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<p>It's the fear of snakes, and the phobia is quite common. Something about the scaly, slithering, legless creatures makes us want to run away or go into attack mode with a shovel.</p> <p>Texas has more varieties of snakes than any other state, according to Houston Zoo herpetology curator Stan Mays, who writes a blog about reptiles. More than 110 species and subspecies are native to Texas.</p>

Without any natural predators, authorities say it wouldn't take much for snakes to take root and multiply, potentially killing off endangered birds and flowers that make the islands special... Hawaii is so serious about keeping snakes out that the fine for possessing an illegal animal can reach $200,000 and up to three years in prison. But snake owners are granted amnesty if they willingly turn their pets over. Residents who unlawfully keep snakes as pets create a giant risk when the reptiles escape or are released into the wild. A 9-foot boa constrictor and 7-foot albino Burmese python were captured...

REXBURG - Located at 675 W. 5000 North, a house is listed to sell, but there is more to this abode than meets the eye: It is infested with garter snakes. The last owners of the home were Ben and Amber Sessions. They bought the house at what they thought was a great price. "We were told that the previous owners in there didn't want to make their payment because they made up a story that there were snakes there, that they didn't want to pay their mortgage so they made up a snake story," Ben Sessions said. The couple...

Charles "Jason" Darnell, 33, and Jaren Ashley Hare, 21, face third-degree murder and manslaughter charges stemming from the 2009 death of their daughter...Prosecutors will allege that "Gypsy," a 260 centimeter albino Burmese python, escaped from its glass tank, slithered down the hall and attacked the child in her crib. Darnell told detectives he found the snake in the hallway a day before the attack and had placed it back inside its tank and put a quilt on top of it. He also admitted that the snake had gotten out of the tank - which did not have a lock on...

<p>A snake conservationist who kept one of Europe’s biggest colonies of king cobras in a compound behind his house died yesterday after one of them bit him.</p> <p>Luke Yeomans had 24 snakes at his home and was due to open his king cobra sanctuary to the public this weekend.</p>

FYI: Copper thieves are known as "Copperheads", since they are lower than a snake's belly in a wheel rut!

Last year, the J.P. Morgan Chase banking unit foreclosed on a home near Rexburg, Idaho, that is infested with garter snakes. They slide through the yard, the crawl space, the walls, the ceilings, even across the floors. Sure, they're harmless, but there are perhaps thousands of them. They give off malodorous secretions when alarmed, and can even leave the well water tasting a bit like the way they smell.

This guy was just cleaning out the cobra pit. He yanked them out of their napping spots and tossed them aside so he could sweep up their poop, dried skin and eggs!

Record freezes and a fearsome drought have failed to kill off the Burmese pythons that have colonized the Everglades. Six of the non-native, constricting snakes were found last week in sections of the Everglades in which they had not turned up before, including an area north of Alligator Alley, according to the South Florida Water Management District. This further dashed hopes by scientists that the past winter's cold weather could kill off the snakes, which are native to the warmer climate of southern Asia.

National City, Calif.—A San Diego-area boxing gym that serves at-risk kids is showing what it takes to fight for what is right and to win.  A trial is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 14, 2011, to decide whether National City, Calif., may declare nearly 700 properties—including the gym—“blighted,” thus freeing the city to bulldoze these properties and make way for luxury condos among other private developments.  The trial will be held before the Honorable Steven R. Denton, Superior Court of California, Hall of Justice, 330 W. Broadway in San Diego, Calif. The Community Youth Athletic Center (CYAC) has had...

A 95-million-year-old fossil is helping scientists understand how snakes lost their legs through evolutionary time. Found in Lebanon, the specimen is one of only three examples of an ancient snake with preserved leg bones. One rear leg is clearly visible but researchers had to use a novel X-ray technique to examine another leg hidden inside the fossil rock. Writing in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the team says the snake records an early stage in limb loss.

A woman called authorities Sunday when she found fake snakes in her yard and piled at her front door. About 8:43 a.m., a deputy went to the woman’s Brady Way residence and met her in the front yard, according to a Bay County Sheriff’s Office incident report. Some time during the night, she said, someone had left fake snakes in her yard and at her door. She said she wasn't sure who may have left them, but she did have a fear of snakes and people at her workplace know that, she said. Her birthday was over the weekend, and...

A passenger was arrested after security officials discovered he had carried snakes, birds and a squirrel in hand luggage on a long-haul flight. In a thankfully less-dramatic version of the 2006 thriller film Snakes On A Plane, fellow passengers were blissfully unaware of the man's box full of pets.

A Darwin school student received an unexpected shock yesterday when they opened their schoolbag to retrieve their lunch only to discover a snake slithering inside. The student's quick-thinking teacher zipped up the bag and called in snake catcher Chris Peberdy to retrieve the reptile. "I got a call from a concerned school in the Darwin area that one of the students had opened their school bag and much to their surprise realised they had brought with them more than lunch," he said. "A snake had crawled in there, possibly the night before, and only showed itself in class. "The teacher...

An unusual breed of Asian snakes can glide long distances in the air, and the Department of Defense is funding research at Virginia Tech to find out why. Most animals that glide do so with fixed wings or a wing-like part. But not the "flying snakes" of Southeast Asia, India and southern China - at least five members of the genus Chrysopelea. As video of the reptiles show, they undulate from side to side, in almost an air-slithering, to create an aerodynamic system. It allows them to travel from the top of the biggest trees in the region (almost 200...

A female boa constrictor snake has given birth to two litters of extraordinary offspring. Evidence suggests the mother snake has had multiple virgin births, producing 22 baby snakes that have no father. More than that, the genetic make-up of the baby snakes is unlike any previously recorded among vertebrates, the group which includes almost all animals with a backbone. Details are published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. Virgin births do occur among animals. Many invertebrates, such as insects, can produce offspring asexually, without ever having mated. They usually do this by cloning themselves, producing genetically identical offspring. But...

A tourist is in intensive care after being bitten by a poisonous snake near a Florida resort's swimming pool. A Dr. P. Phillips Hospital spokeswoman said 45-year-old Eric Geisman of Pawtucket, R.I., was stable Tuesday. Orange County Fire Rescue spokesman John Mulhall says a crew responded to a 911 call Monday afternoon about a man bitten by a snake near a swimming pool at the J.W. Marriott Grande Lakes resort in Orlando. The fire rescue crew found and killed the water moccasin after transporting Geisman to the hospital. Geisman's sister-in-law tells the Orlando Sentinel that Geisman was bitten on the...

Mesa Grandfather Shoots Snake, Teaches Kids About Safety (Cannot be posted by by FR rules)

US authorities are trying to get rid of venomous snakes in its territory of Guam in the Pacific Ocean by 'bombing' the island with poisoned mice. Using helicopters from its Naval Base in Guam, scientists from the US department of agriculture have dropped mice packed with acetaminophen into the jungles in a ploy to rid Guam of its population of brown tree snakes, Fox News reported citing military news outlet Stars and Stripes. Guam's snake problem began in the 1980s, when the creatures arrived on the island accidentally in military cargo. The drug has already undergone extensive testing, said Dan...

As Republican leaders assess a Tea Party movement that has both energized and polarized their ranks, John McCain takes a generally benign view of the political landscape -- but clearly comes down on the side of the traditional establishment rather than with the young rebels. (snip) ...he said, "I hope I'll have the opportunity to spend some time helping and mentoring the next generation of Republicans who are ready to move in here."(snip) It was only when McCain began describing his plans for the coming campaign and his hopes for the Senate that it became clear where his influence will...