OTTAWA SUN (Ontario) 22 August 06 Serpent Fans Hope Show Tips The Scale (Holly Lake )
MoviesS are among the biggest problems snakes have.
Although many types literally choose to keep their heads in the sand, it's safe to say the rest remain blissfully unaware of the problems these pictures pose.
Snakes, you see, aren't exactly a moviemaker's dream -- they have no ears, so they're completely deaf, and while they have eyes, they don't work very well.
All of that aside, they remain very much affected by how they're portrayed on the screen, says Jenny Pearce of Sciensational Sssnakes, a group promoting conservation through education.
"They're misrepresented and people believe it," she said yesterday after a show at SuperEx featuring her scaly friends.
There's a predisposition where snakes are concerned: "They've been picked on since the first page of the Bible, so they're at a disadvantage."
They're among the most misunderstood animals on the planet. Because they are so different from humans, people can't relate to them, Pearce said.
"It's easier to vilify something you don't understand."
She's had snakes as pets since she was three and now has more than 150.
People also think of snakes as cold-blooded, so the mean and nasty connotation goes along with that. But Pearce said: "Cold-blooded has nothing to do with their personality."
Things, however, just got a lot worse for her favourite reclusive reptiles with the release this past weekend of the much-touted thriller, Snakes on a Plane.
"They're not realistic," Pearce said of flicks. "Unfortunately, some people have trouble differentiating between movies and reality."
During her last visit to SuperEx, Anaconda was in theatres. It was all people were talking about, so she saw it. On top of being a bad movie, she said it was full of misrepresentations. It got two things right, however. One, yes there are anacondas. And two, they live in South America.
"Name something (else) in the movie and it was wrong," said Pearce. She expects her battle to educate people about the slithering serpents to suffer a setback with this latest movie, given Hollywood's tendency to play on the biggest myth of all: That snakes are aggressive. They're not, they're just defensive.
"If you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone." she said.
Some types won't even bite to defend themselves.
"Their big defence is they poop on you."
In Pearce's more than 30 years of having snakes as pets, the worst bite she's had was actually from a rat. It put her in hospital on intravenous antibiotics for three days.
"My worst snake bite of thousands? I had a Band-Aid," she said.
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Interesting snake facts:
- The most common word people use to describe them? Soft.
- Last year more people were killed by dogs in the U.S. than have ever been eaten by snakes in recorded history.
- Snakes aren't slimy. Humans are slimier because of the oil on their skin. Snakes have scales and no sweat glands, so they're cleaner and dryer than humans.
- Snakes' favourite thing to do is nothing.
- Snakes have no ears.
- They smell with their tongue and smell "in stereo" like humans hear. Their sense of smell is 10 times more acute than that of dogs.
- Pearce says the term cold-blooded is misleading. She uses the term "ecotherm" which means snakes take on the same temperature as the surroundings they're touching. Put them in the fridge and they get cold like milk. Put them in the sun and their blood can get warmer than humans.
Serpent Fans Hope Show Tips The Scale