When I think of all the fascinating things I have seen in this natural world I have been exploring well over 40 years, one of the most fascinating is a little snake that my grandmother told me was a puff adder. It is also known as a hog-nosed viper, a spreading adder and other names. One of the things I have a hard-time understanding is the fact that no two of them are alike in coloration or pattern. If you want to see photos of some I have seen, go to the website www.larrydablemontoutdoors and you can look at about a half dozen or so photos of the snake that knows how to scare the dickens out of you. I don’t write much about what I learn from books or Internet info, but rather from what I have seen or experienced.

Many years ago I was the Chief Naturalist for Arkansas State Parks and Buffalo Point Park on the river south of Yellville was actually a state part for a year after I took that job. I hired several college students who were in natural history studies. Two of the best were John Green and Randy Johnson, who helped me build 3 different trails there, still in use today. We would take daily hikes on those trails back then and on one hike we came across a good-sized hog nose snake, nearly 15 inches long which is about as big as they get. John picked it up and showed it to all of about 40 hikers and then put it on the ground where it put on a show, spreading wide its head and neck like a miniature cobra and coiling its tail as they often do when endangered. That rascal looked really dangerous. I predicted what it would do, and it began to spit out a foul-smelling spittle, then bit itself repeatedly. Within seconds it began to die, writhing in pain, rolling over on its back and soon lying dead still with just a slight quivering of the tail. John knelt down and rolled it over upright, and it rolled over upside down again, knowing full well that something dead always lies on its back.

Randy told folks how the little snake actually had venom and small fangs in the rear of its mouth, so far back they could only be used to stun the toads, which are the main diet of the hog-nose snake. We took the opportunity to tell the hikers that they would only find 3 other snakes with venom in the region, and told about the guy who put his finger back on the fangs of a larger hog-nose snake and injected it with that tiny dose of venom. I wrote about that in last week’s column.

We also told folks that many snakes would bite, but the bites would be harmless. But we explained that banded water snakes had a number of sharp teeth and contained a natural anti-coagulant in their saliva inside the mouth that would allow a person to bleed and bleed and bleed. That came to pass later that summer when we gave a snake demonstration at the park with some captive snakes we had. A water snake bit my finger and it bled for five minutes without clotting.

The hognose snake has no equal as a species of great fascination. What surprised me most is the variety of colors and markings it comes in. I can show that only in a number of photos on my website and I urge you to go there and see those. They are found on www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com.

On Sunday afternoon July 16, we will have a meeting in Buffalo, Mo to try to revive an old group called “Common Sense Conservationists.” It will be held at a great restaurant called Jem’s, where you can eat dinner from an unbelievable buffet until 2 p.m. and then attend our meeting in their air-conditioned meeting room, which will seat more than 100.

The purpose of the meeting is to re-establish a group of conservation-minded citizens to try to oppose much of what the Missouri Department of Conservation is doing in our state, which is corrupt and wasteful, and downright illegal. Actual conservation issues, like our rivers, and the decline of wild turkeys, is ignored, while they have enriched the Bass Pro Shop owners and many of our states judges. I will back up those charges on July 16.

If we can sign up 250 members this year, we can make a change. That membership will grow. The old group, from 25 years ago, actually got much done, and worked with some MDC people to accomplish much. But today most of them have passed away.

If you are someone inclined to complain about the abuse from agents and the actual misuse of money we all give them, please attend. If this goes well, there will be future meetings all over the state, well into the fall. If we don’t do something now, the MDC will never change. Its power keeps it unaccountable to anyone. Legislators fear them. Lets create some power to oppose them. I have made about 100 fliers for anyone who wants to put them up in their area. At the meeting I will have photos you need to see, to back up what I am saying. We need leaders… be one!

Call me at 417-777-5227 or email me at lightninridge47@gmail.com to get those fliers. Please come to our meeting, and bring others with you.