SNAKES IN IRELAND?

Rex Burress

As many of you know, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17, and also prominent to some people is the legend of the Saint driving snakes out of Ireland. Although there has apparently never been any snakes in the cool, damp country, some cities use the tale to add to the Irish celebration.

Thus it was that San Francisco presented a St. Patrick Day Snake Race for some years, and I participated in 1969. There has been no mention of the S.F. races for a few years, although this year they are featuring a parade and festival on March 12. They expect 100,000 gayly colored paraders! The City by the Bay features some outlandish parades, as well as a super-show Bay to Breaker annual seven-mile people-race, as my son Ben can tell you since he has done the run a number of times!

What a day that was in 1969! I was sponsored by a charity group who drove me into downtown San Fran with my speckled kingsnake, ready for the race. I was no stranger to the metropolis as I had worked at Patrick's Stationary store a block away for three years before I was employed on the Lake Merritt Wildlife Refuge staff in 1961. During that time I commuted via the old trains from Oakland on the old San Francisco Bay Bridge.

Now that I have retired to Oroville, those adventurous days seem impossible, but I clearly recall the cheering crowd as “Cool Hand Luke” coached his snake into second place, worth big bucks that I gave to the Cerebral Palsy Foundation. But in addition, I was given a golden snake bracelet and a green hat that I still own. I had trained my kingsnake to wiggle down a trough with a mouse for reward, and “Speck” would have won first but for that eight-foot Mexican Racer!

It is certain that some people find snakes fascinating, or horrifying, or beautiful. Perhaps it's because a small percentage are venomous, or because they wiggle, have no legs, and flick a forked tongue at you!

I have known a number of herpetologists and hobby reptile collectors, including renowned Professor Robert C. Stebbins of the University of California, Berkeley, who wrote—and illustrated—The Peterson Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. He was also a scientific illustrator who excelled in other wildlife art too, and would visit our Junior Wildlife Zoo at the Oakland Nature Center to sketch our caged Great-Horned Owl. I was honored that he asked me to take some black and white photographs for him.

Stebbins knew the pure wonder and beauty of reptiles and other animals. Like Bay Area wildlife artist Hans J. Peeters, he had the touch and understanding of animal anatomy to present a 'convincing' picture of his subjects. I remember that word, convince, from U.C. Art Instructor Gene Christman when he once critiqued my mallard drawing as not “convincing,” and my saguaro cactus as looking like a telephone pole! Ever since I have stroved to enhance my subjects to enrich their positions in a painting.

Most snakes still slink away in dormancy during March, but on a warm, sunny day a rattlesnake may slip into the sun's warmth, especially among the flowers on stony Table Mountain. Someone might shriek, but actually rattlers are beautiful, specialized creatures with a lovely pattern of scale designs, prone to shy away from conflict and do their thing of stabbing rodents and lizards.

Of course, rattlesnakes are found around Oroville, since the rocky habitat along streams is a perfect home. There are a few around the Feather River Nature Center, but the one that crossed the stairway when a Japanese group was being given a tour prompted some screams, but Crotalus viridis rapidly disappeared into a hole. “Give them a chance.”

“Poor creatures, loved only by their maker, they are timid and bashful. Nevertheless, again and again, in season and out of season, the question comes up, 'what are rattlesnakes good for?' As if nothing that does not obviously make for the benefit of man had any right to exist.” --John Muir