I’ve been thinking a lot about snakes lately. No, this isn’t a political post … although I suppose I could go there. But I won’t. No, I’m intrigued by the whole putting rattlesnakes on one of the islands in the Quabbin Reservoir issue.
As a young girl growing up in Texas, I used to swim with the snakes. And the alligator gar fish. I had no choice, really. If you wanted to water ski or swim in a river, arroyo, resaca or reservoir in Texas, you took the good with the bad. While swimming, you would see the calm water wiggling in a telling way. If you were water skiing and jumping wakes to ski in the calm areas outside the wake, you were always subject to unearthing water moccasin nests near and along the shore. And the alligator gar loved to chase the boat, hence the skier attached to it.
Here’s a brief definition of the alligator gar’s fascination: “Unlike other gar species, mature alligator gars have a dual row of large sharp teeth in the upper jaw which they use for impaling and holding prey. They are stalking, ambush predators that are primarily piscivores, but will also ambush and eat water fowl and small mammals that may be floating on the surface.” At the time I was a relatively small mammal. Yet, I’m here to tell this story.
We humans need to live with nature and all its wonderful, if not creepy and sometimes dangerous, creatures. You go about your business; they’ll go about theirs. The snakes won’t attack you. When the occasional alligator gar comes a calling, be smart. But if the powers that be in the State of Massachusetts think you’re dumb enough to think that the snakes won’t swim to other shores, they’ve got another think coming.
Roxann Wedegartner
Greenfield