MOUNT AIRY NEWS (N Carolina) 25 August 08 Snake specialist enlightens people about local snakes (Erin C. Perkins)
Most people cringe at the sight of a snake. But not Fred Boyce.
When it comes to snakes, he thinks most people have got it all wrong.
They’re beautiful and fascinating, not malicious and aggressive.
At least that’s what the herpetologist (snake specialist) hopes people will learn when they see “Snakes Alive” at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History’s Annex Thursday at 4:30 p.m. The program is aimed at clearing up misconceptions associated with reptiles.
Since its creation in 2006, Boyce’s program has used a “hands-on” approach to educate his audience, giving them the opportunity to touch and see a wide array of native reptilian creatures, including frogs, turtles, lizards and snakes, up-close.
“(The) idea is to familiarize people with some of the snakes of this region, the vast majority of which are perfectly harmless and very beneficial, and to hopefully help them learn to enjoy and appreciate encountering a snake in the woods as much as they would any other wild creature,” Boyce explained about the program. “I also want to help people who might be interested in keeping a pet snake get off on the right foot and understand what is involved.”
Boyce may have started his program only two years ago, but he’s been giving presentations about snakes since he was a child.
“I gave my first snake presentation to my fourth grade class at the age of 9, using my own collection of non-venomous snakes,” he recalled. “I have a love and appreciation for snakes that literally goes back farther than I can remember. I have always seen snakes as being beautiful, fascinating and friendly creatures, and was probably at least 6 years old before I began to realize, to my utter dismay, that most people hated and feared them and thought we were crazy to have them in the house.”
The Boyces’ family pet was a very large black rat snake named Atlas, who Boyce said he played with in the yard as a toddler.
“My mother was also very fond of a pretty little green snake named Cleopatra that liked to hang out in the chandelier above the dining room table,” he recalled. “ When I was 3, my father had to intervene in a tug-of-war between myself and a timber rattlesnake that was trying to get down a hole, but I had a firm grip on his tail.”
During his childhood in Winston-Salem, Boyce’s family was laboriously involved with the Nature Science Center of Forsyth Center (now Sci-Works). Their home doubled as a rehab center for injured and orphaned wildlife that people brought to the center.
“We all ‘helped’ our mother raise batches of baby foxes and raccoons, and my brother, who is now a veterinarian, tended to wounded hawks, vultures and owls which were tethered all over the yard,” Boyce said. “ I was stuck on reptiles, though, and maintained a collection of everything from pythons, boas and anacondas to baby sea turtles and even alligators and caimans until I went away to high school where I managed the animal collection in the science building.”
As a teenager, Boyce maintained his focus on reptiles, but begin to shift his interest more toward music. During the 1980s, he traveled heavily between Virginia and North Carolina, playing banjo with a variety of musicians and bands. In 1988, he became the director of a nonprofit music venue, the Prism, in Charlottesville, Va, where he remained for about 19 years.
Slowing down his travels allowed him to begin keeping and studying reptiles again.
“(I) was soon operating a reptile rescue out of my home, as well as maintaining my own study collection of mostly venomous snakes, which I have always felt, ironically, hold a lot of secrets that could be very beneficial to mankind,” he said. “ Nature often hides its secrets in the unlikeliest of places, and such a powerful and dangerous substance as snake venom has always seemed to me like something we should investigate more.”
Boyce said that intuition that he had since early childhood has been borne out repeatedly by the development of new drugs and medications based on venom that have proven useful in the treatment of pain, blood clots, heart disease, strokes, type 2 diabetes, and even cancer.
“We only just discovered the hypodermic needle in the mid-19th century, but venomous snakes have already possessed this very valuable instrument, in its most perfect form, for millions of years,” he said.
Boyce said his program is designed to enlighten people about the positive aspects of reptiles and their value to society.
“Snakes are wonderful, beautiful and seriously misjudged animals that are marvelously adapted to their lifestyle by virtue of a streamlined, simplified body structure that enables them to climb, swim, hide or follow their prey, especially mice and rats, right down their holes,” he said. “I would like people to know that snakes are not ‘the enemy,’ but are some of our greatest allies in the animal kingdom. Mice and rats, which reproduce explosively, are a huge and constant threat to our food supply and health, as they can carry many diseases that are communicable to humans.”
Boyce describes snakes as “not one bit malicious, devious or aggressive,” but “shy, gentle creatures” that only want to hide somewhere and stay out of our way as much as possible.
“Snakes are peaceful, quiet animals that will tame down quickly once they understand that you mean them no harm,” he said. “But, like any wild animal, they will defend themselves vigorously at first, which is their right.”
By experiencing snakes and other reptiles in an educational setting, Boyce explained it will allow people see some examples of local snakes up close and even touch or handle the harmless ones.
“Snakes have always been my good friends, and I feel a need to defend them, as I would any friend who has been misjudged or misunderstood. People who say bad things about snakes invariably don’t know much about them, and that just bothers me, whether the subject is snakes or anything else,” he said.
The program is free to museum members, but donations will be accepted toward future programs and food for animals. For more information about the program, call the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History at 786-4478.
Snake specialist enlightens people about local snakes