Thursday 31 July 2008

Don't Wear Flip-Flops

Yet another sad story on breakfast time TV of a young girl who was bitten on her toe by an Adder (Vipera berus) as she walked on a gravel path in a natural history reserve. It is very likely that the adder was making the most of the limited opportunities to bask in the present 'summer' and might have been a bit slow to remove itself after detecting the vibrations of the walkers. The snake certainly wasn't responding offensively (it essentially 'wasted' its venom). I suppose that the basic 'take home message' is to wear appropriate shoes in such locations (as well as not to go charging through any undergrowth)?

No comments:

A Chilling Suggestion From BORIS

'BORIS' is the acronym for the Swedish Childhood Obesity Treatment Register. Academics, from Stockholm's Karolinska Institute...