Herps--reptiles and amphibians

Grace Olive Wiley, another rattlesnake.

Grace Olive Wiley--naturalist, snake priestess, eccentric. Here's her story, partially anyway.

http://thezooreviewer.blogspot.com/2014/03/zoo-history-lady-and-cobra.html


The Zoo Review
Insights into the World of Zoos and Aquariums


Monday, March 10, 2014
Zoo History: The Lady and the Cobra
"I hate to say it, and I know some persons who don't like snakes are very nice persons, but Mr. Bean [the zoo director] was frightened, and frightened persons will exaggerate. I do not not feel I was guilty of carelessness. I just forgot, simply forgot, to close the door to the cobra's cage after I cleaned it."

- Grace Olive Wiley

Throughout much of history, zookeeping was a man's job. Sure, women could work in the children's zoo and were deemed especially well-suited to hand-rearing babies, but taking care of big cats, bears, and rhinos was dangerous work that only men were considered for. Even by the time that I entered the profession that was, by and large, no longer true. In many zoos the female keepers outnumber the males, and do all of the same work with the same level of expertise.

(Some individual biases and prejudices linger, however - I had one former director who - whenever a camel or eland needed to be wrangled - insisted on pulling me away from my birds instead of using any of the six or seven hoofstock keepers, all of whom were women...)

There have been many female pioneers in the field of zoo animal care. Like pioneers everywhere, some of their stories have unhappy endings. Let's consider Grace Olive Wiley...

Originally an entomologist at the University of Kanas, Grace Olive Wiley later fell in love with snakes... especially venomous ones. She amassed a large personal collection of venomous snakes, including cobras, mambas, and rattlesnakes, which she displayed at her job in the local library in Minneapolis. A woman in the early 1900s with a large collection of deadly reptiles which she took to work with her would have been unusual enough. What really makes Wiley a colorful character was how she chose to care for her scaly charges.

Wiley was convinced that snakes - even the most dangerous species - could be tamed like any other animal, and was determined to prove it. She free-handled (use of bare-heads instead of a hook or tongs) her snakes daily, allowing them to crawl over her as she serviced their enclosures. It wasn't unusual for her to let them loose on the floor of the building to explore while she worked. Needless to say, her antics did not endear her to her colleagues in the library, and she was forced to leave.



Luckily for her, at about this time the Brookfield Zoo opened up in the Chicago suburbs. Brookfield was in the market for a new curator of reptiles. They took Ms. Wiley... and her collection.

Alas, professional zookeepers were no more fond of cobras roaming at large than were librarians, and Wiley was fired from Brookfield as well, about one year (and nineteen snake escapes) later. Wiley and her menagerie moved out to California, where she displayed her snakes for the public (allowing kids to try their hand at handling venomous species), rented them out to photographers, and billed herself as a "snake trainer" to movie companies (she assisted with Tarzan and The Jungle Book).

Grace Olive Wiley's luck finally ran out in 1948, when a cobra she was using for a photo shoot bit her. She did have antivenom, fortunately, but in the ensuing commotion, the vial was broken, and the local hospital did not carry cobra antivenom. Two hours after her bite, she died.

The zoo and aquarium profession has never had its shortage of eccentrics, and I've met plenty of them. It's probably for the best, however, that I can say that I never met a Grace Olive Wiley. These days, with increased legal liability, constant media coverage, and animal rights activists looking for zoos and aquariums to make mistakes, I don't think we could survive someone like her in one of America's biggest zoos.
Posted by Zoo Review at 2:30 PM

Grace Olive Wiley and king cobra

Oh man, what must it have been like when that vial broke... the gasps, the finger pointing, the silence... Oops.

Other accounts claim the vial was so old that it was dried up. Regardless, only one vial probably wouldn't have helped much.

When I first read about her in the fifties in a magazine called True, I think, it stated that a reporter was interviewing her and taking pictures. She told him not to use a flash because the cobra was new and nervous. He did anyway and the snake became upset and struck. That story, too, has been discounted.

At any rate she was a remarkable woman, comparable to the snake priestesses of southeast Asia who kiss king cobras on the head in a Buddhist religious ritual.

Nice shot of a yellow rat snake, the race of rat snakes found in Florida and the southeast.

I've read about and seen films about people who keep venomous snakes as pets. Most of the people end up bitten and/or dead. There was one with suicide by black mamba.

There are enormous numbers of people that keep snakes as pets, and though fewer keep the venomous species, it is not uncommon. But it's rare that people free-hand the venomous ones. Those that do are in a ritualistic or religious setting or are showmen. I noticed, though, that the Australians typically free-hand the elapids (cobra family), such as the late Steve Irwin and many others. That type of handling doesn't work well with the vipers and pit vipers; they turn on you too easily.

This website shows the enormous interest and trade in snakes. http://www.kingsnake.com/

I've known several people who have had nonvenomous snakes as pets. I think people who keep venomous snakes and are careless, arrogant, or unrealistic (the snake loves me) tend to be the ones that get bumped off. But there are also careful, scientific types who are bitten.

My experience with snakes is very limited. I attended a membership night meeting of the New York Zoological Society (now renamed) where I had the chance to pet an armadillo and a boa constrictor. The armadillo felt waxy. The boa constrictor was wonderfully smooth and dry. Although I know that snakes are cold-blooded, I hadn't touched a cold-blooded animal before. That guy was cold--and alive.

I am of the persuasion that snakes in others' homes and hands is fine. I just don't feel that welcoming. The black racers in my back yard are welcome there, but that's the extent of my hospitality.

Do you live in Florida?

Tejas

Northeastern Texas then? That's where black racers range in Texas.

Correction: Eastern Racers

Ornate horned frog--Ceratophrys ornata

California kingsnake--normal striped phase

California kingsnake--striped phase, high white/reverse color morph

California kingsnake--normal, banded phase

California kingsnake--banded phase, high white/reverse colors

These last four pictures were of the California kingsnake, a subspecies that, along with the corn snake, are probably the most popular snakes kept as pets. Calkings, as they're commonly called, are sometimes referred to as beginner's snakes because of their ease of care, docility, and beauty.

Both calkings and corn snakes are bred to a large variety of color morphs.


Okeetee corn snake--so named because of the location in Georgia where this color form lives. Many snake breeders aim for this color form, and they are in high demand.