Over-educated and Underfunded
Weird, wacky and wonderful stories and sketches from biologists in the field.
By Vincent DiringerWorking in the field ensures you will have some remarkable encounters and unique experiences. From finding scorpions living in every crevice of our field camp to stumbling upon a newly discovered species of snail or spotting a hard to find endemic lizard, I have some fond wildlife memories. This one, however, was not such a wonderful moment... Its early March in Malaysia. We are being buffeted by the remnants of the monsoon and all the ferry terminals have had to close due to the adverse weather, unceremoniously postponing our plans to travel to our island basecamp with a group of now disappointed high school students. Keen to keep spirits high, the teachers give the students free time for the rest of the afternoon, allowing themselves and the biologists time to figure out the monsoon contingency plan. While between phone calls I start walking around the resort, aimlessly kicking rocks until I notice something out of the corner of my eye. Thirty meters away to my left, there is a thin stick jostling on the ground moving away from me. “Snake!” I yell enthusiastically, hoping to grab the attention of my colleagues, “What kind?” comes the response as I hear frantic footsteps behind me “I don’t know let me get closer, it looks like it could be a juvenile. As I get close enough to start identifying my new reptilian friend I realize that not only have my colleagues rushed over in excitement but so have several students and a biology teacher intrigued by my shrieking. The danger noodle is still slithering away, it is roughly thirty centimeters long, maybe two centimeters wide… jet black… rounded head... it has a noticeable hood… oh dear. Students are starting to congregate as the silky spitting cobra tries to leave as quickly as possible, the biology teacher turns to me, “Uhh... is that… what I think it is?” “Well, yes,” I say, trying to gloss over the fact I’d unwittingly drawn a crowd of pupils under our care to come see one of Asia’s most venomous snakes, “Come on guys lets leave this snake alone, nothing to see here, go back to your rooms, snakes aren’t that interesting anyways, lets leave this little guy alone.” Thankfully the students disperse fairly easily as we remind them that any wildlife they see or find must be treated with respect and that whatever it may be, they should seek us out to report what they encounter. The teacher shares a nervous giggle with the rest of us as we watch the slippery serpent disappear into a storm drain. We alert the resort staff to the presence of a juvenile spitting cobra on the grounds, to which they inform us that they’ve been dealing with several over the past few days, suggesting an adult female has made herself comfortable somewhere near and nested, resulting in a brood of adorable yet dangerous snake babies roaming the area. Feeling both excited and worried about the prospect of multiple tiny cobras staring at us from the shadows we decided to keep a watchful eye for the sneaky reptiles and reminded everyone to only use lit pathways when moving around. The weather would abate and we would leave the next day, making that my first and only encounter with an Equatorial Spitting Cobra (Naja sumatrana). I’ve now learnt to not loudly exclaim what I’ve spotted until I can accurately determine what it is. No students, biologists or snakes were hurt during these events.
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About the AuthorsThese stories come from several biologists working in the field around the globe. Archives
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