Expert: Snakes need love, too

Whether they’re adorable is up for debate, and the slithering things give some people the creeps. But Dan Fogell said most snakes just want to be your friend.

“(Snakes) need a champion,” said the science teacher at Southeast Community College in Lincoln. “They need people that love them.”

Hundreds of people this weekend attended the two-day Snakes of Nebraska program, which promoted snake awareness and appreciation. Some 24 species of snakes were brought into the Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium near Ashland, joining the fish, amphibians and other creatures that are part of its regular exhibits.

Dennis Ferraro, an extension associate professor of herpetology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, taught visitors that some snakes are rare in Nebraska because their habitats were destroyed by farming and urbanization.

Garter and bull snakes are the most common in Omaha. Neither is poisonous. In all, 25 of the 29 snake species native to Nebraska are harmless, Ferraro said.

“These animals are very important for our biodiversity and conservation,” he said.

For Krissy Albert of Louisville, Neb., Sunday’s event was an opportunity for her sons, Kole, 5, and Kanon, 3, to see some new things.

Kole said he liked the timber rattlesnake.

“When it’s mad, it shakes its tail,” he said.

Contact the writer:

kirby.kaufman@owh.com, 444-1304

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