snakes alive!

August 1999 Table of Contents

SNAKES ALIVE!
by Jack Hardy

I do not like snakes, let's get that straight from the beginning. But there's something about Bahamian boas that somewhat endears them to you. Not much, just a little bit.

There was a time when I would have bordered on a heart attack when confronted by a snake, but living on Abaco and frequently coming across our native boas has somewhat softened my views. First of all, they are not very big. The biggest one I ever saw was a mere eight feet long. Most are thick shoestrings.

On one occasion I was chased around my front yard by a Bahamian boa. Well, that was my take on it. My wife and others who laughed their heads off at the spectacle swore that as the snake changed direction, I changed direction too - staying in front of it.

Bahamian snakes are totally innocuous. Unless you're a chicken. They are called fowl snakes for good reason but pose no problem to human beings with a healthy heart. They also like to climb (is that the word for snakes?) trees, especially at night.

Twice in a row last summer I had a coil of rope drop on my head as I opened my garden shed door. Of course, it wasn't rope - it was snake. A few years ago I would have gone into paroxysms of snake-a-phobia. (I know, I know: I should say ophidiophobia, but I don't like to show off.) In my enlightened senior years I just nodded it off my head and watched it slither away - far more upset over the encounter than I was.

So if you are on Abaco and come across a snake, don't be frightened. Our Bahamian boas like to be left alone and leave you alone too. Take a close look at the photograph and you will see two snakes coiled in my neighbour's garden. They were well into the activity of making little snakes and ignored dogs, cats and human beings as they went about their business with a serene air of single-minded compulsion and destiny.

You don't have to love them, but you have to respect them. And you certainly don't have to fear them.

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