Fieldwork and Snakes

Hello.

I wanted to quickly upload some pictures and talk about the work. I was walking up very steep inclines (up to 55+ degrees) and taking measurements on seedlings. The work was exposed, as there is no forest at this time, as a result of planting 100,000 trees in March. Still, there are a lot of climbers (~vines) with thorns and caterpillars that hurt like hell and leave discolored, blistering skin... jerks, huh? Anyway, the sun is the worst, and I am officially a redneck. I got a haircut recently to discover that I now have a bright white band bordering the top of my neck. In Gutianshan, Maria and I saw a snake in the river and this time, in Xingangshan, I was walking up a pretty steep incline to check out a planting position and noticed a good-sized hole behind the small tree. I looked closer inside and saw a scaly rope the size of 3 inches. I jumped back and ran half-way down the hill in reflex until my brain said, "hey, that's cool." Markus, a German that I was working with, and I went back up to check it out. It looked like rain, and the snakes here supposedly become more active with the rain (which makes sense--don't want to be caught in a hole as it fills up with rainwater). Through a moral debate, we decided to tell the farmers about the snake because they either eat them or sell them for a good price. Our interest was double-fold--we wanted to see the snake and we wanted to sample the area without worrying about a snake coming out of its hole unannounced. The pictures show you what happened. The Chinese farmers took the snake alive to be sold, but I felt kind of bad about it, considering that it was such a beautiful snake and we condemned it. I remember seeing the snakes in town all bundled up in cages awaiting their fate, and that juxtaposed with this beautiful creature in its habitat ruined some of my initial interests... So much so, that I found myself in Gutianshan today murmuring to the would-be snakes in an area known to have many something like, "Sorry about the other guy. I'm here for just a few minutes and I'll be on my way--I mean you no harm." Oh, yes this guy was very, very poisonous. The farmers informed us that if bitten, you would die quickly. This is the part, mom, where you ignore everything written. I tried to find out exactly what it was, but I haven't really studied herpetology and the internet didn't help me much. It looked very much like a cobra... we never allowed it to go upright so I couldn't tell if it had a hood or not, but the jaws and eyes made me almost poisoned... if that makes sense. Maybe somebody out there could comment if they know.

I hope all is well wherever you may be.

Shane

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