Recent snake sightings are good for the traditional and digital media but majority of the news stories are not favorable for the snakes.
The alarmist tone of news reports about the “pandemic” of snake sightings feeds into many Filipinos’ fear and mistrust of these creations.
In popular culture, snakes are representations of malignance, treachery, and temptation. “Ahas” or “bitin” in Filipino and Cebuano are curses popularized in pop culture and street language to describe a person who has a hidden agenda that involves manipulation and betrayal.
In Genesis, the account of the serpent insinuating itself into Adam and Eve’s confidence and breaking their obedience and fealty to God is the personification of evil, corruption, and sin.
Immersed in this cultural, religious, and institutional proclivity to fear and mistrust of snakes, Filipinos normalize their instantaneous reactions to seeing snakes: kill and exterminate the invader and then photograph and post on media.
Faced with realities that we share spaces with other creations and need co-existence to sustain a shared future, there should be an intentional shift to move beyond hysteria and superstition through knowledge.
During an Oct. 20, 2021 Zoom lecture intended to clarify misconceptions about snakes in order to live amidst the local population in the “sprawling, forested campus of (the University of the Philippines [U.P.] in Miagao,” where residents report regular sightings of snakes, including king cobras, in houses, herpetologist Emerson Y. Sy spoke about the basic need to know your snakes.
Being able to distinguish between poisonous and non-poisonous snakes is necessary in a country where snakes are not only endemic but fulfill essential roles in the ecosystem, such as preying on pests like mice that threaten humans.
Sy, a snake expert at the Philippine Center for Terrestrial and Aquatic Research, said in his lecture that only 32 of 147 snake species in the country are poisonous.
Of the 147 snake species found in the Philippines, 130 are terrestrial or inland; 17 are in marine or fresh waters, reported the upv.edu.ph on Oct. 22, 2021.
Another important information that Filipinos should be educated on is the proper response to a snakebite. Humans that are bitten by animals should receive tetanus shots immediately after being bitten and within a period prescribed by a medical professional.
Knowledge if the snake causing the bite is venomous or non-venomous is crucial for determining the dosage of the antivenom. Information—such as the type and size of the snake, the amount of poison retained by the body (first aid measures include incising the snake punctures and squeezing out as much of the venom as can be drained)—is crucial for determining how the snakebite case is managed.
Since antivenom may cause side effects that harm a person—such as itching, increased heart rate, fever, and body aches—knowledge about the snake is crucial for helping a person survive a snakebite.
In contrast to disaster movies that dramatize monstrous snakes attacking and swallowing whole humans is the actual behavior of snakes, as studied by scientists.
Snakes, like many creatures of the wild, stay out of the way of humans, said Sy.
The Philippine Biodiversity Conservation Foundation Inc. (PCDFI) recently posted a publication material (pubmat) explaining the importance of responding appropriately to a snake. In simplified, easy to understand graphics, the pubmat shows that a snake, like any creature, becomes dangerous and will attack if a person bothers, corners, harasses or harms it in any way.
It is offensive to post and circulate photos of beheaded and mutilated snakes since not only is it countering ecological values of respecting and promoting nature and sustainability.
Hatred and violence towards snakes betray the latent tendency of humans to destroy without understanding and appreciating creations that are perceived as different from us.