Stephen S. Hall

There's a sociality that was never understood because we didn't have the technology to see it. But once we begin to see individual snakes, we can begin to see these different behaviors.

There's a sociality that was never understood because we didn't have the technology to see it. But once we begin to see individual snakes, we can begin to see these different behaviors.

There's a sociality that was never understood because we didn't have the technology to see it. But once we begin to see individual snakes, we can begin to see these different behaviors.

Exactly. It's a warning. It's an alert. If you're getting too close, I'm sensing threat. And again, the snakes are not being aggressive in seeking people out. They're kind of warning you that you're getting close to them and they might perceive that as a threat. Now there's a fascinating anecdote from, it's almost a century now, of a woman named Grace Olive Wiley.

Exactly. It's a warning. It's an alert. If you're getting too close, I'm sensing threat. And again, the snakes are not being aggressive in seeking people out. They're kind of warning you that you're getting close to them and they might perceive that as a threat. Now there's a fascinating anecdote from, it's almost a century now, of a woman named Grace Olive Wiley.

Exactly. It's a warning. It's an alert. If you're getting too close, I'm sensing threat. And again, the snakes are not being aggressive in seeking people out. They're kind of warning you that you're getting close to them and they might perceive that as a threat. Now there's a fascinating anecdote from, it's almost a century now, of a woman named Grace Olive Wiley.

And she was a librarian in Minneapolis who liked snakes, and she collected lots of snakes, and she bred snakes, including rattlesnakes. And she had such a large collection that she was ultimately invited to be a curator of reptiles at the Brookfield Zoo, which is right outside Chicago.

And she was a librarian in Minneapolis who liked snakes, and she collected lots of snakes, and she bred snakes, including rattlesnakes. And she had such a large collection that she was ultimately invited to be a curator of reptiles at the Brookfield Zoo, which is right outside Chicago.

And she was a librarian in Minneapolis who liked snakes, and she collected lots of snakes, and she bred snakes, including rattlesnakes. And she had such a large collection that she was ultimately invited to be a curator of reptiles at the Brookfield Zoo, which is right outside Chicago.

But she had a habit of kind of letting venomous snakes kind of circulate and, quote, escape from their cages in the zoo, in the reptile house, and consequently was fired.

But she had a habit of kind of letting venomous snakes kind of circulate and, quote, escape from their cages in the zoo, in the reptile house, and consequently was fired.

But she had a habit of kind of letting venomous snakes kind of circulate and, quote, escape from their cages in the zoo, in the reptile house, and consequently was fired.

But she had this theory that snakes were so chemosensitive, and that is that they recognized chemical signatures so acutely that if she threw clothes that she had worn and had washed into the cages of snakes when they arrived, venomous snakes, that they would become habituated to her scent and would not perceive her as a threat. And then she went on to freehandle these very venomous snakes.

But she had this theory that snakes were so chemosensitive, and that is that they recognized chemical signatures so acutely that if she threw clothes that she had worn and had washed into the cages of snakes when they arrived, venomous snakes, that they would become habituated to her scent and would not perceive her as a threat. And then she went on to freehandle these very venomous snakes.

But she had this theory that snakes were so chemosensitive, and that is that they recognized chemical signatures so acutely that if she threw clothes that she had worn and had washed into the cages of snakes when they arrived, venomous snakes, that they would become habituated to her scent and would not perceive her as a threat. And then she went on to freehandle these very venomous snakes.

We're talking about rattlesnakes, cobras. And there are pictures of her practically nuzzling these serpents, you know, wrapping them around her neck, holding them without a problem. she ultimately succumbed to the bite of a cobra that had not been habituated in the same way.

We're talking about rattlesnakes, cobras. And there are pictures of her practically nuzzling these serpents, you know, wrapping them around her neck, holding them without a problem. she ultimately succumbed to the bite of a cobra that had not been habituated in the same way.

We're talking about rattlesnakes, cobras. And there are pictures of her practically nuzzling these serpents, you know, wrapping them around her neck, holding them without a problem. she ultimately succumbed to the bite of a cobra that had not been habituated in the same way.

Now, a lot of people think that she was kind of a little bit off the mark in terms of her knowledge, but when I mention this to people who are experts in chemosensation in reptiles now, they actually surprise me by saying, you know, that's actually entirely possible because these animals have such an acute sense of chemical perception

Now, a lot of people think that she was kind of a little bit off the mark in terms of her knowledge, but when I mention this to people who are experts in chemosensation in reptiles now, they actually surprise me by saying, you know, that's actually entirely possible because these animals have such an acute sense of chemical perception