Welcome to the Red Den: More Birds and now Snakes

More Birds and now Snakes

A type of African Weaver, these birds live in large communities,

localized in several neighboring trees,

the males build basket-like nests which the females lay eggs in,

here a male is beginning the project.

A little further along in the project

An example of many nests in a tree

This is the snake expert (and his son) who came to Toubaniso to educate us on all the various poisonous snakes in Mali, fortunately, he had living examples to show us - snakes he caught himself. He was also able to explain what being bit by a venomous snake was like (because he had been bit himself - many times). He also taught us what to do if we are bit - things to increase likelihood of survival. Here is a Boa he caught Native to southern Mali.

This is a very poisonous and deadly Viper that lives around and in our site, Gossi, there is no anti-venom for this Viper in all of Mali. If a Peace Corps volunteer is bit by this snake, the best thing to do is catch the quickest flight to Morocco - where the nearest anti-venom is found.

Here is another example of a deadly snake that lives around and in our site, the poisonous Spitting Cobra, it spits in the eyes of it's victim before biting, our snake guide said, "having this Cobra spit in your eyes is not fun, it takes two weeks for your eyes to recover completely, it also hurts a lot, and the venom and anti-venom are also painful". Our snake guide seemed to have sampled every kind of venom and anti-venom.