I have a wildlife zoo

Daigo scratched his head and said, "If we know it's a non-venomous snake, we probably wouldn't be afraid, right? Getting bitten wouldn't really matter."

Fang Ye smiled and replied, "Doesn't the fear lessen a lot just by thinking that the snake is non-venomous?

"This shows that although the fear of snakes may have a genetic basis, we humans are good at learning, and we can overcome and eliminate this fear through acquired understanding.

"Just like with lightning, lightning could accompany disasters like forest fires, torrential rains, and mudslides, causing loss of life. So ancient people were very afraid of lightning, right? They even imagined that lightning was a sign of the heavens' anger.

"But now, we've all gone to school and learned physics. We know that lightning is the discharge caused by the action of positive and negative charges, and that tall buildings have lightning rods. If we avoid standing on high hills or under trees when we go out, we know we can prevent being struck by lightning. Are there still people afraid of lightning now? Probably not, right?"

Fang Ye looked at the tourists who were nodding in agreement and laughed, "Right? I think modern people are hardly worried about getting struck by lightning; it's a super low-probability event. They care more about the electrical safety of their own homes.

"People fear snakes because they think of snakes as creatures that suddenly appear and then mysteriously disappear, lurking in dark corners and launching sudden attacks, possibly venomous, and what if one day one shows up at your doorstep and bites you? That's terrifying!

"Actually, snakes are afraid of people too, and their fear of people is much greater than our fear of them!

"Their first reaction when they see a human is to flee."

"When you see a snake, you scream, 'Aaah! There's a snake! It's terrifying!'

"If snakes could talk, they would also scream, 'Aaah! There's a human! It's terrifying for the snake!'"

The surrounding tourists found this interesting and couldn't help but laugh!

Fang Ye said, "Snake's aggressive behavior has mainly two purposes: hunting and defense. Discover hidden stories at empire

"When it comes to hunting, with the large size of humans, we are simply not within the hunting range of snakes, unless it's a super-large python. A python that can eat a person would have to be at least seven or eight meters long, and you definitely wouldn't encounter one in the city. The chance to encounter one in the wild isn't much greater than being struck by lightning, right?

"When snakes bite people, it's mainly because they feel their lives are threatened and they bite in defense!

"The venom of poisonous snakes is very precious, and it's used for hunting. If they use it for defense, it might take a week or even longer to recover. During that time, they will go hungry, so they don't want to inject their venom lightly.

"It's not like they sneak to your doorstep without any reason, just to bite you and then get killed. Wouldn't that snake be insane?

"There's a saying, 'If people don't reach out randomly, snakes won't bite randomly.'

"As long as you keep your distance from snakes, they won't bite you."

"Oh~"

The tourists, who initially feared snakes, now showed expressions of contemplation or relief!

A mother who was afraid of snakes asked earnestly, "How far should we keep our distance? Is 20 meters enough?"

"20 meters?" Fang Ye laughed involuntarily, then patiently explained, "Do you have a misconception that a snake can shoot out and bite in an instant, then disappear without a trace?

"While a snake's strike is fast, the attack distance will not exceed half its body length!

"A distance of 3 meters is very safe.

"Those 20 meters must include the distance for you to run away, right? Snakes won't actively chase after people unless it's the extremely rare territorial and aggressive snakes like the king cobra or black mamba, and even then, they won't chase too far. If you encounter one in the wild, you might as well buy a lottery ticket."

A boy with a crew cut and the appearance of a student said excitedly, "Hey, when the zookeeper said, 'If people don't reach out, snakes won't bite,' it reminded me of a piece of news I saw before about an outdoor live streamer who was bitten by a venomous snake while searching for snakes with friends on a live broadcast."

I looked up his video and he actually reached his hand to just a palm's distance from a many-banded krait's head. The krait hesitated for a moment but didn't move, then the streamer got even bolder and brought his hand to its mouth, asking 'How's this move, bros?'"

He didn't finish his sentence before he was bitten by the snake. Isn't that just asking for trouble!"

Daigo exclaimed in shock, "Holy shit, there are such idiots?"

Lin Hao also shook his head, speechless, and said, "If I could, I would sit at the kids' table."

Fang Ye shrugged, "Teasing wild venomous snakes like this is clearly underestimating them... it's just plain stupidity. The example this friend mentioned is very typical. In fact, many people get bitten by snakes while they're teasing them or trying to catch them.

If you don't seek death, you won't die!"

A middle-aged man with a square face couldn't help but ask, "What if I go hiking and accidentally step on a snake in the grass without noticing it?"

Fang Ye smiled and said, "That's also an easy problem to solve. When you go up a mountain, stick to the well-trodden paths and don't venture into dense grass. You're hiking, not a biologist doing research or a farmer looking for wild fruits in the mountains, so why stick your nose in the bushes or woods?

If you must go into the wild, then wear long sleeves and trousers, high-top hiking boots or knee-high rain boots, and put on a straw hat. That way you'll be protected from all angles.

If you actually encounter a snake, you can find a high spot and stomp your feet a couple of times—not on the snake, but on the ground! Snakes will slither away if they feel the ground vibrating.

If they still don't move away, you can use a long stick or hiking pole to prod and push the snake aside.

Why should you stand on higher ground? Because when a snake is fleeing, it generally heads away from the source of the noise, or it goes downhill.

Don't kick with your feet, or throw stones—that's all the wrong approach."

If the snake really doesn't want to give you way, then just take a detour around it."

Lili, curious, raised her hand like a primary school student asking a question in class, "Zookeeper, zookeeper, speaking of which, how do you tell if a snake is venomous or not? And if you really get bitten by a venomous snake, what should you do?"

This was indeed a question that many tourists cared about!

Everyone immediately pricked up their ears to listen carefully.

A tourist said, "I know this! If a snake has a triangular head, it's poisonous."

Fang Ye shook his finger and explained, "This saying is widely circulated among the public, but it's wrong. Whether or not a snake has a triangular head has nothing to do with whether it's venomous.

Did everyone just see our beautiful green tree python over there? It has a triangular head, but pythons are nonvenomous.

Including other widely circulating methods of distinguishing, like whether a snake's color is bright—the many-banded krait is black and white. Can it get any more modest than that? Yet its toxicity is very severe.

The banded red snake, which is often mistaken for a venomous snake, has bright red and black alternating colors, but actually has very weak toxicity.

Trying to identify venomous snakes just by their appearance requires a lot of experience. You'd have to get to know every kind of venomous snake. There are educational displays about some of China's common venomous snakes in our reptiles and amphibians exhibit. Those interested can check it out for themselves.

There are also some nonvenomous snakes that mimic the appearance of venomous ones, which are even harder to identify. For example, the Formosa wolf snake and Sichuan wolf snake, they cosplay as many-banded kraits.

So, everyone, just remember, treat all snakes as venomous, maintain distance from them, and everything will be okay."