VISITORS AT PARK LEARN OF SNAKES

Snakes have a reputation that is largely undeserved and can be traced back long ago to the biblical story of a serpent that tempted Adam and Eve with an apple in the Garden of Eden.

So according to a program on snakes Saturday at Trail of Tears State Park. The program drew about a dozen people, mostly children accompanied by adults, to the park's Visitors' Center.

This weekend Trail of Tears is celebrating its 35th anniversary of being donated to the state. The celebration is also being held in honor of the state park system's 75th anniversary.

The fun ends today. There will be free programs held at the Visitors' Center at 1 p.m. on spiders and at 3 p.m. on glades. A black widow will be featured at the first program.

Door prizes are available. Each 35th and 75th visitor receives a wildlife print.

Visitors Saturday watched an approximate 20-minute video on snakes and then got the chance to hold or pet two types of non-poisonous snakes: a speckled king snake named "Taffy" and a large, black rat snake. On display as well was a hognose snake.

Jennifer Nelson, 11, of Jackson, held the king snake for some time, letting other younger children touch it. The snake was mostly black, with speckles of yellow that increased in number until they melded into its yellow belly.

"It held on and it slithered a lot," Jennifer said afterwards. "The skin wasn't very slimy. It was really dry. It was kind of sticky."

The video in part covered the way snakes feed and detect the body heat of prey, defend themselves and watch for enemies, and reproduce.

Missouri, the video said, is home to 50 type of snakes, five of which are poisonous. The state's poisonous snakes, it said, are the copperhead, cottonmouth moccasin a tenant of the wetlands of Southeast Missouri and the timber, pygmy and massasauga rattlesnakes.

Jerry Landewe, a seasonal naturalist with the park, held the king snake before handing it over to the children. Landewe said the snake, a constrictor, was named "Taffy" because its movement caused its holder to have to pull it back in, as if the person were pulling on taffy.

"The king snake is kind of a neat snake because they can be bitten by a copperhead and survive. So they're the king of all snakes," Landewe said.

The king snake can eat a poisonous snake and experience no effect from the poison, said Mary Branson, a seasonal employee at the park who also spoke about snakes with audience members.

Landewe, who also showed off an approximate six-feet rat snake by handling it, said many people fear snakes. But he said snakes help both nature and man by keeping down mice and insects.

Referring to the rat snake, Landewe said: "These are great mouse-catchers. A lot of people like these in their barns."

The video spoke of the snake's reputation.

"Long ago a tale was told where the snake was the villain and the story stuck," said the video's commentator. "But if the snakes could tell their own tales, who would the villains be?"

Gabrielle Farrar, 7, of Cape Girardeau, attended the program Saturday. Before the program, she said she had some fear of snakes. Now it's gone, she said.

Asked what she thought of the snakes, she responded: "They're soft. They were long."

She also said snakes stick their tongues out when they want to smell.

Park celebration events are going well in spite of low attendance due to the weather so far this weekend, park naturalist and Assistant Superintendent Greg Henson said Saturday. Henson said park workers would have expected 400 to 500 people to come through the Visitors' Center Saturday, but no more than 200 showed up.

"The threat of the weather; it really makes a big difference on the attendance," he said.

Henson said day-use attendance at the park is down this year. Attendance is also down at other parks in the region, he said.