It seems each time I log onto Facebook or other social media there is some sort of "day". Usually I pay them no mind really. There's siblings day, national puppy day, you name it. Like a day for pretty much everything exists. But I never thought about a world snake day until I saw someone post something about it on Facebook. If you think about it, if anything deserves a day it is snakes.
They were here long before us and snakes will probably be here long after we are gone. Snakes are crucial to the ecosystems in which they live. Without them, the balance of the entire system is thrown out of equilibreum. If you live in the southeastern USA like me and killed off all of your local corn snakes or rat snakes, you would likely be overrun with rodents in a short time. The same can be said of the venomous species as well. Kill or remove all of your pit vipers and again the rodent population in that area will explode. While rodents also have their own place in their respective ecosystems, they can carry dangerous disease. Just check out hentavirus. Which seems to be increasing in popularity. Could it be because we've effectively decimated the rodent's natural predators in those areas?
Snakes in general get a lot of bad press and many folks cannot see any value in any snake. But this is a very ignorant view. Even the most deadly or dangerous snakes deserve a fair chance at living their lives. In the US for example on average there are only five deaths per year due to snake bite. The chances of being killed by a snake in my part of the world are pretty minimal. That said, if you see a venomous snake, just leave it alone. Most bites occur due to individuals trying to capture or kill the snake.
Considering there are 20-40 cases of hantavirus per year with a 35% fatality rate, I think I would prefer to deal with the snakes.
As a snake keeper for over 25 years I can tell you they make the absolute best pets in my opinion. A pet snake is not likely to chew up your furniture or your homework. They also make very little noise, so your neighbors, HOA, etc will not be complaining about that either.
Snakes are cool, fun, and an important part of the natural world. So let's all try to be a little nicer to our legless, scaly friends on this world snake day, and EVERYDAY. And let's appreciate the important job they do for us.
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