My moral compass is playing up

As a biologist and academic that has been working with venomous snakes for near on 25 years, I shoulder the burden that all snake handlers labour under: we have a moral and ethical obligation to positively portray highly venomous snakes to the general public, often in situations where there is good cause for the public to regard them with disdain.

Whether it be true or not, I believe my burden is a little heavier than most because I have spent years researching one of the most feared and loathed snakes in Australia. Unlike the average ameteur snake catcher or hobby keeper, when I speak I am ethically obliged, as a scientist, to speak the truth. 

But what exactly is the truth? The most fundamental paradigm in science is that there is no certainty, only uncertainty that needs explanation. That is, you cant prove something; you can only disprove it.

When I am on camera should I being saying things like 'snakes are only dangerous if you get bitten': 'leave them alone and they will leave you alone'; 'snakes are timid and defensive, not assertive and aggressive'; 'snakes don't chase people'; 'if you see a snake and you stand still you will not get bitten'.

If you stand still it wont bite you

From the minute I could speak with any real authority (the day after I bagged my first large venomous snake) I preached the positive message because I genuinely believed I could turn the tide of public opinion on snakes: I genuinely believed I could make the public, if not like, at least respect snakes and end the days of wanton snake whacking. I have exhausted myself denouncing the age old adage that the only good snake is a dead snake. 

I adore snakes; there is not question about that. I don't want to see any snake come to harm equally as much as I don't want to see anyone getting bitten trying to kill a snake that they feel threatened by. But what right have I to impose my values on 'Joe Public' who is out walking one day and steps within 15cm of a Tiger Snake. 

I think it is time to tone it down; wind it back a notch. How I feel is how I feel. It is neither my obligation nor is it my responsibility to exhaust myself any longer trying to brainwash the public into believing my assertions that actually have no scientific basis; and that is a fact, they don't!!!!!

Whether I like it or not many snakes are highly venomous, they bite people and people die. Not often, but it happens.

The only good snake is a live snake!

Aggressive: adjective - characterized by or tending toward unprovoked offensives, attacks, invasions, or the like; militantly forward or menacing (Dictionary.com).

I do not know who this person is and, as such, I do not mean him any disrespect. But if you are going to perpetuate untruths in the media, then you open yourself up to criticism. He is described, in an article in the Sunday Times, as a 'veteran' snake handler; self-taught. I appreciate that he has probably saved a great many snakes. However, when you wantantly perpetuate myth to increase hype you are effectively doing more harm than good.

In the Perth Now video (Disgusting display of snake relocation) he can be seen manipulating this large dugite (see photo) like an absolute novice. The level of  his ineptitude for the task is astounding. Releasing the animal from a bag, he then proceeds to joust at it with a metal rake, of all things. At one point he slams the rake down on the animal before rolling the rake and trying to flick the snake away. I speculate that, given the girth of the snake and the width between the teeth of the rake, he may well of caused the snake significant injury.

What is more astounding still is that this person features so prominently in the weekend paper as an authority on Perth's venomous herpetofauna. I suspect, though I cannot know for sure, that he does not even hold the appropriate licence to relocate venomous snakes as 99.9% of people willing to invest time and money into a snake relocation training course will immediately go out and purchase the appropriate tools to undertake the task.

This snake has become so agitated at the point of release from the bag that it turns defensively on the person releasing it - Mr Smartt. Why? Simply because he has been thrust out into the open with no immediate refuge under which to hide. A menacing aggressor is thrusting at him from behind. Of course this snake is going to about-face and initiate a defensive display to ward off this threat. It is that split second choice of flight or fight; when there is no where to hide, of course the snake is going to try and defend itself. 

But please don't, for one second that this snake is aggressive. It is not - it is scared and it is trying to defend itself. Mr Smartt has no place calling it aggressive. The unfortunate consequence of this article is another giant leap backwards for this fauna group. Already unloved, feared and loathed an article like this, to 'Joe' public just validates the mantra that 'the only good snake is a dead snake'. 

Biologically blind - the eyes wide shut approach to biological surveys.

I think this is going to be a long one so hang in there.

As a research scientist and professional consultant to the mining industry it is no surprise that I have no time for witch hunts. Hang on.....let me start again. 

As a biological consultant to the burgeoning, fast-paced, highly-charged, cut-throat, kill or be killed, live and let die mining and resource industry I have one purpose and one purpose only - to provide clear, concise and impartial assessments of the biology of an area targeted for potential impact to the environmental regulators on behalf of my clients. I have no time for witch hunts.

It is my job to look for animals - that is what I do. Before I embark on a survey I compile a list of species I might expect to encounter and I invest every ounce of energy I can muster into finding each and every one of those species. Many are rare and so it is no surprise that we never find them all.

Unfortunately, it has only just occurred to me that I have been wandering the most remote of the Australian wilderness with my eyes wide shut.

Predators (which is essentially what I am) hunt based on a search image. It is far easier to find something when you know what you are looking for as you have captured it previously. As a consequence, predators don't tend to notice what they are not looking for. They stay in the zone with their blinkers on. 

For 20 years I have delighted in finding the longest snakes, the fattest lizards, the most rotund frogs, the most monstrous crocodiles and the most colourful geckos that I could reasonably expect to see in each of the project areas I have surveyed. True - every now and then something unexpected crosses my path, but it is the exception rather than the norm. 

However, it is that wanton expectation that may well have caused me to miss all of those animals that supposedly no longer exist. Cryptozoology is a whole new dimension of ecology that, until very recently, I had never ever even bothered to investigate. 

Now before you question my sanity, professional integrity and pharmaceutical intake please consider this case study: Megalania

From fossil records this animal is reported to have grown up to 25 feet  (ft) or 7 meters (m) in length and weighed over 600 kilograms (kg). It is thought to have become extinct between 20 000 - 40 000 years ago. It was closely related and supposedly looked similar to the modern day Komodo Dragon which is less than half this size. It is also closely related to the ridiculously common Lace Monitor, distributed across the eastern states of Australia.

Over recent decades there have been a great many reported sightings of this giant lizard, but all are usually dismissed as fascicle and whimsical fairy tales. No doubt they are very real and very visceral to those actual eyewitnesses that encountered them. But, as is usually the case, people will only believe what they want to believe.  

But if half-a-dozen people have reported seeing 25+ ft giant lizards, how many hundreds or thousands of people have not bothered to report their encounters with 10 ft lizards?  In Australia a 5 m crocodile is everyday news, so (to the lay person) a 10 ft lizard is no news at all. But the simple fact is that there are no (NONE, ZIP, ZERO) 10 ft lizards known to science in Australia today. The largest is the Perentie at 7 ft. 

To make my point I actually only just made a random phone call to an every day bloke (a parent of one of my daughters friends). I asked what he would do if he was driving through the bush in the hills east of Perth and he saw a three metre long lizard crossing the road. He simply said and I quote “ pull up, let it cross and stay out of its way”.

Not for one second did he consider, think or realise that Australia simply does not have lizards that long. He did not indicate the slightest inclination that he might report it to a Museum, or to the Department of Parks and Wildlife or the local Shire. 

Why has it or is it not seen more often???? Maybe it is and people just don’t realise what they are seeing.

I actually spoke with a gentleman in Townsville who is happy to go on the record and recount his encounter with a 3.5 m lizard less than 18 months ago. When he saw it, he was shocked but he simply thought it was, and I quote  a ‘bloody big lizard’. Never for a moment did he consider his encounter worthy of any further thought. 

My point is that we (the biologists) might be unfortunate not to have seen Megalania in the wild because it could be exceptionally rare and be isolated to pockets of the Australian wilderness that few people ever survey. But just because biologists have not recorded it does not mean it does not exist!!

My scientific background is based around how reptiles survive and respond to their changing environment. There is a very strong case, based on the physiology and ecology of large reptiles, that Megalania could still exist today albeit as a smaller variant.

There are innumerable examples in the natural world of shifts in the size of certain reptile species. In almost every case, body size changes over time in direct correlation with changes in available prey size. The giant Chappell Island Tiger Snakes that feed once a year on large mutton bird chicks are perhaps the best known example. These snakes have increased to almost twice the size of the average mainland tiger snake in less than 10 000 years of isolation on islands between Victoria and Tasmania. Their size has been determined by their prey. On other islands where tiger snakes do not have large prey to feed on they have not changed in size at all. 

Is it unreasonable to expect then that the average size of Megalania could have reduced over 40 000 to reflect the reduction in their prey size?  

At 25 ft and weighing 600 kg early Megalania would have happily chowed down on Diprotodon optatum which, at 3 m long, 2 m high at the shoulder and weighing up to two tonnes, resembled a giant wombat. Today's wombats would represent an afternoon snack for early Megalania. Over 40 000 years Megalania has, most likely, reduced in size too. 

In my travels as a biologist I have dismissed a thousand huge tail drags as large kangaroos or snake slides, rather than giant monitor lizards. I am an expert and I know the difference.......Or do I? 

I speak fluent geologist

At 0730 hours (that is military for late-morning) two geologists arrived on my doorstep. This marked the start of an epic road trip. The three of us were to meet another three geologists at Dalwallinu. Five geologists.......one has to wonder why?

However, I quickly learnt that I was remiss in thinking that a geologist is a geologist is a geologist. Glasshouses.......stones (a biologist could be an ecologist, ecophysiologist or functional morphologist). All five were adamant that they each had their own unique skill set. 

We set off to look at a great many big holes in the ground on behalf of a very wealthy client that was on the acquisition trail. For those of you that are not geologists, see below a big hole in the ground. At this point logic would suggest that buying a big hole in the ground does not represent great value for money as all the valuable minerals have already been sequested away by the previous miner. Said miner is already wealthy from his toiling and is about to get wealthier from selling a big void full of air and surrounded on all sides by unstable dirt, with a duck pond in the bottom.

One biologist vs five geologists: I was as vulnerable as marsupial mole emerging among a pack of wild dogs during a full moon. I was surrounded on all sides by a knowledge that I did not understand and could not comprehend. I was certain that the next four days was going to be about as difficult as hydro-fracking the Canning Basin with a smokers lung full of hot air, a mouth full of saliva and a plastic straw. 

By the time we reached Cue (518 kms) I had audibly ingested as much as I could on the topic of Achaean gold occurrences, narrow nickel sulphides, porphyry style copper-gold deposits and epithermal gold and silver. 

By Meekatharra (737 kms) I had developed a diverse range of resource estimation skills and was beginning to understand the practical application of geostatistical and classical estimation techniques. But none of this was helping me to comprehend why anyone would want to buy a big hole that some other salty gold miner got bored of digging.

By Mt Augustus (1177 kms) I was well versed in geostatistical methodologies for the simulation of geotechnical fracture networks. 

We peeled west along the base of the Pilbara and then south to Murchison. At around 2000 kms I was pretty sure I needed to embrace the analytical power of Surpac, Micromine or Datamine to optimise all of the information I had taken in.

When we finally hit Geraldton we were on the home stretch (2500 kms). Sitting at the bar in the Geraldton Hotel I felt sure that I had mastered all of the technicalities of what I had embraced, including all of the univariate and multivariate linear and nonlinear facets of resource estimates. I had evolved an unexplained ability to conjur conditional and non-conditional simulations and employ variographic analysis to solve fundamental geological anomolies.

On reflection, after nearly 3000kms, I re-krigged my neighborhood analysis and did a complex wireframe QAQC of my rouge road crew. I concluded, at the end of my due diligence, that when you can speak geologist then geologists become a pleasure to travel with.