An Approach to Fear of Snakes

I talk about ophidiophobia during my snake lectures in elementary schools (there are always some kids who display it). I tell them I know some of them fear snakes, and that it's OK, because phobias are normal. I tell them I'm not afraid of having any "disgusting" animal walk all over my body, including tarantulas, cockroaches and millipedes. I ramp up the excitement listing these eeew-y animals that I don't fear at all, eeeew-ing the students out to the max....and then I put the needle to the balloon: "But you know what I really AM afraid of? Flying. I become a pant-wetting wreck as soon as the plane takes off." (Well, it's not THAT bad, but "Chief Whiteknuckle" is one of my nicknames). That results in much head-shaking and giggling, because for most kids, sitting in an airplane is boring at best, not a cause for utter terror. Then I continue "And you know why? No? Me neither. It's all in the head, and it's something you need to identify as irrational and then fight it, because phobias mess up your lives"

That usually makes them think . "Wow, that big man with the six-foot snake around his neck, the guy who seeks out kraits and pitvipers in the dark of night, and takes close-up photos of them.....he actually FEARS something, and something that silly at that?"

FHF Posts so Far

Here are the links to all the photo threads I've started so far on fieldherpforum.com

Howdy from Taiwan

First Photo Encounter with a Bamboo Viper

Herping Taiwan on Jason Voorhees Night (DUW)

Daytime Chinese Soft-shell Turtle

Taiwan Slug Snake (Pareas formosensis)

Taiwan Habu, Chinese Tree Toad, and other ugly pix

Thar's Snakes In Them Thar Sakuras! (Pareas formosensis)

Bankoro Toad and Swinhoe's Frog

Bugs & Flowers

More crawlies from the Taiwanese woods

Tree Snake Babies, Walking Sticks and Fishing Spiders

TwoTon's Terror Tooth, Tree Toad & Takydromus Trifecta

JACKPOT - Taiwan's prettiest and rarest pitviper!

Snakes on a Scooter, or Boigas on a Bike

My First Live Krait!

CruisinArt....or is it?

The Hundred-Pacer That Wasn't - A Tale from Taiwan

Formosan Dino Sex Show

Beautiful Taiwan Kukri Snake

MacClelland’s (Asian) Coral Snake

Two Taiwan Habus

Bamboo Viper vs. Tree Frog

Finally, an adult Habu in the open

Dinodon eating Toad

Water Wall Krait

DOR Chinese Cobra

Another Day, Another Green Tree Viper

Lots of Sundry Taiwan Snakes & Frogs & Stuff & Such

High Noon at the (Asian) Rat Snake Corral

Red Bamboo Rat Snakes

Big Habu

Nother Krait and a few photo tech questions

Whole Bunch of Taiwan Herps & Inverts

Big Fat Stinking Goddess (Elaphe carinata)

Another Stinking Goddess…in my backpack!

Green Tree Viper Potpourri

THE PEASANTS ARE REVOLTING! and other Taiwan Snake Sightings

Snake & Turtle Temple

Tree viper – actually IN A TREE this time!

Bunker-Guarding Pitviper

Close Encounter of the Third Krait

White Plum Blossom Snake

False Taiwan Habu

Two more False Taiwan Habus

Mock Viper (Psammodynastes pulverulentus)

King of the Ditch - Sauter's Water/Grass Snake

Asiatic Many-toothed Snake (Sybinophis chinensis chinensis)

Northern Taiwan - Huge Habitat Post

Where's Waldo (the Pitviper)?

The Fastest Snake in the East (Zaocys dhumnades)

Green Tree Viper Potpourri, Part Deux

Wild Taiwan - Herps, Inverts and Monkeys, oh my!

Taiwan's Prettiest Pitviper - The Second Coming!

Monster Taiwan Beauty Snake

Saturday Night Kraitapalooza

Taiwan Habitat, Part Two

Boiga kraepelini - Rare Coloration Pattern

Taiwan Herpers Association - 2009 Meeting & Show

FULL REPORT: Taiwan Herpers Association - 2009 Meeting & Show

Snakes of Borneo - need material for new website!

Record Hundred Pacer (graphic images!)

King of Taiwan's Aboriginal Culture - The Hundred-Pace Viper

Winter's here! All snakes are gone! (just kidding, see post)

Fighting Kraits

Fastest Snake in Asia - FINALLY BAGGED!

Snake Shows in Taiwan Grade Schools - a few photos

Taiwan Turtles

Taiwan Red Bamboo Ratsnake (O. p. kawakamii)

Juvenile Sinonatrix percarinata suriki

The Viper and the Walrus

Large Taiwan Beauty Snakes doing the Nasty

Sunday Night in the Taiwan Mountains - more pix

Taiwan (Herpeto)Fauna Potpourri

Huge Knife Crossing The Mountain

Three-Ring King Rat Circus

Viridovipera stejnegeri - a selection

Borneo Dispatches - The Inaugural Issue

Family Outing

For the first time I've been able to see and observe wild monkeys in Yangmingshan National Park behind our house: Formosa macaques (Macaca cyclopis), the only monkey species on the island. The group consisted of one boss male, an adult female, a younger male and two kids. All of them were just as curious about me as I was about them, in particular the juvies, who kept trying to intimidate me with furious branch-shaking. They often came closer to get a better look at me, but never closer than six, seven meters. Of course, the light was completely useless - I was standing on the road in the blazing midday sun, and the monkeys were sitting under the murky light of the roadside canopy. Still, a very impressive encounter - at least half an hour went by before they took their show back on the road....

Graveyard Cobra

This morning I searched a dilapidated and heavily overgrown cemetery for basking reptiles. The individual plots in Chinese graveyards are often quite large, covered with bricks or concrete and surrounded by low walls. I was sitting on one of those low walls eating a rice dumpling when I noticed a faint rustling behind the tombstone three feet away, and got to witness an almost seven foot long Chinese cobra (Naja naja atra) slinking off into the undergrowth without much apparent haste. I was too gobsmacked to take a picture (never saw his head anyway), and kept sitting there for at least another twenty minutes, savoring the privileged experience of having lunch at arm's length from one of the most awe-inspiring predators on this island.

Wild taro seed pod

(Colocasia esculenta)

Fencin'

I've been meaning to post this since I took it last July....Japalura polygonata xanthostoma is one of the more common lizards in Taiwan. He didn't mind me getting as close as two feet, not even when I set up the tripod and took a huge series of shots from various positions (there was also a baby mantis next to him on the fence)

Mossy Dragon

A stone dragon guarding a small pond that's part of a luxuriously designed, but now dilapidated private grave in the Sanchih hills.