For people who fear slithery reptiles, Saturday's Snake Day at Sandy Creek Nature Center could be considered a healthy dose of snake therapy.
By showing a variety of snakes native to Georgia, event organizers hope to dispel a few myths and teach people a new respect for the snakes in the Athens area.
''Snake Day can certainly drive away any paranoia people might have,'' said Whit Gibbons, University of Georgia ecology professor. ''Sandy Creek does a good job of educating the public about their environment.''
Part of that education includes learning that the likelihood of dying from a snake bite is slim, according to Kris Desmarais, a naturalist at Sandy Creek Nature Center.
''It's more likely (for someone) to be hit by lightning than to die of a snake bite,'' Desmarais said.
Children in the Eatin' with the Critters class at Sandy Creek Nature Center look at an albino corn snake in Athens on Thursday afternoon. Snake Day 2001 will be on Saturday from 1-4pm at Sandy Creek Nature Center.Rebecca Breyer/Staff
In addition, only six of the 40 types of snakes in Georgia are venomous, Desmarais said, and most of them are rare. These facts and many more will be presented through games, crafts and the snakes themselves at Snake Day.
Despite the facts, however, many people have a deep-seated and sometimes irrational fear of snakes, said Randy Smith, facility supervisor at Sandy Creek.
''You could go into a convenience store, throw down a python, and rob the place,'' Smith said. ''Just like with all animals, there is a risk you need to be aware of, but I think there's an undo fascination with it.''
Why people fear snakes can be explained in a variety of ways, but people who work with snakes agree that the fear of snakes is something that people learn from books, movies and each other.
''Snakes have been used to represent evil from the Bible on,'' Smith said. ''Besides, they are so absolutely different from humans and some people think if they're different they're bad. People don't like what they don't understand.''
For Gibbons, who works at UGA's Savannah River Ecology Lab in South Carolina, being interested in the environment is part of living, and people can only benefit from learning about it.
''We're going to be surrounded by native habitats so we may as well learn about what's around us,'' Gibbons said. ''It makes life more interesting.''
If fearing snakes is learned, Gibbons said, people can relearn how to respect and even appreciate them as an important part of our ecology.
''Events like Snake Day are an opportunity, like a visit to the zoo,'' Gibbons said. ''The zoo is in your backyard, though you just don't see it.''
This article published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Friday, June 1, 2001.
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