World Snake Day: Know their role, play your part in saving them

Marked planet more than on July 16 each and every year, World Snake Day was developed to spread awareness concerning the reptile and its significance in the meals chain.

On the occasion, Muscat Daily spoke to the analysis division in the Nizwa University to locate out about snakes endemic to Oman and bust some typical myths surrounding them. There are 22 snake species in Oman and most of them are identified in Dakhliyah, Salalah and the Batinah area. While most of these snakes are harmless, only nine to ten are the poisonous assortment, mentioned Ahmed al Busaidi, a researcher at the Natural and Medical Sciences Centre.

“Snakes are an important part of the food chain. They eat rats, birds and are eaten by fox and other bigger animals. This helps maintain a balance in the nature and the environment. In Oman, there are about ten dangerous snakes found mostly in the seas and there are six which are endangered.”

Snakes are frequently killed simply because of worry. People frequently step on them and they hiss. In panic they get killed. Another trigger of their dwindling population is urbanisation, Busaidi mentioned. “Snakes attack only in two cases: fear and self defence. Until now there has been no record of deaths due to snake bites in the country recently, though there have been reports of people being hospitalised for a brief duration. But with the help of anti-venom they recovered soon. Big animals like Arabian leopards, hyenas, wolves have often fallen prey to snakes but there are few records.”

Snakes breed in the course of the summers and hibernate in caves and rocks in the course of the winter season. Oman has a number of varieties of snakes. “In Oman you can find them in water, caves, rock, sand, trees and wadis,” he added.

Snakes typically develop from a single to two metres in Oman. The ever-active Arabian cobra that grows up to 2m is identified in south Salalah, mentioned Busaidi.

Information Source: Muscat Daily