Road strike and snakes, be snake aware!
One of the biggest threats to our snakes, aside from the ever present shovel wielding moron, is the road. Like most native wildlife, our roads are a huge cause of mortality in snakes, who love to bask on the open, hot bitumen, or to hunt at night for frogs and geckos out eating the insects, which have themselves come out on the open road for warmth. With reptile populations globally declining due to habitat loss and fragmentation, anything we can do to minimize reptile deaths is fantastic, and one simple way is how we drive.
We’re often called out for injured reptiles, particularly on the roads.These jobs are never easy, and are of course gratis so we can focus on the animals’ wellfare, however I’m often struck at the senselessness and lack of awareness many drivers display on the road. It takes very little to scan the road for wildlife. Hell, if your driving safely and paying attention to the road, most wildlife incidents are avoidable. Scanning for wildlife keeps your eyes and mind alert, focused on the task at hand. Now I know most people don’t want anymore responsibility on the road than they already have, but think of the additional benefits. I have never, EVER been picked up by a speed camera. Not that I speed, of course, but I’m always instantly aware of anything on the side of the road. And not just police cars either. I find myself acutely aware of pets, children, and other motorists above all.
This awareness comes from years of driving around wildlife or actively searching for wildlife on the roads, particularly snakes at night time. After a while, your attention to detail will increase and your mental “search image” will become better at picking out the desired objects, e.g. wildlife or small children chasing a ball, in the midst of a large amount of sensory input being filtered out and actively ignored. Driving this way, completely in tune with your vision, acutely aware of other drivers and the road edge, can make you a safer driver for everyone. It also means you should see any problem ahead of time enough to break and avoid swerving.
However, as wildlife can be unpredictable, its not always possible to avoid an incident. Included in this article are some photos of a big, healthy python being taken in to vets after a vehicle strike. It was a bad strike, down from the neck, and a lot of blood, his skin torn open on the bitumen, with lots of broken ribs. The possibility of euthanising was instantly the first option, however his trachea (a breathing tube allowing air to enter the lungs, bypassing the esophagus) was opening an closing, and the vet was only 10 minutes drive 
away. Unfortunately by the the time we were at the vet the trachea too was exuding blood. The decision was made to euthanize this unlucky big, gorgeous snake. But this begs the question, how much more awareness would it have taken on the drivers part (who was nowhere to be seen) to avoid this situation? This was not a small animal, well over 2 meters, and hit in the middle of the road, not on some hidden blind corner or road edge. I can only assume that if the driver had paid a bit more attention and driven with more care, we’d have one more snake keeping our rat populations down, and generally being its snakey-awesome self.
Ciao,
Janne
www.snakeoutbrisbane.com.au
