THE STATE (Columbia, S Carolina) 01 February 08 When Soldiers Meet Serpents | Bassssic Training - Zoo helps snakes shed fearful image (Joey Holleman)
The 5-foot canebrake rattlesnake wasn’t all the way out of the plastic container before Spc. Christina Perez jumped up on the seat of her classroom desk at Fort Jackson.
She was 20 feet away from the plump reptile. She had been told the snake was lethargic from being transported on a cool morning. Several of her fellow trainees sat between Perez and the snake.
Asked later if she stood on the seat to get a better look at the snake, she gave a wide-eyed shake of the head.
“I don’t like snakes,” Perez said. “I’m terrified of snakes.”
Scott Pfaff, curator of herpetology at Riverbanks Zoo, brought several venomous snakes from the zoo to Fort Jackson on Thursday, in part to alleviate some of those fears among safety troops who travel ahead of their units. It was the second time he had ventured out with the snakes. The other was for similar training for Special Forces troops.
Lt. William Amerson asked Pfaff to make the presentation because he had been impressed by a similar effort while training at Fort Riley in Kansas. The students are field sanitation soldiers, who get to an area early as a liaison to check on potential hazards. They report back to supervisors about bad water, dangerous food or biting insects. Snakes sometimes make the danger list.
Pfaff aimed to give the soldiers a handle on the level of danger. Before he brought out any snakes, he offered a few facts:
• Snakes, because they’re cold-blooded, seldom are a threat when temperatures are below 65 degrees or above 95 degrees. They’re lethargic when cold and hunker down into areas humans seldom go during severely hot days.
• They only bite humans in self-defense, and even on the rare times they do, often release no venom through their fangs. “They aren’t trying to kill you,” Pfaff said. “They want you to go away.”
• The usual end result of a snake-human interaction is a dead snake. Snakes do everything they can to avoid people. “All snakes have a reputation of being much more aggressive than they really are,” Pfaff said.
Despite hearing those words, the soldiers let out an audible gasp when Pfaff ripped the duct tape off the yellow container and used a special rod to pull out the rattler. Perez wasn’t the only one to stand up, though some of the others in the back said they were trying to get a closer look.
The soldiers up front pulled out cell phones to snap photos of the snake a few feet from them.
Pfaff explained the canebrake was the only species he brought that soldiers might encounter at Fort Jackson. As long as a rattler is slithering along, he said, it is no danger to people. When it coils in a defensive posture, however, people should stay away.
But even coiled snakes can’t strike out very far — less than half their body length, he said. He backed up his words by standing only a few feet from the rattler.
When the canebreak finally gave its rattles a shake, the soldiers ooohed. And several nearly jumped out of their skin when a puff adder Pfaff pulled out of another bucket made a striking motion toward him. Pfaff didn’t flinch, confident he knew the snake’s physical limitations.
Pfaff also brought a Gaboon viper (largest fangs among snakes, up to 2 inches, but so docile they’re encouraged to run free in African villages), an eyelash viper (a South American tree-dweller, to remind soldiers venomous snakes in some locales aren’t only on the ground) and a red spitting cobra (which has a rare trait of spraying venom before attacking).
When he put the last snake away and opened the floor for questions, most dealt with myths about how aggressive the creatures can be. He told about a study in which robot-like hands were used to handle cottonmouths. The supposedly aggressive snakes didn’t try to bite when picked up gently, only when the hands squeezed them tightly.
The “don’t be overly scared” message seemed to get through to some soldiers more than others. Sgt. Jada Jones was among a group up front, sitting on the edge of their seats.
“I was hoping they’d let them come a little closer so I could see what they’d do,” Jones said. “I’m less scared (of snakes) now because I know their reach. If I saw one (in the field), I’d just go about my business.”
For others, fear blocked out the message. Asked if she would feel safer if she encountered a snake now, Perez shook her head.
“No, no. I’m still terrified of them.”
When Soldiers Meet Serpents

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