Snake Appreciation Post!

Who doesn’t love snakes? Well…okay maybe a lot of people, but honestly snakes are a really important part of a healthy ecosystem and we think that there are at least five reasons to love them! 

#1: Snake Venom is used for good! While one of the main reasons people fear snakes is their venomous bite, snake venom is being used by scientists to create life-saving drugs including treat hypertension heart disease, and renal disease in diabetes patients! 

Eastern Diamondback Rattle Snake whose venom is used in medical research

#2: Snakes are an excellent source of rodent control. Without snakes, we would be overrun with rodents in our homes! Snakes help maintain the balance of animal populations by acting as both predator and prey. When snake populations decline, pest populations can increase, which can lead to crop damage and the spread of disease.

Indigo Snake at Oatland Island Wildlife Center

#3: Seed Dispersal: if you love seeing flowers bloom and plants grow out in nature, you have snakes to thank alongside those bees. Snakes eat critters that eat lots of seeds (like mice and rats) and these seeds are transported in the snake's gut as they slither around and then are dispersed when the snake defecates. Seed dispersal is an important way for plants to populate an area and they have snakes to thank! 

A small garter snake slithering in the flowers

#4 Keeping the tick population at bay: We may not love ticks, but we do know that they love to snack on warm-blooded mammals! By eating the mammals that they often snack on, snakes help keep tick populations lower than they would be if snakes didn’t exist! 

#5 Biodiversity: Snakes not only keep prey populations from becoming overpopulated, but they are an important food source to many mammals and birds of prey! So even if you can’t love a snake, if you love other animals that eat them you can appreciate them for their role in biodiversity and the health of an ecosystem. Right?

Snakes are scary to many people and that’s okay. Fears don’t have to be dismissed to be able to appreciate all of the good that snakes do for their ecosystems, and for humans! Come visit Oatland Island Wildlife Center and take a look at our snakes that are safely contained! We hope you can appreciate their beauty and their importance to our wild places!