Why?

[cheryl]

Probably. About the coolest thing I ever saw was a mom and her toddler in a pet store. Baby was sitting on the counter holding a large Boa with the help of an employee. Mom was cowering in the corner, obviously scared silly. Really admired the mom for exposing kid to something she feared herself. And I guess we did grow up with snakes. Mom would have killed us if we had ever hurt any animal. But...some of my siblings hate snakes. Ever construsted a hybernarium?

[abcat1993]

It's just an irrational fear that people have. Even my friend who has a milk snake would be afraid to have a snake over 10 feet living in his room, even though it could barely eat a medium sized dog (so, I guess he might be scared for his cats, who knows?).

[GarterGuy]

Pretty much it's a fear that is taught to us and some of it might be instictual??? It's actually a good survival attribute to be "afraid" of snakes. Snakes CAN kill you, so naturally wanting to leave them alone or get away from them could be considered a good thing. Problem is that this then turns into hate and the thought that they are our enemies....this is where things go wrong. Also, snakes are very "alien" to a lot of people, they just don't know anything about them and people usually fear what they don't understand. I won't eve get into the whole Biblical snake issues, but yeh, they're there too. Like anything else that's "different" though, it just seems easier to fear and hate then to take the time to learn about them and understand them. Unfortuately a lot of people take this stance on a lot of things.
Roy

[adamanteus]

Hi Cheryl, and welcome to the forum. Personally I don't think there's much instinct involved, I think it's purely a learned behaviour. I believe our instincts kick in when a genuine threat is perceived.....a snake hisses, a dog bares it's teeth, a person raises their hand etc. But that's just my opinion.

Ever construsted a hybernarium?

I have constructed a hibernaculum. Unfortunately, because of where I live, it will never be utilized by reptiles. However, every year I have hedgehogs, rodents, frogs and toads and a huge selection of invertebrates over-winter in it.