#snake

#snake

The Tenant Was Late on Rent, So the Landlord Locked the Gate with a SnakeHere’s a news story from Kenya that just might be true. So, for now, let’s just call it a news rumor.The landlord in question, Samuel Kioko, of Kunda Kindu, Kitui, Kenya, wanted to collect rent from a tenant who had not paid up for September or October. He locked the tenant out of the property, but not with a lock that could be easily cut off. No, he somehow wrapped a venomous snake around the lock and the snake helpfully stayed put. Some people speculated there may have been some sorcery involved in that, but I suspect that the snake was just hired for the job and faithfully did it.-via Dave Barry#funnynewsstories #snake #rent | Photo: Mike Sonko

A Guide to All the Places with No SnakesPeople in general do not like snakes. This may be an evolutionary defense against an animal that might be dangerous, but some folks take that fear to irrational lengths. If you are looking for a vacation destination where you never have to be on the lookout for snakes, this guide has you covered. Ireland, of course, is famous for having no snakes, but it's not because St. Patrick drove them out. Ireland never had any snakes. Ireland, unlike the rest, is fairly close to a mainland and even had a land bridge that appeared roughly 10,000 years ago and connected it to what’s now the United Kingdom. That land bridge disappeared only 1,500 years later, while the land bridge from the UK to Europe stuck around for another 2,000 years after that, and it’s that serpentine highway that seems to have given snakes enough time to penetrate jolly old England. The frigid Irish sea seems to have kept these scaly invaders at bay, since no one has ever found serpentine fossils in the country. Even northern Canada, where no snakes live now, has snake fossils from a warmer era—a trend that may repeat itself, as global temperatures rise, reopening vast tracts of land to snake habitation.The implication is that you should plan to travel to one of these snake-free places before they become snake-ridden. Read the snake-free guide at Popular Science. -via Fark (Image credit: Selbymay) #snake #Ireland

Image Competition Winners Show the Diversity of Ecological ScienceThe image above by Kristen Brown shows a school of jackfish swimming in a spiral at the Great Barrier Reef. It was the overall winner in the 2021 photo competition from the scientific journal BMC Ecology and Evolution. The picture also won in the category Conservation Biology. The competition attracted entries from researchers all around the world eager to use their creativity to highlight their work and capture the diversity of the planet's flora and fauna. BMC Ecology and Evolution invited anyone affiliated with a research institution to submit to one of the following six categories: ‘Conservation Biology', 'Evolutionary Developmental Biology and Biodiversity', 'Behavioural Ecology', 'Human Evolution and Ecology', ‘Population Ecology' and 'Ecological Developmental Biology'.Our Senior Editorial Board Members lent their expertise to judge the entrants to the competition, selecting the overall winner, runner up and best image from each category. The board members considered the scientific story behind the photos submitted in addition to their artistic judgement (Fig. 1).#jackfish #fish #biology #photography #photocompetition

There's a Rattlesnake in This Garden Photo - Can You Spot It?Like Indiana Jones said, snakes ... why did it have to be snakes?If you live in Arizona, chances are those snakes are rattlesnakes - and they can be devious to spot in the garden. Venomous rattlesnakes have patterns of colorations that can make them blend in perfectly with their surroundings.Rattlesnake Solutions, a pest control service in Arizona, posted a few photo of their catches in people's backyards and gardens on their Facebook page.Okay, so the first one above is pretty easy but see if you can spot the rattlesnake in each of the photos.Images: Rattlesnake Solutions#snake #rattlesnake #HiddenAnimal #Arizona

4,400-Year-Old Shaman "Snake Staff" Unearthed in FinlandArchaeologists in Jarvensuo, Finland have discovered a 4,400-year-old neolithic wooden staff carved like a life-size snake. The staff may have been used in rituals by a Stone Age shaman:The figurine from Järvensuo certainly looks like a real snake. Its slender body is formed by two sinuously carved bends that continue to a tapered tail. The flat, angular head with its open mouth is especially realistic. Koivisto and Lahelma suggest it resembles a grass snake or European adder in the act of slithering or swimming away.via NBC NewsImages: Satu Koiviato#snake #shaman #staff #StoneAge #archaeology