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NEWS 8 (Austin, Texas) 01 July 06 New guide helps identify deadly snakes
Do you hate snakes? If so, you're not alone.
While Texas is full of snakes, relatively few ever hurt anybody, with only two people dying from snakebite in 1996.
The book Poisonous Snakes of Texas is setting the record straight on what to do - and what not to do - if you encounter snakes in the wild.
"If snakes were no longer existent on this earth, I believe there would be a tremendous problem in overpopulation of rodents and pest animals. Without snakes, humans would suffer dearly," Paul Freed of the Houston Zoo said.
There are more than 100 different species and subspecies of snakes in Texas. Out of those, only four types - the rattlesnake, the copperhead, the water moccasin (also known as the cottonmouth) and the Texas coral snake - are poisonous.
Texas Parks & Wildlife published Poisonous Snakes of Texas The guide has facts on snakebite prevention, treatment and who's most at risk for snakebite fatalities.
"It's probably a good idea to teach young kids as soon as they're able to recognize the different kinds of snakes based on pattern and behavior and the like, so that they can prepare themselves for encounters in case they might see one," author Andy Price said.
The Western Diamondback is a big, fierce-looking poisonous rattlesnake that rears up in a defensive coil ready to strike. The broad-banded copperhead is something people rarely see unless they stumble across one, said Price. And water moccasins have kind of a lidded eye that looks like they're scowling.
About half of all venomous bites each year in Texas result from people handling or bothering snakes. But poisonous snakes can be great to observe - just let the experts, like Freed, do the handling.
"Snakes are definitely beneficial. Snakes are here to stay. And if people behave themselves, then we can interact and cooperate and live peacefully side by side," Freed said.
New guide helps identify deadly snakes

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• TX Press: Guide helps identify snakes - W von Papineäu, Sun Jul 2 10:16:05 2006