The school summer holidays are virtually upon us and for many that means breaks away from home, be they here or abroad. For those of us staycationing this year for whatever reason, that will mean trips to the seaside and into the countryside. And where there are woods and rough grassland that could also mean snakes.
But why do we seem to fear these reptiles so much when there are so few in this country? Research conducted in 2008 suggested humans had evolved an innate tendency to sense snakes — and spiders — and that we learned to fear them. The researchers concluded that this ability helped humans survive in the wild long ago.
In the world, there are more than 3,000 types of snake. In Britain there are just three (although many people still labour under the misapprehension that there's a fourth — the slow worm. The infamous three are the adder, the grass snake and the smooth snake. All three are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981. The Wildlife Trusts' website reminds us of what they are and how you can identify them. And it also answers the big question we all need to be reassured about — are they poisonous?
