DENVER POST (Colorado) 06 July 05 Tales of deadly Mexican vipers slither along the rumor mill (Theo Stein)
Mexican vipers with flesh-eating venom are hitching rides to Colorado in truckloads of drilling pipe bound for the Four Corners region.
Or not.
That's the rumor flying around the San Juan basin, where drilling companies are tapping rich methane deposits.
The deadly drill-pipe vipers, however, may simply turn out to be a Colorado-style urban legend, said Michael Preston, a University of Colorado English professor who studies folklore.
"There's almost a pattern here that involves both a foreign country and threat to us," Preston said. "This smells a bit like xenophobia."
It all started when a safety manager for BP America Production Co. warned workers to watch for the viper - the Mexican cantil - when unloading pipe.
By early June, the U.S. Forest Service also had advised its employees to be on the lookout. Reports of the viper threat also have bounced around the Colorado Division of Wildlife.
So far, there are no confirmed Colorado reports of the cantil, a deadlier cousin of the Eastern cottonmouth.
That's a good thing, since the ornery snakes can attack repeatedly and without warning. A cantil bite, if untreated, can require the amputation of a limb.
Dan Larson, a spokesman for BP America, said his safety manager's snake warning was issued as a precaution. The company knows of no cantils in Colorado and hasn't bought a single length of pipe from Mexico, he said.
Ann Bond, a Forest Service spokeswoman, said while an agency safety manager did pass along the warning, no one she knows has seen the snake.
The San Juan Citizens Alliance, a group opposed to the pace of energy development in the basin, offered no proof either. However, it suggested the scare showed how the drilling boom could have unintended consequences.
The story of the drill-pipe viper, Preston said, is similar to other foreign critter scares.
There was the tale of baby cobras in clothing imported from India and sold at Kmart stores. A more recent rumor linked flesh-eating bacteria to bananas coming from Costa Rica.
A story like this needs several elements to become a good urban legend, Preston said - most importantly an element of believability.
In this case, the suspected alien interloper, also called the ornate cantil, is indeed feared in its native range for its unpredictable strike and potent venom.
Another important element is that it prompts fear or anxiety, Preston said. The cantil's alleged accomplice is a faceless multinational corporation profiting from the energy boom, which has generated local opposition.
"Any story reported and passed by word of mouth inevitably undergoes changes even if it's true," he said. "A lot of people discount it if just one detail is found to be false.
"But we're talking about something which could be life-threatening, so it might be worth another look," Preston said.
Tales of deadly Mexican vipers slither along the rumor mill