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snakes, birds, and "connectedness"



Dear birders,

I am a biologist that studies both birds and snakes. Neither taxon is more
or less deserving of our praise or our protection.  Spraying snakes with
Raid is not a practice our group should endorse. Predators, after all, are
not only an integral component of healthy ecosystems, their removal can
lead to the loss of the biological diversity we all cherish. I love
chickadees too, but let's not blame a rat snake for being a rat snake. If
any of you find yourself reaching for a can of insecticide (or a shovel or
a gun) the next time you encounter a snake, I highly recommend Gary
Larson's poignant little book "There Is a Hair in My Dirt."  If we hope to
leave our children a living planet, we must learn to appreciate all life,
not just the cute ones in our nest boxes. An investment of a couple of
bucks in nest-box snake guards is, I might offer, a more benevolent
approach than Raid for dealing with bird-eating snakes.

Matthew Rowe
Department of Biology
Appalachian State University
P.O. Box 32027
Boone, NC  28608-2027
phone: 828-262-2676
fax: 828-262-2127
email: rowemp@appstate.edu