Barefooters will get comments from people who ask if they aren’t concerned about venomous snakes. The thing is, when it comes to such snakes, being barefoot really isn’t that much more dangerous.
I’ve got two snakebite stories here to show that.
[Warning: one of my pictures will be really horrible looking (no, it’s not “graphic”, the latest euphemism; it’s “horrible”), so be careful clicking through.]
The first story is of a man in North Caroline who was bitten by a copperhead: Copperhead bites hospitalize man.
He was bitten three times. Yes, he survived, but he’s still having problems.
Here’s the thing: he was bitten on the hand. That’s actually pretty common, as I wrote about in Snakes and Snakebite.
I suppose he could have been wearing gloves, but, as in the case of going barefoot, situational awareness is more important. Besides, even when it comes to your feet, a covering may not be all that protective.
We find that out from the “reality” TV show Naked and Afraid. While scouting locations in Costa Rica, the executive producer of the show, Steve Rankin, was bitten on the foot by a fer-de-lance.
Here’s a description of that from Outside magazine, Surviving a Viper Bite.
I scrambled up a five foot fallen tree. I paused,and glanced up ahead at the two guides before looking down to check for anything slithering near my feet. Then I jumped off the trunk.
Bang. It felt like I’d been stabbed in the left foot. I jumped away from the tree and looked back. I saw the writhing brown mottled outline of a snake. It looked maybe five or six feet long and as thick as my wrist. It was right up against the tree. I saw the large, distinct, arrow-shaped head of a pit viper. I knew it was venomous.
This is what it did to him.
WARNING: Blank spaces before the picture.
Now that’s just horrible.
He was trying to be aware, but many snakes are well-camouflaged. That’s one reason why I usually carry a hiking stick. It gives me a chance to disturb a snake before I walk near it.
But this incident also shows that footwear isn’t a panacea.
Someone took off my boot. I dreaded what would be revealed. I tried to think positive. I thought, “Maybe I got lucky. Maybe it was just a warning shot. A hiking boot surely would protect me to some extent?”
Yes, he was wearing a hiking boot. The fangs went right through that. I suspect that the only thing that would have protected him would have been cowboy boots. On the other hand, who wants to wear cowboy boots in a Costa Rican jungle?
After extensive surgery, Rankin is getting better.
So I’m comfortable going barefoot, paying the closer attention that comes naturally to barefooters, and using my hiking stick.
And yes, they did go barefoot in “Naked and Afraid”. Here’s a picture of survivor Puma Cabra demonstrating a trap.
wow that foot looks incredibly painful, i used to walk with a friend from the phillipines and she walked thorough the woods of nc coastal region barefoot all the time I would say to her, arn’t you afriad you will step on a snake, she said she did this all the time back home and said when you step on them they think your another snake, now I dont believe it but I always wore shoes and of course she always led the way,lol but a hiking staff is a real good idea, I almost walked on a pygmy rattler once, my friend from the phillipines noticed it before I did, and this was on the road, so you have to be careful when walking in snake infested places. shoes only provide some protection and against a fur de lance? don’t they have like 2 inch long fangs? then you better have 2 and a half inch thick leather boots on.lol
eww. I did a “dance” with something like a bullsnake on a local riverside greenbelt around here a week and a half ago. I was barefoot. There was all kinds of foot and bike traffic on the path, so it was rather shocking to end up almost stepping on it. When it started to move, it slithered in it’s waves at an angle in front of me that just kept it right where I was stepping! I “entertained” many people that morning….
Wow, is anyone else thinking that that looks like a movie prosthetic? I guess those things are more realistic looking than I thought!
It is really, really lucky it was one of the guys with boots on or that would have been more ‘evidence’ against bare feet (I’ve seen people leap to this conclusion before). Roberta is right about this, unless you have on armour plated boots that go up to your knee (maybe not quite that thick, but still), you really aren’t as immune as you think and you aren’t used to looking. I like that that was on a show with people who were actually barefoot because it will make at least some of them stop and think. Though I suspect they may somehow come to the conclusion that it would have been worse if he was barefoot. That snake could just have easily gone for his leg and injected the venom right into a major muscle. Or his hand, as you say. We never think about where we put our hands, do we? 😛 He could very easily have been wearing sandals, yet he would still have thought his foot was protected….
If you have any more examples of snakes biting right through a shoe, or going for the ankle instead, I would really love to hear about them!
It really reminds me of this exchange I had last year with a college tutor:
Tutor: Want to see a busted toe ten years on?
Me: were you wearing boots at the time?
Tutor: ….yes (walks off without another word)
😛
BTW I noticed this in the other article on snakes:
“One time I did see a copperhead swimming in the water just below Cedar Falls in Hocking Hills, so they are around.”
Which means that you could go for a dip and get bitten in the face by a swimming snake. 😛
roberta4949: A few years ago I saw a nature show that looked at how likely rattlesnakes and copperheads were to strike. They used fake feet and hands. Rattlesnakes were (all things considered) pretty mellow. Even copperheads often put up with being stepped on. But trying to pick up a copperhead was a sure was to get bitten.