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CHARLOTTE OBSERVER (N Carolina) 09 August 06 It's a snake! On a plane! And it's no big deal!
Hollywood wrongly vilifies these mostly harmless creatures (Mike Dorcas)
"Snakes on a Plane" gives snakes a bad name
The simplicity of the title says it all. Just drop a crateload of one of the most feared animals on the planet into a crowded airliner, hire Samuel L. Jackson to charge up and down the aisle dropping F-bombs, and you've got your perfect summer movie thriller. Bonus points for Internet buzz beforehand. Ka-ching!
In fact, I've actually taken a snake on a plane, and it would have made a very boring film. In the mid-'90s, well before 9-11 and tightened security, I put a single, small gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer), a harmless species like most U.S. snakes, into my coat pocket and flew to Texas, where I turned it over to a colleague. Not much thrill, academically speaking.
We herpetologists -- those who study amphibians and reptiles -- often do things that most "normal" people don't do. But I'm not the Steve Irwin "Crocodile Hunter" type either -- I don't make a habit of taking unnecessary risks. My snake on a plane was in a little cloth bag, and I kept quiet about it.
I'm not complaining -- much -- but Hollywood doesn't try very hard to help people understand nature. Remember "Twister?" and "The Day After Tomorrow?" Animals are even more vilified. Think "Jaws," "Arachnophobia" and my personal pet peeve, "Anaconda." Maybe it all started with Hitchcock's "The Birds" in 1963.
Does that type of movie really have a negative effect on how people react to animals? I can't swear that it does, but in these days of disappearing natural resources, celluloid might be the only first-hand experience with critters that people get, and that counts for something.
Hollywood is just doing its job; but people need to take the initiative to balance film fiction with fact.It's almost cliché, but snakes really are much more scared of people than we have cause to be of them. The only reason a snake, venomous or not, ever bites anyone is because it is scared and defending itself -- just like other animals that sometimes attack people. Snakes do everything possible to avoid biting people -- they hide, flee and even try to scare you first with displays like the rattler's rattle and cobra's hood. Attack is their last resort.
In the United States, your chances of being bitten by a venomous snake are infinitesimally low, unless you intentionally put yourself in harm's way. Most snakebite victims are of the macho persuasion and have willingly put themselves in peril by trying to pick up or capture a venomous snake, immediately preceded by those famous last words: "Hey, everybody, watch this!" Alcohol is often involved, and it's not the snake who's been drinking!
But even if you are bitten, your chances of dying from snakebite in this country are remote -- fewer than five people per year on average. Chances of death by lightning strike are considerably higher.
Nor has Hollywood done a good job of teaching snakebite first aid. Forget about cutting the wound and sucking out the venom like a film star cowboy. Do not try to cut off the blood flow by putting a tourniquet around your arm or leg. The best snakebite kit is a set of car keys, and the car that goes with them. If you can get to medical help, you'll probably be fine.
So, back to our summer blockbuster. Would releasing snakes on a plane be a good way to knock off a witness who is about to testify against you? Probably not. But does this implausibility matter to the movie-going public? Almost surely not.
As a scientist, I do find it is sometimes a particular challenge for me to enjoy movies that rely on biologically unlikely scenarios to thrill the audience. But am I planning to go see "Snakes on a Plane"? Of course I am. I might even take along a gopher snake in my pocket just to stand up for the species -- quietly of course.
It's a snake! On a plane! And it's no big deal!

INSIDE BAY AREA (Oakland, California) 11 August 06 In reality, it's cold up here for a snake (Alejandro Alfonso)
Could snakes on a plane happen for real?
Probably not. Serious snake hobbyists will regard the movie as escapist entertainment. It's a movie that will attract couples who want to snuggle close, Samuel L. Jackson fans, the bare-chested guy you see at the beach and street fairs with a boa contrictor wrapped around his shoulders and morbid types rooting for the snakes to kill everyone.
Silliness is what some would call it. But there is something unique about the buzz this movie has created. The combination of snakes and a plane ride has stirred the collective imagination.
Snakes have inspired myths, phobias, worship, original sin and Hollywood movies. Misconceptions about them, and the mystery behind their behavior, have made them the perfect antagonists. It's not a stretch that they could play the role of terrorists on a plane.
"We're preying on people who are ignorant," says Jules Sylvester, the guy who wrangled up all the snakes in the movie. The owner of Reptile Rentals, he has more than 300 film credits to his name and is a regular guest on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
Sylvester says the premise of the movie is not realistic. For one thing, it's cold in the cargo area of an airplane, and when the temperature drops, snakes become inactive and lose their appetite.
Despite the hype around the fact that real snakes were used in the film, only two, an albino cobra and a diamondback rattlesnake, were poisonous. The rest were non-venomous, harmless snakes, he says.
The public's fear of creepy-crawlies has madeSylvester, who also worked on the set of "Arachnophobia," a movie about killer spiders, a good living.
He says, "As long as there is a dollar in it, I'll go for it."
Still, snakes can be deadly. They hunt by stealth, surprise prey and apply a merciless death grip before swallowing their food whole. A bite from a venomous snake can mean death for a human being who cannot get treatment.
Perhaps the fascination snake hobbyists have with their subjects could be attributed to certain characteristics, the shedding of old skin and seemingly effortless movements.
Owen Maercks, co-owner of the East Bay Vivarium in Berkeley, has more than 30 years experience handling snakes. He describes his interest in snakes as "taking an adventure in an alien world."
He says, "Because they are animals, but not mammals, their behavior patterns are completely different from ours. They are endlessly fascinating."
Maercks regards the idea of "Snakes on a Plane" as absurd. But he doesn't discount the very real threat snakes could pose in the wrong hands and is even surprised it has not yet happened.
"It isn't diffcult to get snakes on a plane," he says. Hobbyists fly with their snakes all the time — until now airport security has not been trained to spot snakes in luggage. A snake's skeleton passing through the X-ray monitor doesn't raise alarm bells.
"I could picture someone who knows how to handle a snake, especially a poisonous one, taking over the cockpit of an airplane and using the snake to keep everyone else away," he says.
Perhaps terrorists are scared of snakes too.
In reality, it's cold up here for a snake