WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:03.960 Welcome. This is Marsha for RADIOI and today I will 2 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:09.080 be reading National Geographic Magazine dated December twenty twenty four. 3 00:00:09.839 --> 00:00:12.800 As a reminder, RADIOI is a reading service intended for 4 00:00:12.839 --> 00:00:16.039 people who are blind or have other disabilities that make 5 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:19.879 it difficult to read printed material. Please join me now 6 00:00:20.039 --> 00:00:25.039 for the first article titled Islamic Art the Art of Arabia. 7 00:00:26.839 --> 00:00:31.800 In northwest Saudi Arabia, the artistic heritage of the Alulah 8 00:00:32.439 --> 00:00:36.560 Oasis is literally carved into the landscape, from the enigmatic 9 00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:40.520 rot art of the Neolithic era, through the colossal statues 10 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:46.439 of the Dadanite and Lehanite kingdoms to the monumental architecture 11 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:51.840 of the Nabtaeans. Alula was already steeped in artistic tradition 12 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:54.920 when a new and distinctive art form began to emerge, 13 00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:59.280 Islamic art. After the founding of Islam in six ten CE. 14 00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:03.159 The religious spread rapidly and in time became associated with 15 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:08.319 a recognizable style of artistic expression. Because of Islam's Arabic roots, 16 00:01:08.480 --> 00:01:12.159 its art has often been associated with Arabia. The reality 17 00:01:12.280 --> 00:01:16.159 is far more complex. Islamic art drew little on Arabic 18 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:20.120 artistic traditions. The Islamic faith is a way of life. 19 00:01:20.120 --> 00:01:23.920 Religion touches almost every aspect of the daily experience, as 20 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:27.159 well as the life journey. As such, Islam comes with 21 00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:31.120 a strong, unique and unifying cultural identity that is reflected 22 00:01:31.239 --> 00:01:35.640 in its art. Islamic art encompasses much more than pieces 23 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:40.640 created explicitly for religious purposes, such as an illuminated Koran 24 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:45.519 or an intricately carved men mianbar in a mosque. It 25 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:49.719 is the art of Muslim people everywhere. Any work created 26 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:52.280 by a Muslim or for a Muslim over the fourteen 27 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:57.359 hundred years of Islam's existence falls under this classification, and 28 00:01:57.439 --> 00:02:00.239 the geographical and historical range of Islamic art it is 29 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:05.879 huge and instantly identifiable. Initially, artistic expression was not fundamental 30 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:09.159 to Islam. Art is not directly mentioned in the Koran 31 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:13.560 or early religious texts. As the faith spread, conquered lands 32 00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:18.199 continued their own indigenous artistic traditions. However, as a unified 33 00:02:18.280 --> 00:02:24.000 Islamic state emerged under the Umayad and Abbasid caliphets, a 34 00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:27.960 distinctly Islamic form of art was also emerging. But by 35 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:31.560 this time Islam had also moved far beyond its Arabian 36 00:02:31.639 --> 00:02:36.639 roots and had embraced an array of cultural influences. However, 37 00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:40.280 for all its extraordinary diversity, there are four broad artistic 38 00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:45.000 themes that transcend place and time to be consciously recognizable 39 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:51.560 as Islamic. Vegetative patterns, geometric patterns, figurative art, and calligraphy 40 00:02:52.039 --> 00:02:55.800 have long been consistently employed by Islamic artists to form 41 00:02:55.840 --> 00:03:02.599 a cultural compesion across ethnically diverse following of Islam. These 42 00:03:02.599 --> 00:03:07.039 four forms of artistic expression are found wherever Islam is practiced, 43 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:12.240 and all have powerful stories behind them. Intertwining plants, stems, leaves, 44 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:15.800 and flowers are found on objects throughout the Islamic world, 45 00:03:16.280 --> 00:03:20.039 but foliage patterns like these were not new. Such designs 46 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:23.360 predate Islam and are present in the cultures of ancient 47 00:03:23.400 --> 00:03:29.439 Byzantium and Sasanian Iran, where early Islam firmly established itself. 48 00:03:30.120 --> 00:03:34.479 This local artistic tradition was adopted, adapted, and developed by 49 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:40.319 Islamic artists, and their experimentations spread through Muslim lands. By 50 00:03:40.360 --> 00:03:43.840 the twelfth century, a highly abstract and distinctive style of 51 00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:49.400 Islamic foliage patterns had emerged, found in architecture, textiles in 52 00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:52.120 every form of object. This style came to be known 53 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:57.319 as Arabesque. These Arabesque patterns were neither specifically Arabian nor 54 00:03:57.599 --> 00:04:02.240 religiously symbolic, but they remained a unifying feature of Islamic art. 55 00:04:03.039 --> 00:04:07.280 Another instantly recognizable style of Islamic art is the geometric pattern. 56 00:04:07.560 --> 00:04:12.280 These abstract designs, often formed using circles, squares, stars, and polygons, 57 00:04:12.680 --> 00:04:15.639 can be linked to Islamic interest in mathematics and science. 58 00:04:16.360 --> 00:04:19.959 But again, while such patterns reached their peak through Islamic art, 59 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:23.759 they were originally adapted from the classical traditions of Greece, Rome, 60 00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:29.879 and Sesanian Iran. Building on these traditions, Islamic artists elaborated 61 00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:34.480 and built on simple forms like circles, duplicating, overlapping, interlacing, 62 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:40.279 and combining them into complex and intricate patterns that stress symmetry, balance, proportion, 63 00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:44.879 and order, while also offering the possibility of infinite expansion. 64 00:04:45.639 --> 00:04:47.720 Little wonder then, that this is one of the most 65 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:52.040 prolific forms of Islamic art in the world. Perhaps the 66 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:56.279 most misunderstood influence on the emergence of Islamic art was 67 00:04:56.319 --> 00:05:01.319 that of figurative representation. Depictions of humans and animnimals. Initially, 68 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:04.759 figures continued to be widely used for decoration, as they 69 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:08.759 had been for centuries before Islam, but around the eighth century, 70 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:12.319 the use of figurative forms in religious works was expressly 71 00:05:12.360 --> 00:05:15.480 forbidden by Islam, based on the belief that God alone 72 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:19.720 could create living forms. This aligned with Christian thinking at 73 00:05:19.720 --> 00:05:23.319 the time, and both religions actively eradicated the human form 74 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:29.240 from their religious art. However, figurative representation in secular art continued. 75 00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:33.800 Perhaps in deference to the religious prohibition, Islamic artists often 76 00:05:33.839 --> 00:05:38.319 stylized their figures, creating a great variety of figural designs, 77 00:05:39.560 --> 00:05:44.800 though conspicuously rare in sculpture, stylized figures or integral to books, 78 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:48.600 where miniature paintings supported the text for both esthetic and 79 00:05:48.680 --> 00:05:52.240 practical reasons, providing a visual aid for those who could 80 00:05:52.240 --> 00:05:57.000 not read the written word itself. Channels one of Islam's 81 00:05:57.240 --> 00:06:02.279 Islamic arts most distinctive and distinguished forms of expression, calligraphy, 82 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:06.439 and it is here that we found a profound connection 83 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:10.519 to Islam's origins in Arabia. The Koran was written in Arabic, 84 00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:13.879 and the Arabic script had a particular propensity for being 85 00:06:13.879 --> 00:06:19.120 written decoratively, which was eagerly cultivated by Islamic artists. Named 86 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:22.920 after the city of Kufa, located in now modern day Iraq, 87 00:06:23.319 --> 00:06:27.079 this style has a geometric elegance that combines esthetic beauty 88 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:30.399 with a form and spacing that makes it demanding to read, 89 00:06:31.240 --> 00:06:33.600 serving to slow the reader down to concentrate on the 90 00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:37.759 word of God. Many forms of Kupit calligraphy emerged through 91 00:06:37.759 --> 00:06:42.120 the centuries, but the earliest example records the death of 92 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:45.519 a caliph in six forty four CE and is engraved 93 00:06:45.560 --> 00:06:49.199 on a rock in Ailulah. Today, Islamic art is still 94 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:53.360 being carved into the landscape of Alulah. In twenty twenty two, 95 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:59.240 Desert ex Alulah brought together acclaimed international artists to create 96 00:06:59.319 --> 00:07:02.920 monumental works amid the red sandstone canyons of the desert. 97 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:08.399 The temporary exhibition included a piece by Saudi artists Dana Awartani, 98 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:13.759 where the dwellers lay the concave structure, an homage to 99 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:18.759 the ancient Nabatean tombs of hegra draws on Islamic arts 100 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:24.959 reliance on geometric design. Indeed, Aratani's works often revolve around 101 00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:29.800 the highly codified and symbolically latent language of geometry. With 102 00:07:29.879 --> 00:07:33.639 works like these, the Islamic artistic tradition continues to thrive, 103 00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:40.160 embedded in a landscape that is hosted art for millennia. Next, Love, Hate, 104 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:44.439 and rattlesnakes. They've been revered as symbols of renewal. They've 105 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:48.199 been reviled as everissaries of the underworld. They've been hunted 106 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:51.319 and harassed into the dark corners of our imagination. But 107 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:54.519 can our fears be debunked before an icon of the 108 00:07:54.519 --> 00:08:01.319 American West disappears? By Elizabeth Roight, The night of near 109 00:08:01.399 --> 00:08:05.199 continuous rattlesnakes was mellow, the temperature pleasant and humidity low, 110 00:08:05.279 --> 00:08:08.920 the beer cold under a crescent moon. The electric golf 111 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:12.560 cart rolled silently over hilly paths. When our head lights 112 00:08:12.600 --> 00:08:16.000 illuminated a venomous snake. Matt Good would hop out, a 113 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:18.759 drink in his right hand, a snake stick in his left, 114 00:08:19.079 --> 00:08:22.360 and calmly present the creature from my inspection. Unlike the 115 00:08:22.399 --> 00:08:26.319 amped up fellows on YouTube snatching hissing vipers from beneath 116 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:30.800 the wooden boards, Good never shouted, dude. It was early 117 00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:35.120 September and the herpetologist's field season was winding to a close. 118 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:38.799 For ever twenty years, the University of Arizona research scientists 119 00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:43.879 and his students have been capturing snakes, including western diamondback rattlesnakes, 120 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:48.600 tiger rattlesnakes, and black tailed rattlesnakes. They have found more 121 00:08:48.600 --> 00:08:50.960 than seven thousand so far on the cart paths of 122 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:54.799 Ora Valley's Stone Canyon golf course just north of Tucson, 123 00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:58.240 and on the private roads dotted with multi million dollar 124 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:02.600 homes that surround it. On the best night, Scood's team 125 00:09:02.840 --> 00:09:05.879 might bag up to twenty snakes in a campus lap. 126 00:09:05.919 --> 00:09:08.720 The next day, his students measure, sex, weigh and mark 127 00:09:08.759 --> 00:09:12.679 them for recapture, using paint on their rattles and inserting 128 00:09:13.039 --> 00:09:16.320 tiny micro chips under their skin, then return them to 129 00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:20.720 their site of capture. Good's central research question, how does 130 00:09:20.759 --> 00:09:25.039 the ongoing conversion of Christine Desert to housing developments affect 131 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:30.120 snakes posed something of a conservation paradox Compared with snakes 132 00:09:30.120 --> 00:09:34.080 in more natural areas, The Stone Canyon ones are growing larger, 133 00:09:34.360 --> 00:09:39.320 producing more offspring, and expanding their ranges among the mcmagiens. 134 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:42.720 It helps, perhaps that most homeowners are absent during the 135 00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:45.960 hottest months. As we rolled over a bridge past an 136 00:09:46.039 --> 00:09:52.000 artificial waterfall, Good exclaimed, look at this productivity. Thanks to irrigation, 137 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:56.240 berries and blossoms abounded, attracting primary consumers such as the 138 00:09:56.279 --> 00:10:00.519 silky pocket mice. We saw scampering among the along paths. 139 00:10:01.080 --> 00:10:03.879 On the lush fairways, Our headlamps revealed the small herd 140 00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:08.039 of javelinas, members of the Pekerey family, in a stand 141 00:10:08.080 --> 00:10:11.840 of trees, a retreating mountain lion. Good had seen bob 142 00:10:11.879 --> 00:10:15.759 pats here, coyotes and raccoons. Clearly this was an eden 143 00:10:15.879 --> 00:10:18.919 for snakes. We had plenty of rodents, birds and eggs 144 00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:24.320 to eat, and the rocky outcrops styled by bulldozers provided 145 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:27.679 plenty of places to hide. Who had had placed informational 146 00:10:27.720 --> 00:10:30.919 signs here and there in an effort to curtail people's 147 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:35.519 baser instincts smashing rattlesnakes with golf clubs, But the nearby 148 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:39.159 roads were occasionally greasy with flattened reptiles. You gotta ask 149 00:10:39.320 --> 00:10:41.720 who had said, with a sigh, is this development and 150 00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:45.559 ecological trap? How sustainable is it? The fate of all 151 00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:50.440 species is tied to antipomorphic disturbances. A golf course could 152 00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:53.080 loose its water supply, for example, and half the birds 153 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:56.120 could DeCamp. The one thing you can count on people 154 00:10:56.159 --> 00:10:59.480 to view, he said, mess things up. The snakes of 155 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:01.799 stone care Onion may be doing well, but the fate 156 00:11:01.919 --> 00:11:05.879 of most other rattle snakes more than fifty species occur 157 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:10.600 exclusively throughout the Americas, is grimmer. From southwestern Canada to 158 00:11:10.759 --> 00:11:14.480 central Argentina, people continue to capture them for the pet 159 00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:18.200 or skin trade, swerve to flatten them as they warm 160 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:22.440 themselves on roads, and chop up their habitat with subdivisions, pipelines, 161 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:27.320 and sell towers. Timber rattlesnakes, once abundant, have been extirpated 162 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:30.720 in a number of northern US states and Ontario, and 163 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:34.799 they're threatened or endangered in pockets throughout their broad US range. 164 00:11:35.159 --> 00:11:39.879 Several other species are categorized from generally threatened to critically endangered. 165 00:11:40.519 --> 00:11:43.000 I got a taste of how far conservationists will go 166 00:11:43.159 --> 00:11:48.159 to protect Pennsylvania's remaining timber rattlesnakes on a sunny late 167 00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:53.279 summer day, sporting canvas snake gaiters. Thomas LaDuke, a herpetologist 168 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:57.600 at East Stroudsburg University. Picked his way along the rocky 169 00:11:57.720 --> 00:12:01.600 ridge line of Hawk Mountain, twenty six hundred acre reserve 170 00:12:01.960 --> 00:12:05.799 that's wildly popular with birders during migration. When the brush 171 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:08.240 to our right opened to a view of the valley below, 172 00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:12.080 we stepped off trail. Look, le Duc said, nodding toward 173 00:12:12.120 --> 00:12:15.399 a rocky shelf of pink and gray conglomerate. Not ten 174 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:18.039 feet away, I discerned a thick pile of yellow and 175 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:25.440 black coils. Somewhat incredulous, I crept infintesimis, infintesimously closer, anticipating 176 00:12:25.480 --> 00:12:30.840 the characteristics of a tail rattle. Nothing. The snake wanted 177 00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:33.720 only to pass. To my right, I saw another heap 178 00:12:33.759 --> 00:12:38.559 of snake, female, said le Duc, probably pregnant. Her head, 179 00:12:38.679 --> 00:12:41.799 like that of all rattlesnakes, was triangular, tapering quickly to 180 00:12:41.919 --> 00:12:44.919 a narrow neck. Her pupils were vertical, and the yellow 181 00:12:44.919 --> 00:12:48.919 and black chevrons down her spine looked as plush as velvet. 182 00:12:49.320 --> 00:12:53.840 As I stared, she slowly uncoiled, creating an uncanny illusion 183 00:12:53.840 --> 00:12:56.960 of moving in two directions at once, then disappeared into 184 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:00.559 a crevice. Voodook and I continued over the ridge line, 185 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:04.159 then descended to a talus filled just below the heavily 186 00:13:04.200 --> 00:13:08.240 traveled trail. At first I solidly rocks. Then, as before, 187 00:13:08.279 --> 00:13:11.559 I became aware of another reality. A coiled snake the 188 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:15.200 diameter of a fedora on a prominent boulder than six 189 00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:19.039 feet away. Another scanning the boulder fields careful to move 190 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:22.639 only my eyeballs, and made out six more rattlesnake piles. 191 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:28.039 Atop one A clutch of neonates, khaki colored with brown stripes, squirmed. 192 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:32.000 Born alive just yesterday, Leuduke said, they already were more 193 00:13:32.039 --> 00:13:35.120 than seven inches long and venomous, with hollow fangs and 194 00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:38.919 one tiny tail segment called a button. Each time a 195 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:41.960 rattlesnake sheds its skin up to twice a year for adults, 196 00:13:42.399 --> 00:13:45.360 more often for the young, it gains another rattle segment. 197 00:13:45.799 --> 00:13:49.919 The rattles often fall off, so segments don't always reflect age. 198 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:53.879 After a week of parental protection and behavior more often 199 00:13:53.960 --> 00:13:57.159 seen in mammals, the babies fend for themselves. They shed 200 00:13:57.200 --> 00:13:59.639 their skin for the first time, then may start following 201 00:13:59.639 --> 00:14:03.120 a trail of small animals such as mice and shrews, 202 00:14:03.559 --> 00:14:06.480 using a scent detecting organ at the roof of their 203 00:14:06.519 --> 00:14:11.919 mouth known as the vomuro nasal organ and heat detecting 204 00:14:12.279 --> 00:14:16.639 organs inside small pits between their eyes and nostrils. They 205 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:19.759 ambush their prey, inject a dose of highly toxic venom, 206 00:14:20.039 --> 00:14:24.279 then swallow their meal. Pole As the weather cools, young 207 00:14:24.360 --> 00:14:27.639 rattlesnakes follow their mother's chemical trail back to the family's 208 00:14:27.679 --> 00:14:33.240 den or hybernaculum. They overwinter coiled with kin of all ages, 209 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:37.320 including males returned from asse nations with females up to 210 00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:40.559 two miles away, as well as with other snake species 211 00:14:40.600 --> 00:14:43.840 such as racers and copperheads that might at other times 212 00:14:43.879 --> 00:14:47.759 prey on the rattlesnake offspring. During hibernation, snakes have no 213 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:51.720 interest in eating if they don't mask, if they don't digest. 214 00:14:52.120 --> 00:14:55.320 The Duke and his students radio tagged and tracked timber 215 00:14:55.399 --> 00:14:58.759 rattlers for almost three years on Hawk Mountain, estimating their 216 00:14:58.759 --> 00:15:04.360 population in size and pinpointing their most important hybernocula. Females, 217 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:09.159 alongside newborns and subadults, spend most of their time basking, feeding, mating, 218 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:13.200 and giving birth within several hundred yards of these underground 219 00:15:13.279 --> 00:15:17.279 layers and legions of bird watching human visitors at the time, 220 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:21.360 LeDuc had recommended that the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary reroot its 221 00:15:21.480 --> 00:15:24.639 ridge trail to avoid this basking site, which it did. 222 00:15:25.080 --> 00:15:27.480 People picnic on these rocks, not knowing how close they 223 00:15:27.480 --> 00:15:31.720 are to snakes. La Duke said. Nowadays, herpetologists consider the 224 00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:36.000 location of dens and basking sites state level secrets. Some 225 00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:40.600 spend hours scouring social media persuading enthusiasts posing with snakes 226 00:15:40.840 --> 00:15:45.360 to remove geotags from their Facebook and Instagram posts. It's 227 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:48.480 great that people are interested in rattlesnake's, Luduke said, but 228 00:15:48.679 --> 00:15:51.799 they don't realize the magnitude of their impact on the population. 229 00:15:52.759 --> 00:15:55.960 Persuading the public to protect venomous snakes can be difficult. 230 00:15:56.480 --> 00:16:00.159 Rattlesnakes have booth fascinated and terrified us with their ability 231 00:16:00.200 --> 00:16:05.080 to remain hidden and their surprisingly strong bodies, needles, sharp fangs, 232 00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:09.159 and toxic venom. As biologist Edward O. Wilson has written, 233 00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:13.480 it pays in elementary survival to be interested in snakes. 234 00:16:13.720 --> 00:16:18.000 Human's relationship with rattlesnakes have always been complicated. The Hope 235 00:16:18.200 --> 00:16:21.360 of the US Southwest considered them messengers to the rain 236 00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:25.799 giving spirits of the earth, and including rattlers in biennial 237 00:16:25.919 --> 00:16:31.039 rituals the Aztec and Yucatec Maya of pre Columbian Mesoamerica 238 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:35.159 venerated rattlesnakes, linking them with rain and the planting season. 239 00:16:35.840 --> 00:16:39.559 According to one early nineteenth century account, some Western Cherokee 240 00:16:39.559 --> 00:16:43.360 felt an obligation to avoid killing rattlesnakes out of respect 241 00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:47.919 for their tightly knit family organizations. The Apache associated them 242 00:16:47.960 --> 00:16:51.840 with rebirth and renewal, while other Native American cultures linked 243 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:57.320 them with violence and revenge. For early European colonists, rattlesnakes, 244 00:16:57.320 --> 00:17:01.080 found only in the New World, symbolized virility and fearlessness. 245 00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:05.279 In an infamous political cartoon from seventeen fifty four that 246 00:17:05.519 --> 00:17:09.880 urged colonial unity, the timber rattlesnake is separated into chunks 247 00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:13.680 representing the original British colonies. Under the snakes that the 248 00:17:13.720 --> 00:17:17.359 words join or die later A rattlesnake in the model 249 00:17:17.640 --> 00:17:21.359 don't tread on Me were used on the Gadsden flag, 250 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:26.519 which rallied the colonial Continental Marines during the American Revolution. 251 00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:29.920 That flag, with a snake loosely coiled into a pyramid 252 00:17:29.960 --> 00:17:33.160 and ready to strike, has been brandished ever since by 253 00:17:33.160 --> 00:17:38.200 those with an anti government right, but reverence extends only 254 00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:42.119 so far. Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, communities offered 255 00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:45.680 bounties for dead rattlers, a practice New York and Vermont 256 00:17:45.720 --> 00:17:49.880 continued into the nineteen seventies. States organized some still do 257 00:17:50.400 --> 00:17:54.079 annual round ups that slaughtered hundreds, sometimes thousands, of snakes 258 00:17:54.400 --> 00:17:58.599 in the name of safety. In the cold Northeast, where 259 00:17:58.720 --> 00:18:02.640 hundreds of or rattlesnakes may overwinter in a single den, 260 00:18:03.039 --> 00:18:06.880 their mass exists in the spring made them particularly vulnerable 261 00:18:06.920 --> 00:18:10.160 to wholesale extermination. I'm blue in the face from teaching 262 00:18:10.200 --> 00:18:13.000 people that snakes aren't out to get you, Matt Good 263 00:18:13.079 --> 00:18:16.799 said as we hummed through Stone Canyon. But I don't 264 00:18:16.799 --> 00:18:19.799 know how much progress we've made. Throughout much of the 265 00:18:19.880 --> 00:18:23.480 South and Southwest, is legal to kill many rattlesnake species, 266 00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:28.119 and some people kill a whole lot. Sweetwater, Texas population 267 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:31.559 ten thousand, has held its Rattlesnake round up annually since 268 00:18:31.599 --> 00:18:34.720 nineteen fifty eight, when hunter Is extracted more than three 269 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:38.240 thousand pounds of Western diamondbacks from their hideaways in the 270 00:18:38.279 --> 00:18:43.400 nearby countryside. Sponsored by the local jcs A youth leadership group, 271 00:18:43.720 --> 00:18:47.039 the event continues to attract tens of thousands of visitors 272 00:18:47.079 --> 00:18:51.079 to the Noland County Coliseum and procures a yearly average 273 00:18:51.119 --> 00:18:54.640 of fifty eight hundred pounds of live rattlesnakes. Some are 274 00:18:54.640 --> 00:18:57.559 collected on roadsides, but most are captured by hunters who 275 00:18:57.599 --> 00:19:01.319 cruise the state, busting up rocky cracks and crevices with 276 00:19:01.400 --> 00:19:07.160 crowbars and flushing their quarry from dens with aerosolized gasoline. 277 00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:11.359 The eradication of a purported menace was the Sweetwater round 278 00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:14.920 Up's founding goal, as it likely was at the nation's 279 00:19:14.920 --> 00:19:18.720 twelve other round ups, but today its aim is unmistakably financial. 280 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:21.799 The round up by snakes from hunters at a fluctuating 281 00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:24.400 per pound rate, It sends most of them to the 282 00:19:24.440 --> 00:19:28.200 coliseum's cool shack, where they are dropped beer battered into 283 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:31.519 fry pans, and sells the rest to vendors who will 284 00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:35.559 convert their skins into wallets, boots, purses, and trinkets. The 285 00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:39.039 three day event raises cash for local charities sixty three 286 00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:43.079 thousand dollars in twenty twenty three, and visitors annually inject 287 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:46.799 over eight million dollars into the local economy. Kieren Hunt, 288 00:19:46.839 --> 00:19:49.759 head of the local Chamber of Commerce told a Texas 289 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:53.920 newspaper that for many folks in Sweetwater, this is Black Friday. 290 00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:56.319 This is what Black Friday is like. For the snakes 291 00:19:56.640 --> 00:20:00.079 piled ankle deep in octagonal wooden pens, they mostly they 292 00:20:00.119 --> 00:20:04.519 remain coiled. Some rattle continuously and indication they feel threatened 293 00:20:04.920 --> 00:20:08.400 in the while these solitary predators may rattle just a 294 00:20:08.440 --> 00:20:11.720 few times in their entire lives, many suffocate to death, 295 00:20:11.759 --> 00:20:14.799 and those with enough energy circle the perimeter of their pen, 296 00:20:14.920 --> 00:20:18.400 constantly searching for an exit. The air stinks of right 297 00:20:18.440 --> 00:20:22.680 guard deodorant sprayed to mask the snake's pungent musk released 298 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:26.759 in fear. Inside the milking pit, handlers squeeze yellowy venom 299 00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:30.880 from snake's bangs into a glass funnel atop a baby bottle. 300 00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:35.720 A filthy centrifuge sits nearby. What's the venom for drug research? 301 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:40.640 A handler answers vaguely. According to longtime JC Milking Pit 302 00:20:40.759 --> 00:20:45.039 chairman Dennis Comby, the Sweetwater round Up sells large quantities 303 00:20:45.079 --> 00:20:48.160 of venom to private companies that make anti venoms, but 304 00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:51.519 he won't reveal their names. In fact, companies that produce 305 00:20:51.599 --> 00:20:55.240 anti venoms or use venom for research, either keep their 306 00:20:55.279 --> 00:20:58.799 own captive snake colonies, or by venom from zoos that 307 00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:02.920 collect it under some sterile laboratory conditions. They inject this 308 00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:08.000 venom into large donor mammals like sheb horses, which spurs 309 00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:12.000 the creation of antibodies that distilled into anti venoms are 310 00:21:12.079 --> 00:21:17.480 used to disable toxins in snake bite victims. Medical research 311 00:21:17.559 --> 00:21:21.119 sures are keenly interested in venoms hundreds of proteins and 312 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:25.359 enzymes which attack blood cells, damage muscles, or destroy the 313 00:21:25.400 --> 00:21:29.480 central nervous system. Researchers around the world are experimenting with 314 00:21:29.640 --> 00:21:34.640 venom derived compounds that block or neutralized pain pathways, potentially 315 00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:39.160 offering an alternative to highly addictive opiates. Rail snake venom 316 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:42.319 has been used to treat blood clots that occur deep 317 00:21:42.359 --> 00:21:45.839 inside veins, and to develop drugs that lower blood pressure 318 00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:50.400 and stop heart attacks and strokes as they happen. In 319 00:21:50.440 --> 00:21:54.079 the education pit, handler David Sager, in a stetson and 320 00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:57.519 tall boots, pass among a dozen or so snakes, offering 321 00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:02.160 snake factoids and describing Western die backs as mean, dangerous, 322 00:22:02.200 --> 00:22:06.559 and ugly language that helps rationalize their persecution. With a 323 00:22:06.680 --> 00:22:09.519 snake stick, he crowds animals into a coil, pins their 324 00:22:09.519 --> 00:22:12.720 heads and lifts them from photos. He drops snakes to 325 00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:16.000 the floor, kicks them, and antagonizes a snake with a 326 00:22:16.039 --> 00:22:19.799 balloon until it strikes pop. The crowd, ranging from toddlers 327 00:22:19.799 --> 00:22:24.480 to retirees, gasps. If education is the curtain raiser, skinning 328 00:22:24.599 --> 00:22:28.240 is the round up's denouement. Jac's pin live snakes to 329 00:22:28.319 --> 00:22:31.000 a wooden block, then sever their heads with a single 330 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:34.480 mashetty chop. Still, writhing bodies are hung from a pole. 331 00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:38.480 Sometimes gall bladders are removed. They can fetch several dollars 332 00:22:38.559 --> 00:22:42.319 each and are used in traditional Chinese medicine. Then, for 333 00:22:42.319 --> 00:22:46.319 a twenty dollar fee, visitors separate skin from sinu, appoint, 334 00:22:46.519 --> 00:22:49.279 anoint their palms with snake blood, and leave their red 335 00:22:49.359 --> 00:22:53.920 handprints on the wall. Even young children participate. I wander 336 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:58.240 the dirt floored colosseum. The masked snakes look beaten down, stressed, 337 00:22:58.319 --> 00:23:02.039 possibly injured. If the is all about education, teaching the 338 00:23:02.039 --> 00:23:06.440 public that Western diamondbacks retreat from threats, hiss and rattle 339 00:23:06.480 --> 00:23:10.119 and warning strike enemies only as a last option. Bite 340 00:23:10.279 --> 00:23:13.440 non venomously twenty five percent of the time, and are 341 00:23:13.480 --> 00:23:17.079 relatively easy to avoid. Why continue to stoke fear that 342 00:23:17.160 --> 00:23:21.240 results in mass slaughter? According to the Centers for Disease 343 00:23:21.319 --> 00:23:24.839 Control and Prevention nationwide, in the average of five people 344 00:23:24.839 --> 00:23:28.400 a year die from venomous snake and lizard bites. While 345 00:23:28.440 --> 00:23:31.920 some snake hunters claim to be protecting livestock, which abound 346 00:23:31.960 --> 00:23:35.160 in west central Texas, it's very rare to see cattle 347 00:23:35.160 --> 00:23:39.119 bit and by rattle snakes, says veterinarian Bud Aldridge Junior, 348 00:23:39.440 --> 00:23:42.319 who's been practicing in sweet Water for fifty five years, 349 00:23:42.680 --> 00:23:45.839 and bytes are unlikely to be fatal. What explains the 350 00:23:45.880 --> 00:23:49.720 round ups persistence? The money, yes, but as Morehead State 351 00:23:49.839 --> 00:23:53.720 University philosophy professor Jack Weir put it in a case 352 00:23:53.720 --> 00:23:57.839 study published by the Journal of Conservation Biology, round ups 353 00:23:57.880 --> 00:24:02.039 are away of continuing the extras and adventure of the 354 00:24:02.039 --> 00:24:06.599 cowboy saga, proving one's manhood and identifying with the local ethos. 355 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:10.880 Though published in nineteen ninety two, weirs thesis appears to 356 00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:16.079 hold true today. I ask j C President Jimmy Hendrix 357 00:24:16.359 --> 00:24:19.799 if his organization would consider switching to no Kill's shows, 358 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:22.640 as a few other round ups have to each his own, 359 00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:26.680 He answers, I understand Pupil's point that, yeah, we're killing rattlesnakes, 360 00:24:26.920 --> 00:24:29.559 but that's certainly not what we'd want to make a priority. 361 00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:33.279 It's what economically works for us. You think you'd get 362 00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:35.440 such a big crowd if he didn't kill the snakes. 363 00:24:35.680 --> 00:24:38.880 I don't know, he says. Western diamondbacks, which breed at 364 00:24:38.920 --> 00:24:42.200 a relatively young age, are not endangered in Texas, though 365 00:24:42.200 --> 00:24:45.759 the state's Parks and Wildlife Department acknowledges it doesn't have 366 00:24:45.799 --> 00:24:49.759 any data from any specific populations anywhere in the state. 367 00:24:50.279 --> 00:24:53.960 Since nineteen fifty eight, hunters have delivered, unto the Sweetwater 368 00:24:54.079 --> 00:24:57.519 JCS more than three hundred fifty thousand pounds of snakes, 369 00:24:57.759 --> 00:25:02.079 equivalent to about seventy thousand rattlers, at a time when 370 00:25:02.119 --> 00:25:05.960 populations of animal species globally have declined by an average 371 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:09.880 of nearly seventy percent. Wanton disregard for life in the 372 00:25:09.880 --> 00:25:13.519 absence of imminent threat to humans fathers Texas A and 373 00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:18.119 M University herpetologist Lee Fitzgerald. The round ups do send 374 00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:20.880 a twisted message. He says, They're not helping the way 375 00:25:20.880 --> 00:25:24.359 we think about biodiversity. We care about polar bears, but 376 00:25:24.559 --> 00:25:27.880 these snakes are worthless. Back home, I try to forget 377 00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:30.319 what I'd seen in the skinning pit and focus on 378 00:25:30.440 --> 00:25:33.920 that afternoon on Hawk Mountain, where Tom Ledeuke and I 379 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:38.400 had contemplated, had contemplated over half a dozen ges dating 380 00:25:38.799 --> 00:25:43.160 or postpartum timber rattlers, large and peaceful, vital and venomous 381 00:25:43.480 --> 00:25:47.000 as they'd glided in and out of the sun. Pennsylvania 382 00:25:47.119 --> 00:25:50.720 counties used to host their own sweet water style rattlesnake 383 00:25:50.799 --> 00:25:53.640 round ups. Le Duke had told me the festivals were 384 00:25:53.680 --> 00:25:56.839 hard to stamp out because they funded fire departments, but 385 00:25:56.920 --> 00:25:59.920 eventually the State Fish and Boat Commission, which break it 386 00:26:00.079 --> 00:26:03.960 lights hunting, inaugurated a paid permit system for live capture 387 00:26:03.960 --> 00:26:07.480 of rattlers and used the proceeds to fund community works. 388 00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:11.960 They recruited old snake hunters to survey populations. Leduke said 389 00:26:12.400 --> 00:26:15.640 they asked them for data, tag the snakes at round ups, 390 00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:19.720 and returned them to their capture sites. As the population recovered, 391 00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:24.119 rattlers were removed from the state's endangered species candidate list. 392 00:26:24.680 --> 00:26:29.440 Nodding toward visitors toting binoculars along the Hawk Mountain ridge line, 393 00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:35.160 the Duke had asked rhetorically why herpers or at least 394 00:26:35.240 --> 00:26:39.400 those board flippers and tail grabbers notching likes on social 395 00:26:39.480 --> 00:26:42.599 media couldn't be more like birders than they count, but 396 00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:46.319 not capture. I recalled that Hawk Mountain, before being set 397 00:26:46.359 --> 00:26:49.039 aside as a bird refuge, was a popular site for 398 00:26:49.079 --> 00:26:54.680 shooting gashawks, which carried a five dollar bounty. Gashaks prey 399 00:26:54.839 --> 00:26:59.000 on game animals such as rabbits, grouse, and ducks, so 400 00:26:59.079 --> 00:27:01.960 maybe there was hope. Its a mental shift, le Duc said, 401 00:27:02.240 --> 00:27:04.920