It’s the height of the rainy season in Panama, and this is the time most snakes produce their young, either giving live birth, or laying eggs, depending on the species. It’s also the time of year you are most likely to actually see snakes, and it’s the time folks are most likely to get bitten. Almost all of the snake bites in Panama involve agricultural workers who are out in the fields and grass working on a daily basis. You are more likely to get struck by lightening in Panama than bitten by a snake.
Panama has 227 reptile species of which 127 are snakes. But don’t worry: only 22 are poisonous! But a number of the most deadly snakes are in Panama. The bushmaster is one of the deadliest in the world, but it is generally found only deep in the jungle. Around us you’re more likely to find, if you go looking or watch roadkill, the fer de lance or various species of coral snakes.
We had attended a lecture given by one of the snake experts from the Smithsonian Tropical Institute in Panama City. It was a great talk, illustrated with a number of live deadly snakes, including the bushmaster, fer de lance, eyelash viper and others common to our area. The next morning we went to Boca Chica to clean out the little casita by the beach we had just purchased. Nikki was sweeping up what looked like a pile or dirt in the corner, and a baby fer de lance when slithering away. The venom of the baby snakes is actually more potent! Fortunately there was an old machete laying there, so I sliced and diced . . . we don’t want to encourage fer de lances on our property, especially since the female can produce up to 80 offspring at a time! We’ve cleaned the property and hopefully by discouraging food sources (rats, mice, and lizards) we can encourage the rest of the fer de lance tribe to move on!
Last week we were down at Boca Chica and Daniel, the guy who has been helping me clean, found a baby boa all snuggled up in a cinder block. After a lot of prodding we got the unwilling snake out for a photo shoot before he slithered away. Boas are OK.
More dangerous for us at this time of year is the eyelash viper, a tiny little snake that conveniently changes color and likes to hang out in coffee trees. The interesting thing about this guy is that he has a tail like a monkey, so he can hold onto a branch by his tail and reach out to strike. Since our coffee is all picked by hand, it’s something our Gnobe Bugle neighbors who do all the picking need to watch out for.
And this is turning out to be a great year for coffee!
The harvest looks like it will be good! The coffee cherries are turning red and the Gnobe Bugle workers are out picking. One of the really neat things about living in Panama has been drinking our own home grown coffee!
1 response so far ↓
Pantah // November 13, 2008 at 9:56 am
I think Gnobe Bugle is the name of the Comarca which is the name of the two tribes in that area of which the Bugle is much smaller. I think the indigenos here refer to themselves as “Gnobe” and the language they speak is “Gnobere” and quite often Spanish. There are various spellings for Gnobe too. Not sure which is correct. They are also called “Guaymi”, but not sure if that is what they prefer.