Campbell gives talk on snakes

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Campbell gives talk on snakes
The biology chair based the discussion of venomous reptiles and the effects of bites in his recently published book.

By Jessica Smith
The Shorthorn Staff

Biology Chair Jonathan Campbell’s first — and only — experience with a snakebite came in 1973 while working with a new snake collection at the Fort Worth Zoo.

He was bit by either a fer-de-lance or an asp, both highly venomous snakes and spent 11 days in the hospital in bright blue pajamas.

Hospital officials told him that most of him had recovered, he recalled with a laugh.

“They said ‘Well, everything’s working except your brain. We’re not sure about that,’ ” he told an audience of about 40 people Wednesday.

However, not even that could stop Campbell from continuing his snake research, which culminated into his latest book The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere, also the subject of his speech. He presented facts from his book about a variety of venomous reptiles at the lecture.

One of the smallest groups he studies is lizards. There are only two species of poisonous lizards in the world, the Gila monster and the beaded lizard, which were not originally thought to be dangerous. The Gila monster is interesting because the venom comes from the lower jaw, unlike snakes where it comes from the upper jaw, and because the venom is used as a defense mechanism, not to catch food, he said.

“Gila monsters are very slow, sluggish

animals,” he said.

Coral snakes boast about 70 species and often look the same, he said.

Tim Merkin, electrical engineering graduate student, said he was surprised that one common tactic to identify venomous coral snakes doesn’t work. It goes by the adage, “Red on yellow, kill a fellow, red on black, venom lack,” but Campbell doesn’t recommend using this guide.

To prove the point, he showed a slide with four snakes. All of them had red bands bordered by yellow and he asked the audience which was venomous. Campbell then surprised the group by saying that none of these snakes could harm them.

He also talked about the pit viper family, which has about 120 species, including some of the most dangerous snakes in the world, like rattlesnakes and copperheads. Later, he showed some slides of people that were bitten by snakes, which were hard for some, such as Stacy Merkin, to stomach.

“That was pretty scary but interesting,” the Key Control administrative clerk said.

One of the slides he showed was that of a friend who was bit by a Bushmaster pit viper. The bite causes massive swelling, so much so that when they slit into his arm it literally split open, exposing the muscles and blood vessels. Further, victims of the Bushmaster’s venom often have to sit in the hospital like this for several days before the swelling goes down. Hospital officials couldn’t sew his friend’s arm back up until then.

However, only about one in 1 million people die from snake bites, which illustrates that snakes aren’t as dangerous as they seem — just don’t eat them, he said.

“I don’t care what anybody tells me,” he said. “Rattlesnakes don’t taste like chicken.”