It’s a Snake Eat Snake World…..Maybe

Cannibalism in snakes that normally are not ophiophagus has often been observed to result in the fatality of both participants. Logic should dictate that this reinforces that it’s not natural behavior and may be triggered by something other than normal predatory instincts. It stands to reason that if the act results in the death of the diner and the main course – how could any one argue it is normal behavior? Evolution doesn’t work that way.

Such behavior would work against adaptations that assist in the survival of snakes that often practice communal denning. So what causes a starving, stressed animal to kill and eat something it normally would not try to eat?

Many people who claim that “no species of snake can be cohabitated” often point to pictures of tank mates eating each other as proof of their misguided and misapplied theories.

So if a non-cannibalistic snake eats a room mate, how do we go about explaining it?

The fancy scientific explanation:

The term “energetically stressed” accounts for this phenomenon and it has actual been studied in snakes with regards to cannibalism in non-cannibalistic species.

Energy is the primary behavior motivator in animals. Energetically stressed animals are known to modify their behavior in various seemingly unnatural ways in order to meet this critical demand.

In order to prevent an energetic shortfall, animals often increase their search activity to find food. When they become so energetically stressed that they reach a critical tipping point, they will attempt to predate on prey items which incur a greater risk either of predation or defensive injuries.

In some studies, non-ophiophagus snakes would first cannibalize dead members of their own species when faced with a paucity of food. If already deceased members of their own species were unavailable, they would try to cannibalize living brethren. As they were not suited for taking down ophiophagus prey, the attempts more often than not ended up in death for all involved. The reason for this? Snake eating requires some highly specialized modifications. Even if the eater was able to subdue the victim, a fundamental inability to properly ingest another snake (have you ever seen how a Clelia or Drymarchon eats another snake?) would result in death to the diner.

If you stick a starving snake in a stressful situation (new surroundings, unfamiliar motion) with another animal, that stress results in a increased demand for energy in an energetically stressed animal. In a panic to combat this energetic deficit, the snake tries to kill and eat the nearest thing it “thinks” it can eat – even if that thing isn’t normally part of the menu, or even if that thing is something they may not be able to ingest/digest.

Cohabitation does not kill these animals. Stress and starvation (energy stress) did.

In a proper set up, with properly fed animals, where stress was kept to normal levels, where environmental parameters were correct, and where adequate space was provided, such events would not have happened.

Too often unwise decisions and errors in judgment are capitalized on to incorrectly reinforce a theory or a rule that does not hold true.

Euthanizing Snakes

Despite popular opinion to the contrary, freezing a snake is not a humane method of euthanasia. The formation of ice crystals in the tissues and on the skin are widely thought to cause intense pain.

Some vets prefer to administer Nembutal/Sodium Pentobarbital, however I have also spoken to specialty exotic vets who claim that it takes a long time to work on snakes…a minimum of 30 minutes..and that they have doubts to the amount of discomfort or stress such a slow acting method may cause the animal.

Additionally, concentrated sodium pentobarbital solutions that are formulated for intravenous use are highly alkaline and may cause irritation to tissue and pain when injected into the animal.

Injection of reptiles with 0.5% to 1% MS222 (Tricaine Methanosulfonate) solution at doses of 250 to 500 mg/kg have been shown to result in a loss of consciousness in most snakes in between 12 and 15 minutes. Respiratory and cardiac functions will remain intact past that time frame therefore a second injection of 50% MS222 solution finishes the animal off. MS222 is highly acidic, which is why it is administered initially in a low concentration buffered dose to induce a loss of consciousness and then is rapidly followed by the 50% dose, which kills the animal in 30 to 60 seconds.

MS222 is administered intracoelemically, which is a fancy way of saying “into the body cavity”.

There are some people who advocate decapitation.  This is not a humane way to dispatch a snake. The central nervous system of a snake is capable of withstanding a total depletion of oxygen. This is why decapitation can actually result in a slow death. Some old school vets were known to euthanize by decapitation, then double pith the brain.

Which brings us to pithing.  Oft cited and oft performed incorrectly.  Like all do-it-yourself veterinary administrations, you better make sure you are well-trained and adept at doing it before you try it. I have seen vets perform it after first rendering an animal unconscious. The procedure consists of inserting a rod into the foramen magnum of the brain and proximal end of the spinal cord.. Here’s the rub. most people who have told me they pith often don’t even know what the foramen magnum is. Enough said.

My vets uses the MS222 route and after watching a couple of my older animals put down this way, it is a route I am comfortable with. After the first injection the animal is gets a little woozy. After about a quarter of an hour the animal loses consciousness. The second injection is given and the animal dies within a minute. I usually hold my snakes during the process.

Another process I have not discussed is the use of Isoflurane.  Isoflurane is commonly used as an anesthetic in reptile surgeries.

When my oldest boomslang was euthanized, the vet first anesthetized her in her trap box (which was her hide) with Isoflurane.  It took her about 20 minutes to lose consciousness at which she was removed from the trap box and a 50% MS222 injection was given. Again, from my point of view, the process appeared to be completely humane and as distress free as possible as she peaceably went to sleep in her hide.

Bottom line – if you are a responsible and compassionate owner, euthanasia is a defining moment in your relationship with your animal. How you choose to help your snake into death says a lot about the type of person you are. Save a few bucks and do it wrong and you can and probably will give your pet a pretty painful and traumatic end.

Do it right…spend a few bucks and make sure the final moments of your snake’s life are as peaceful as possible.

The Difference Between Regurgitation and Vomiting in Snakes

Yeah, yeah, you all think I’m dealing with semantics here…but the words “regurgitation” (or regurge at it is wont to be called on the forums) and vomiting mean two very different things.

Short explanation: A regurge is the backflow of [I]undigested[/I] food (food that has never reached the snake’s stomach) up through the esophagus and out of the mouth. Vomiting is the forceful ejection of stomach contents through the same path of travel.

Long explanation and why it is important to differentiate between the two events:

A regurgitation most often occurs for reasons unrelated to health. A snake that has recently swallowed a meal may regurgitate it if stressed or annoyed in order to save the energy expenditure of digesting the food in favor of using it to escape. Many species of snake become vulnerable when digesting a meal, so the regurgitation of a prey item can allow it to gain an advantage in a fight or flight situation. The act of regurgitation does not carry a stiff health penalty, as digestion has not really begun and damage to the esophagus and gastric mucosa is unlikely.

On the other hand, an animal that vomits up a prey item days after ingestion often times has an underlying ailment. The inability to digest a prey item can indicate problems with the stomach, the kidney, the liver, the gall bladder or any other components of the digestive system. The problem can range from something benign (like improper husbandry) to dysfunction of the aforementioned organs, to internal parasites, viral or bacterial diseases.

Even in the case of a regurgitation, care should be taken in reintroducing food items. Snakes begin processing prey items fairly quickly so it’s always a good idea to wait the requisite two weeks before feeding again. As the vast majority of captive snakes are overfed anyway, missing a couple of meals isn’t going to compromise the health of an otherwise healthy animal.

In the case of a vomiting episode, not only should a minimum of two weeks pass before offering food,the keeper needs to keep an eye out for other signs of disease. Is the snake behaving normally or is it listless? Does it look dehydrated? Is it showing signs of discomfort (covered under a separate post)? If so, the animal should be taken in to see a qualified reptile veterinarian.

After a regurgitation or vomiting event, it is also a good idea to add Benebac or Reptibac to the animal’s water. These supplements help restore the beneficial bacteria present in the animal’s digestive system.

Prey Model Diets for Snakes – Clelia and Boiruna

I’ve touched on the fact that we not only overfeed our snakes, we also feed them prey that they do not predominately feed on in the wild.

This has led to keepers losing their animals at an early age.  As “mussurana” of various species are finding their way into more and more homes, I’m hearing more and more stories of these animals just dropping dead.

Most of the time, the keeper does not bother with a necropsy.  However, I’ve talked to a few hobbyists who have.  Some of these animals are dying of fatty liver disease and other “lifestyle” diet choices – and doing so at a fairly young age.

In 2002 a study was done by Carla da Costa Pinto and Thales de Lema regarding the feeding behavior of Boiruna and Clelia species.  This study covered many things:  differences in how they subdue and consume various prey types, their diet preferences and the size of their prey.

At this point in time, I’m only going to focus on what they eat, not how.

The study showed that mussurana have a varied diet – a whopping 23 food items.  They included the following snakes and lizards:

Liophis Almadensis

Lystrophis Dorbignyi

Oxyrhopus Petola

Sibynomorphus Mikanii

Thammodynastes Spp

Philodryas Patagoniensis

Oxyrhopus Rhombifer

Echinanthera Cyanopleura

Liophis Miliaris

Bothrops Jararaca

Mabuya So,

Ameiva Ameiva

Tropidurus Torquatus

…with the additional of the following birds:

Gallus Gallus

…and the following mammals:

Akodon Serrensis

Oryzomys Nigripes

Metachirus Nudiancaudatus

The predominant prey type being other snakes.  The inclusion of gallus gallus being a nod to these animals sometimes encroaching into human settlements and preying on chickens and chicks.

In the most commonly captive kept mussurana (Boiruna Maculata), the predation of mammalian species was observed to be purely opportunistic.  In an “emerging” species tot he hobby (Clelia Rustica), rodents were observed to be a targeted and selected prey item.

What does all this mean?

Short answer, we are feeding these animals the wrong diet.

Long answer:

An adult rat has the following proximate composition and energy content:

Crude Protein:    61.8%

Crude Fat:   32,6%

Gross Energy:  6.37 kcal/g

An adult rattlesnake has the following proximate composition and energy content:

Crude Protein:  60.6%

Crude Fat:  3%

Gross Energy:  6.51 kcal/g

Bottom line – much less crude fat, similar protein and similar energy.  We are forcing more fat into these animals than they have evolved to handle….and it is affecting their health.

With house geckoes and anoles being sold via online vendors as prey items, along with availability of inexpensive sources of corn snakes and juvenile boids, a variety of more suitable prey model-appropriate diets are available for clelia and boiruna.

I would argue that there is a viable market for providing feeder snakes to drymarchon, clelia, boiruna and other ophiophagus snake species.

In the long run, filling this market niche – providing proper prey model diets for snake eating snakes – will not only make us better keepers, but will make our captive charges healthier.

Re-Thinking the Whole “Rack” Thing…..

In general I feel like I’m a pretty decisive person…once I make a decision I tend to stick with it unless it just doesn’t make a whole hell of a lot of sense anymore.

When it comes to housing reptiles, I’m just the opposite.  I can’t count the number of racks and enclosures I’ve bought and sold as I’ve gone back and forth between housing options.

Except for some species that just can’t be kept in rack – varanids and arboreal snake species for example – I’ve pretty much converted all of my animals to racks.

From the ubiquitous V70/CB70 rack to the monster 66″ Freedom Breeders, the snake house is chock full of racks.

But as I get older and observe my animals more, the more I’m convinced that they would are more comfortable in specialized enclosures.

I converted all my drymarchon to 60″x24″x24″ enclosures.  Each one sits atop a shelf that holds a cement mixing tub.  The enclosure has a hole in the floor that leads the the mixing tub, effectively creating a tidy little dark and cool burrow.

I am now in the process of converting all my clelia, pituophis, terrestrial philodryas and psammophiidae to similar enclosures, with my heloderma to follow.

Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a rack properly sized for the target species.

However, I just enjoy watching my animals in larger enclosures…and in the end, maybe I’ll be the only one getting any benefit from it.  I also find it easier to customize husbandry parameters for each species in a larger cage.  In a rack, you tend to shoot for a happy medium when housing several species.  In a cage, the options are limited only by your capacity to create them.

…and I’m pretty sure none of the animals will be the worse for the change…once they acclimate.

The bad news – a whole lotta cage building, staining and running back and forth to the hardware store and the lumber yard.

The good news – some people in the Bay Area are going to get some smoking deals on some beautiful Freedom Breeder racks.

Inbreeding in Nature

So I’ve been reading some discussions on other sites and had a bit of an epiphany…a lot of people are talking about inbreeding.

Inbreeding clelia and health issues, inbreeding Drymarchon and health issues, and so on and so on.

People are talking about the limited captive gene pool and how it needs to be diversified for many species.

Now, with the exception of some select species, snakes are fairly limited in their roamings and wanderings. That’s sort of how locality variants are formed – as well as intergrades. Gopher snakes in Contra Costa County have subtle differences compared to those in Alameda County. Some pituophis vary within localities.

We also know this to be true for various thamnophis and lampropeltis.

Which brings us back to inbreeding. Let’s say the wandering range of a female gopher snake in Northern California is about 30 acres and about 4 times that for a male….just how many gopher snakes can 120 acres support?

Again, science is our friend. Studies have shown that there are an average of 1.3 gophers snakes per 1/2 acre, which means that in 120 suitable acres, you could expect to find 312 gopher snakes.

Now within that 120 acres, there is bound to be overlap with other wandering ranges, but also keep in mind that not all habitat is suitable for supporting these animals.

Bottom line – in nature, there is also a self limiting gene pool with specialized species. Mother and fathers breed with sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters. There is inbreeding and line breeding going on in the wild.

The difference is nature culls without pity or sentiment. Animals with genetic deformities do not survive to breed. Only the strongest and fittest (and admittedly inbred) snakes earn that right.

That’s where our flaws lie. Aesthetics often preclude soundness. We propagate traits that, while aesthetically pleasing, do not result in strongest and most healthy animals.

We also overfeed our animals and while we apparently have gotten on board with feeding our dogs and cats appropriate prey model diets, we insist that reptile eating snakes can survive on a mammalian diet without any ill effects.

The long and the short of it is this…inbreeding happens in the wild. Bemoaning the practice of doing it in captive animals is disingenuous.

The practice of feeding too much food, too much of the wrong food and selecting animals for aesthetics is compromising captive populations….not “inbreeding”.

Signs of Comfort and Stress in Captive Reptiles

The link between physical well being and stress in captive reptiles is well established. As a keeper, your foremost responsibility is to ensure that stress is kept to a minimum.

Everything you do is targeted at reducing stress. This encompasses providing proper husbandry, diet and positive interaction.

This begs the question, just how the hell do you identify stress in a captive snake? Conversely, what are the signs that your snake is at ease or “comfortable”.

Since snakes are – for the most part – not expressive, clues to stress/comfort need to be gleaned from their behavior.

Signs of stress or “discomfort” include:

• Attempts to escape
• Hissing
• Non-feed induced biting
• Over alertness
• Mock striking
• Retraction of the head or tail induced by minor stimuli
• Immobility – whcih may included eye contact with keeper
• Hiding the head
• Clutching (tightly coiling or grasping)
• Death feigning (in animals that display this behavior)
• Stuttery, jittery or otherwise hesitant mobility
• Loop pushing with the intent to resist physical contact

Signs of comfort include:

• Sleep or repose
• Relaxed – not tense – immobility
• Relaxed or normal respiration rate
• Normal alertness
• Relaxed awareness
• Calm tasting or smelling of the air – measured in rate of tongue flicking
• Unhurried motion
• Normal feeding and drinking
• Relaxed grasp on handler

Since this is a ball pythons forum, it should be noted that signs of comfort should be congruent with normal behaviors the animals would display in the wild. In nature, ball pythons tend to spend the duration of the daylight hours in a resting phase and the nighttime hours in hunting mode (if hungry). Therefore any deviations from this behavior pattern in captivity such as restless daytime behavior should be considered as indications of stress or discomfort.

Reptiles in general (excluding the “smarter” species) tend to have limited stress responses to inadequate captive environmental conditions. The primary stress response is the displaying of search and escape behavior. This is often noted as general restlessness. The animal cannot find proper thermoregulation zones, or the animal cannot find a hide or retreat that fulfills its instinctual need to go into a diurnal or nocturnal resting phase.

The second general stress response is to biologically shut down in an attempt to minimize the stress induced by it’s captive environment. Signs of this are lack of basking behaviors and refusing to feed. Animals that are biologically shutting down may mimic hibernation behavior out of season.

It has been proposed that these two primary stress responses are dependent on natural behavior in the wild. Drymarchon, for example, are wanderers and should in theory display the former response. More sedentary species are prone to shutting down when stressed and will display the latter.

It should be noted that stress behaviors are not constant. Reptiles have overriding biological imperatives. A strong stimuli – such as a timed basking spot in a varanid – may cause a resumption of normal behavior. The key is to observe the animal’s behavior once that powerful stimulus is removed.

One of the things I’m always harping on is the importance of establishing protocols when bringing a new snake home. These protocols are implemented to reduce stress on all levels. They are:

• Do your homework – make sure the animal is housed in a habitat that properly provides for all of it’s environmental and behavioral requirements. These include proper levels of heat, proper thermoregulation zones, adequate space, etc.
• Place the enclosure in an area with little to no foot traffic, noise or vibration.
• After placing the animal in it’s new home, do not touch it or interact with it until it shows signs of comfort (as listed above)
• Do not feed the animal until it shows normal signs of hunger along with signs of comfort.
• Do not begin handling sessions outside of those required during routine maintenance until the animal begins to show signs of comfort.

At another time we can explore why the primary goal of every keeper should be to not follow cookie cutter instructions by species, but to begin to recognize the need to fine tune husbandry parameters even further by examining the individual tendencies and requirements of each animal in their care. There is a very obvious link between stress and disease in reptiles, and everything we do should be aimed at eliminating that risk in our collections

You CAN make an omelette without breaking eggs. It’s just a really bad omelette

A recent topic of conversation that is currently taking place on a Facebook group brings up the difference between making assumptions on the care of an animal versus understanding the biological imperatives of a species.

To the point, the discussion involved the diet of egg eating snakes and what would constitute an acceptable/suitable captive diet.

When is an egg not an egg? Why are some eggs more suitable than others?

There are fifteen species of Dasypeltis and one of Elachistodon that actually specialize in eating bird eggs.

The remaining species ate scaled reptile or squamate eggs. These squamate eggs eaters include the fourteen members of the Simoselaps genus, the fourteen members of Prosymna, and the two members of Phyllorhyncus.   There are also members of Oligodon, Stegnotus, Enulius,and Umbrivaga that can be included in this group.  In total, 45 species eat eggs, but not bird eggs.

This disparity (45 out of 61) between squamate and avian bird eaters is not accidental. Bird eggs have a tendency to be harder and larger than reptile eggs. Reptile eggs (except for some species) can be cut enlarged or specialized teeth so that the contents can be easily extracted and then digested.

It is no accident that many of the smaller species of specialized egg eaters are reptile eggs eaters. They are simply too small to ingest the larger eggs of native birds.

This brings up an important point that may be overlooked…do not feed a dedicated reptile egg eater a meal it cannot digest.

While a Prosymna may be able to swallow a small bird egg, it is not equipped to properly collapse or crush this hard egg and extract the contents. Similarly, it is ill equipped to eat squamate eggs that are not soft or pliable (many of the gecko species).

There is a natural overlap in which some of the larger reptile egg specialists will occasionally prey on bird eggs, but this overlap occurs with the larger species that possess more specialized dentition (Oligodon).

For what it’s worth, Prosymna will also eat termites, earthworms, small soil insects and small lizards.

Prospective keepers should focus on providing eggs that small enough to be consumed and pliable enough to be easily slit.

What the Hell Is a Unicolor Cribo?

That’s the question of the day – just what the hell is a unicolor cribo?

Anyone perusing the reptile classifieds has probably seen them for sale.

You may also have taken part in the debate as to whether or not they are a valid subspecies, or whether they are a locality variant or a regional intergrade.

Maybe you believe that they are a valid subspecies…but you feel that buying a “pure” example of this valid subspecies is impossible because current lines have been liberally intermixed with light colored black tail cribos.

Well, I am not in favor of giving out easy answers……….as I am a firm believer in doing research.  I am also a firm believer that anyone selling a unicolor cribo to a perspective buyer should be able to answer the following questions.

1. Where is the exact geographic range of the unicolor cribo?  What about the black tailed cribo?
2. Where do those ranges intergrade with other subspecies?  What other subspecies?
3. How many ventrals does a unicolor have?
4. How many ventrals does a black tail have?
5. How many super labials does a unicolor have compared to a black tail?
6. Can they compare the infralabials between the two species?  How many come in contact with the chin shields?  The anterior chin shields?
7. How many preoculars?  Postoculars?  Does this differ from counts on a black tail?
8. What are the caudal scale count differences (if any) between the two species?
9. Does the breeder feel that unicolors are a valid subspecies?  Have them explain their reasoning.
10. Can the breeder trace his unicolors to a locality?  Just how does the breeder explain why his unicolors are unicolors?

I think that any responsible Drymarchon breeder would have no problems discussing the above questions with a potential buyer.

See, I know people who don’t think they are a valid subspecies – but cannot explain why.

I also know people who breed them and sell them, but cannot verify the locality of their animals.  Or discuss how a unicolor differs from a black tail – other than the color of the tail.

Mindless Parroting and the “Karl Schmidt Analogy”

When discussing opistoglyphous snakes with other people, you will eventually have someone drop the dreaded “Karl Schmidt” analogy on you.

The analogy attempts to draw a parallel between the risk a contemporary keeper runs in getting bitten by a false water cobra, western hognose or baron’s racer to what happened to Dr. Karl P. Schmidt.  It attempts to romanticize the minimal risk that most of today’s rear fanged snake keepers face.

The Schmidt Analogy will be used on you at some point when discussing why commonly kept rear fangers probably will never cause a human fatality.  Here is an example of how The Analogy may be thrown in your face….

“Poo poo my assertion that you CAN die of a boiga dendrophilia bite all you want, but I don’t want to be the next…(insert dramatic pause here)…..KARL SCHMIDT!”

Or, another classic example…..

“So you don’t think that a false water cobra can kill you?  Well KARL SCHMIDT thought that boomslangs were harmless and look what happened to HIM!”

There are several problems with these statements, and “The Analogy” in general.

However before we breakdown the logical fallacy of this analogy, we should probably discuss who Dr. Karl Schmidt was and exactly what happened to him.

Dr. Karl P. Schmidt was an American herpetologist – arguably one of the most influential and important of the first half of the 20th century.  During his career he authored over 200 books and articles, served as the president of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists and was the curator of amphibians and reptiles at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History.   He was a leading expert on micurus – having described several subspecies of  dumerilii, dissoleucus, elegans, hemprichii, lemniscatus, nigroncinctus, etc.

In other words, he was no dummy.  He had an intimate knowledge of the animals he worked with – and was no stranger to venomous snakes.

On September 25, 1957 Dr. Schmidt was, along with Dr. Robert Inger; working with a young boomslang at the Field Museum.  In his own words, he described the bite that ultimately resulted in his death.

I took it [the boomslang] from Dr. Robert Inger without thinking of any precaution, and it promptly bit me on the fleshy lateral aspect of the first joint of the left thumb. The mouth was widely opened and the bite was made with the rear fangs only, only the right fang entering to its full length of about 3 mm.

The next day at 3 PM, Dr. Schmidt was dead of respiratory paralysis.  An autopsy report showed hemorrhaging in his lungs, renal pelvis and small intestine – all effects of the hemotoxic venom of the dispholidus typus that bit him.

Schmidt was noted as being a meticulous note taker and documented his reaction to the bite up until his death.  These are now generally referred to as his “death notes”.  These were later published by Clifford H. Pope, another famed herpetologist.

9:00 PM-12:20 AM Slept well. No blood in urine before going to sleep, but very small amount of urine. Urination at 12:20 AM mostly blood, but small in amount. Mouth had bled steadily as shown by dried blood at both angles of mouth.”

Pay attention, users of the Schmidt Analogy – in 1957, the toxicity of dispholidus typus venom was well established.  Dr. Schmidt was not dealing with an unknown factor here – for in 1940 Grasset and Schaafsma had documented the toxicity of  boomslang venom.

In other words, Dr. Schmidt was well aware that he had been bitten by a highly venomous snake. Any argument regarding a lack of knowledge as to the toxicity of the boomslang is therefore totally and completely invalid.

The problem was that Dr. Schmidt had incorrectly assumed that due to the age and temperament of the snake, and the characteristics of the bite, that he was not at risk.

Pope, in his comments that accompanied Schmidt’s published notes states.

That Dr. Schmidt’s optimism was extremely unfortunate is proved by his death, but it must be admitted that there was some justification: The boomslang was very young and only one fang penetrated deeply. However, almost two decades ago careful experimentation by Grasset and Schaafsma (South African Med. Jour., 1940, 14: 236-41) showed that boomslang venom has an extraordinarily high toxicity, even higher than those of such notorious snakes as cobras, kraits, and mambas. This fact alone dictates extreme caution in handling boomslangs of all sizes, even though they be among the most mild tempered of venomous snakes.

This is where the logic of the Schmidt Analogy fails.  Karl Schmidt was not dealing with an unknown snake of unknown toxicity.  The venom of the boomslang and it’s effects had been documented at least 17 years prior to his death.

The Schmidt Analogy relies on the ASSumption that Karl Schmidt was unaware of the potential lethality of a boomslang bite.

The Schmidt Analogy ASSumes that in 1957, the toxicity of boomslang venom was unknown.

The Schmidt Analogy is based on a lack of knowledge – specifically a lack of knowledge concerning the details of Dr. Schmidt’s death and a lack of knowledge as to what the herpetological world knew regarding the toxicity of dispholidus typus venom.

The Schmidt Analogy is an insult to Dr. Schmidt and is an example of internet pap run amok.  It is a prime exemplar of mindless parroting and how such parroting can eventually eclipse facts.