanding and management.
One can never protect nature, as it can not preserved as nothing lives forever. The best which can be done is management for protection of wildlife and people.
Thus ends a serpent's tale.
agtG
