Bad Publicity For Snakes

Poor snakes.

New blow to their reputation.

And you thought they have enough bad publicity.

"Snakes On A Plane" (a ridiculousss Hollywood movie about snakes terrorising humans on a plane) will be opening tomorrow (24 August 2006) in Singapore theatres.

Before you become too paranoid after watching the show and decide to kill every snakes you encounter, it is important to know that only a small percentage of the almost 3,000 species of snakes in the world are dangerous to people.

I cannot get any figures from the books I have, but through googling, I found websites consistently stating the percentage to be 10%.

I think there are about 25 species of venomous snakes in Singapore, 11 of which are considered mildly venomous (venom which is often too mild to have any serious effects on normal humans), 7 of which inhabits the sea, some rarely bite people, and most are very shy/elusive.

In fact, ALL snakes (maybe except a huge and hungry Reticulated Python) cannot be bothered with humans, unless you "suay suay" disturbed them (e.g. stepped on their tails).

Interesting articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakebite
http://www.umass.edu/nrec/snake_pit/pages/myth.html