Great story!
From George Blasing
Yesterday I posted about the indiscriminate killing of animals because we don't understand the role they play in nature. Here's an example of how even the smallest of animals play an important role in nature and have a real effect on our lives.
This is a Texas Blind Snake. They are not really blind, BTW.
They are very small and are completely harmless to humans. In fact, they are actually very beneficial to us, even though you may have never seen one.
Looking and acting like a snake, they are often killed because people assume they are baby snakes that will grow up to be something sinister, like a cobra or python or other such deadly human killing machines known to slither throughout Texas and the Southwest. (for those who don't understand sarcasm, that was sarcasm.)
These tiny snakes burrow into ant and termite nests and eat the larva. So they are killing the very pests that so many of us try to get rid of thru the use of insecticides and poisons. So we stomp out nature's pest control and then poison our lawns because there is no pest control.
Now for a really interesting example of the complexity of nature.
Screech Owls are experts at keeping the rodent population under control. They catch and kill those "pesky" mice who make their way into our homes, causing us to, once again, poison our own environment to get rid of them.
Screech owls have been observed catching Texas Blind Snakes and carefully carrying them to their nest. They are not used as a food source, but instead as welcomed guests. The snake buries itself within the nesting material of the owl and then goes to work eating the parasites that attack the baby owls within the nest. In other words, the owls bring in nature's pest control to rid themselves of parasites that are dangerous to their babies.
Researchers have discovered that owl chicks whose nests have these snakes in them have a much greater survival rate than those that do not, because the snakes kill the parasites that feed on the chicks. A higher survival rate means more owls. More owls mean more mouse control. More mouse control means less need for poison. Less poison means better quality of life.
....my point is that when we indiscriminately kill animals, we have no real understanding of the impact we are having on our environment. I hope that the next time someone comes across one of these tiny snakes, we stop for a moment and realize that even the smallest animals can have a big impact on our lives.
Jen Panek Thank you for sharing this
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