Scientists study Belize’s deadliest predator
It is customary when a television station broadcasts a programme containing potentially offensive scenes depicting nudity, violence or foul language, that an advance warning be given to viewers. While our next story is neither lewd, violent or foul, we’ll still issue a caution: the following story is about snakes and News Five will not be responsible for any nightmares experienced by those who choose to watch.
The Fer de Lance…the Yellow Jaw Tommy Goff…Bothrops Atrox Asper…it doesn’t matter what you call this snake, one bite from its powerful jaws can be the kiss of death. But that little fact hasn’t stopped these brave souls. For more than two weeks, volunteers from Raleigh International, a British service organisation, have been trekking through the jungle of the Fireburn Nature Reserve in Northern Belize poking at every clump of leaf litter and under many a rotten log, looking for specimens of the deadly species. A few days earlier, the group hit the jackpot, bagging a female Fer de Lance just a half-inch shy of six feet. That’s when herpetologist Paul Edgar took over.
(Throws the snake out of a bag)
The resident snake expert, is heading up a first of its kind project aimed at learning as much as possible about the snake, including its preferred habitat, feeding habits and population. The only way to gather that information is to follow the snake’s every movement and the best way to do that is with modern technology.
Believe it or not, catching the snake is the easy part, where it gets tricky is fitting the reluctant reptile with a miniature radio transmitter. And that calls for some serious surgery.
(Snake getting an injection)
Despite signs that she’s slowing down, it takes forty minutes for her to slip into slumber. The doctors then take the opportunity to examine their patient and her more attractive physical attributes. It’s no surprise that they decide to take special precautions with her head before they get to work.
(slicing the snake’s skin)
The transmitter looks sizeable but it’s lightweight. And we are assured that despite the snug fit, it will not inhibit or affect the snake in any way.
Paul Edgar, Herpetologist (Talking to doctor)
“Try to push your finger and see. He’ll push that way and that’s exactly where the transmitter goes…It goes in fine.”
Halfway through the operation, we find out our patient is pregnant. A snake like this can carry as many as seventy babies. This new bit of information should make things all the more interesting down the road.
(Doctors putting the transmitter in)
Eight stitches later and a few blasts of anti-bacterial spray, the snake is good to go. She will spend another twenty-four hours in captivity before being released. Researchers will then be able to track her electronically for the next year and a half as she slithers through the Belizean landscape. When the battery runs low, she will be recaptured and the procedure repeated. But with all the danger involved, why would anyone want to put themselves through all this?
Paul Edgar
“Medically it’s the most important snake Central America, it kills several thousand people a year, if you look from Mexico down to Panama. Economically, it’s also very important as I’ve said because it controls rodents. So of all the snakes to look at, this is probably one of the ones that impact people the most. People come into conflict with the most and it has the most sort of influence on the lives of people in Belize, especially rural people, out in the forest, or out in the farmland.”
“Most of the hard work come afterwards when I’m analyzing all the data on the computer. But the fieldwork is actually fairly simple, straightforward work, so we can have tourists in and of course the people who live in the Fireburn villages and have tourist cabanas will benefit because the tourists will be staying there and take part in this project and helping me as well, so everyone’s happy.”
And Edgar is happiest when he demonstrates how his equipment works.
Paul Edgar
(beeping) “She’s about fifty feet now…She’s somewhere in this circle…I think she right under these two branches…She might be in that hole.”
(coiled up snake hidden in the leaf litter)
Perhaps the scariest part about our outing was that even though we were looking for the snake, without the “beep beeps” and Paul’s trained eye, we might have come within striking distance and never known it.
Janelle Chanona
“Over the next two months, some thirty-three Raleigh Venturers will spend hundreds of hours in somewhat rigorous conditions searching the forest floor for more of the deadly snakes. The Fer de Lances caught will be tagged and tracked.”
For the medic on the scene, Dr. Claire Quiggen, a general practitioner by trade, being asked to operate on snakes was no big deal, once the snake fell asleep of course.
Dr. Claire Quiggen, Raleigh Medic
“I’m more scared of spiders actually, but we got over that with a tarantula. But because I’ve been here three weeks, I’ve seen and handled lots of snakes, mainly…obviously non-venomous ones. The venturers and myself aren’t allowed to handle venomous ones, but there were big snakes like boas and the black tail that we’ve handled, so it was quite a shock. But once you get used to it, like the dirt, the mud and the rain, you sort of adapt.”
Before coming out to Fireburn, most of these people had never even seen a snake in the wild, much less handle them. For Damian Chan, one of the Belizeans in the group, that fact might be a little scarier than the snakes.
Damian Chan , Raleigh Venturer
“I’m used to like in Belize, I’m used to going out in the jungle. Every time I’m going to make a step, I’m always looking very closely at the ground and checking on my mates to see if they are alright, cause I don’t really trust them going out there. They walk like they are in the park or something.”
Janelle Chanona
“Most people can tell you that the Fer de Lance is the deadliest snake in Belize, but that’s about all we know about this creature. Hopefully through this project, more than a few of the snake’s secrets will be revealed. From the Fireburn Nature Reserve, I’m Janelle Chanona for News Five.”
Scientists hope to continue the project if additional funding can be found.
