Robert G. Sprackland

I have never met a lizard I didn't like. A very few seemed to actively dislike me, or so I inferred when they bit me. But all those bites were minor things of no consequence. On the other hand, I have never been bitten by a snake, which I think is quite an accomplishment because I've been working with reptiles since 1958. To this day I am amazed by people who brag -- brag! -- about how many times they've "done been bit" by venomous snakes. Can you imagine the equivalent claim by a person in a different activity: "I done crashed my car 15 times," or "I done took out the wrong kidney 12 times," or even "I done caught my foot in the lawnmower... well, once."

You've got to give reptiles a lot of credit. After all they've been here hundreds of times longer than us, and despite everything we've done to the natural world, they are still here. They have survived the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, the moving of the continents, worldwide volcanoes, extremes in global temperature, and the Nixon administration. I wonder if, someday, the human record will be nearly as impressive...