Blindly pulling out a yellow-ringed black-colored snake by its tail, thinking it is a Wolf snake wasn't a very clever idea after all. Now that I think of it, letting it bite me twice and vanish in the bushes without having a proper look at it was an even bigger mistake.
In 21st century, you can trust no one - not even your brain. So yea, coming back... On a fine herping trail on one warm night, my friend spotted a snake resting on tree bark and exclaimed "Wolf Snake!", from a 10-meter distance from the snake. That is when my excitement hormones kicked in, they seduced my brain - took all control of my body while my brain lied on the ground like a thrashed tramp - completely useless. The sly hormones made me run to the snake, and pull it out in a jerk, without checking if it is a Krait or Wolf snake. They didn't stop there, they commanded my hands to go near its head, which resulted in two stapler pin-like teeth disfiguring my thumb tissues two times, and that is when my spinal cord thought to take charge, I yanked my hand - it had started to bleed. By that time, the snake fell into the bushes and was nowhere to be seen. My brain, still in the hangover of hormonal abuse that it had gone through, was slowly gaining conscious and that's when I was presented with the possibility of that snake being a krait - extremely venomous.
The idea terrified me. It released more hormones, this time, Fear hormones. Fear hormones are not to be underestimated they can very well take charge of thinking and believe me, they are not very good thinkers. they make you do stupid things. Shortly after the bite, I started feeling abdominal pain, one of the first symptoms that occur after a Krait Hickie, my brain wanted me to think that it is a placebo but the fear hormones opposed it, I was anxious. Very very anxious.
We were more than an hour away from the nearest medical facility, we reached our room... I told about the incident to Varad, Anna and the others, they were furious.
In hindsight, I kind of knew that it was a Wolfie and not a Krait, but the uncertainty about it in mind and the guilt of being so careless got the best of me.
You can only afford to make such mistakes once. Had it been a krait, I wouldn't be writing this post today. Stay safe guys!
You see, the thinking organ of my body that evolved for who knows how many million years for only one purpose - Survival, always backs off when the hormones are in action. Hormones don't think, they're just chemicals flooding the neurons - tickling the synapses, so they stop making sensible decisions. It wasn't a voluntary spontaneous action, my Brain wants me dead - it has played such cheap tricks before as well - when it made me believe that taking a sip of industrial iodine from my biology experiment and scaring people with my purple tongue would be a cool thing to do and when it convinced me that I was capable swimming up to the deep side of the pool all by myself and throw my floating tube to the other side.
In 21st century, you can trust no one - not even your brain. So yea, coming back... On a fine herping trail on one warm night, my friend spotted a snake resting on tree bark and exclaimed "Wolf Snake!", from a 10-meter distance from the snake. That is when my excitement hormones kicked in, they seduced my brain - took all control of my body while my brain lied on the ground like a thrashed tramp - completely useless. The sly hormones made me run to the snake, and pull it out in a jerk, without checking if it is a Krait or Wolf snake. They didn't stop there, they commanded my hands to go near its head, which resulted in two stapler pin-like teeth disfiguring my thumb tissues two times, and that is when my spinal cord thought to take charge, I yanked my hand - it had started to bleed. By that time, the snake fell into the bushes and was nowhere to be seen. My brain, still in the hangover of hormonal abuse that it had gone through, was slowly gaining conscious and that's when I was presented with the possibility of that snake being a krait - extremely venomous.
 |
| Left - Many Banded Krait ~~~~~~ Right - Banded Wolf Snake (only for representation) |
The idea terrified me. It released more hormones, this time, Fear hormones. Fear hormones are not to be underestimated they can very well take charge of thinking and believe me, they are not very good thinkers. they make you do stupid things. Shortly after the bite, I started feeling abdominal pain, one of the first symptoms that occur after a Krait Hickie, my brain wanted me to think that it is a placebo but the fear hormones opposed it, I was anxious. Very very anxious.
We were more than an hour away from the nearest medical facility, we reached our room... I told about the incident to Varad, Anna and the others, they were furious.
In hindsight, I kind of knew that it was a Wolfie and not a Krait, but the uncertainty about it in mind and the guilt of being so careless got the best of me.
You can only afford to make such mistakes once. Had it been a krait, I wouldn't be writing this post today. Stay safe guys!