Strange People ?

In the book "Among Snakes" by Jeremy Seal, published in August 2000 (Eichborn-Verlag), I have found a quite true – even if a bit condescending – description of people whose passion is to keep and take care of snakes.

In his account of herpetologists in East Africa in the 1930s he describes them as follows:

"They were loners, and often the company of snakes seemed to be more pleasant than the company of people - …

These men were undoubtedly eccentrics, but most of all they distinguished themselves by their practical nature. More than anything else they loved to care about their snakes' needs – to encourage them to eat or to breed in captivity, to treat them with pyrethrum powder against the scourge of a snake's existence – mites, to capture them, transport them without hurting them, to milk them successfully, to build and furnish boxes and terrariums for them and to invent improvements for their capturing tongs and snake hooks. A lot of their knowledge came from their own experience.

They regarded themselves as reptile doctors, breeders and snake experts. And in this modest field they shine. They regarded the progresses they made in keeping snakes as their biggest achievement in their lives."