Okay, so maybe they aren't so scary...

This week the Land Trust of Huntsville hosted the Coosa River Science School from the Alabama 4H in their presentation of:

Hooray for Herps!

Hooray for Herps is a program that teaches kids about herpetology. 

Free big word of the day: Herpetology!

The study of amphibians and reptiles.

On the agenda: a frog, a toad, two turtles, a snake and an alligator.

It was supposed to be a hike held at the beautiful Three Caves but due to an ill timed deluge...

Well, really several ill timed deluges...

...the program had to be moved to the library. 

Dang. 

I wore my closed-toed hiking shoes for nothing!

No problem though, apparently reptiles travel pretty well. 

Our first guest was this little guy:

A toad. Pretty darn jumpy.

This baby in the back thought he was pretty much the best thing ever:

Much squealing was done at his approach. 

A one eyed frog also was in attendance.

Next up was a turtle:

Not to want to miss out on being completely and utterly predictable the best part for my 8 year old minion and my 10 year old nephew was probably the turtle. 

This is because when the turtle took his turn he revealed that he was not, in fact, potty trained.

Picture one:

All is fine.

Picture two:

The now slightly wet and chagrined worker is subjected to my son's glee.

Oh, the glee...

Soon, the ten year old looked back at me as if to say:

"I'm really above such juvenile behavior."

Hello, turtle. 

Hello, minion.

Another turtle. This one kept it together.

He was kinda beady looking. 

Like those creatures from The Dark Crystal.

Oh, look it's a pillowcase. 

What could be inside?

A snake. I was afraid of that.

A corn snake to be exact. 

Well, to be exact it's probably something like:

Cornsnakiues Terrificus Terrifyingus

or something.

So close to touching it...

Success.

I'm not big on snakes. 

But the 4H workers gave us some pretty humbling statistics. 

And by humbling I mean: 

What the heck am I so scared of?

So, there are something like sixty species of snakes in Alabama and of those only six are poisonous. 

Or maybe it was nine...it's a blog for goodness sake...cut me a break.

Of the six: three have rattles, one lives in the water, one is the copperhead and one is the coral.

On average only 12 people a year die in the United States due to snake bites and most of those cases involve someone who was deliberately trying to handle a snake.

Hey, look!

It's me! Deliberately handling a snake.

Okay, so I just reached out and touched it for a second. 

It was cold.

But after hearing all those statistics it didn't seem quite as scary. 

Yes, the scene in True Grit still scares the pants off me but after today's presentation I'm no longer that frightened of them.

In fact I may be moving into the 'pro snake' camp. 

So, add one up for knowledge being the great harbinger of...

...whatever knowledge is supposed to be a harbinger of.

Yeah, for conservation and all that.

A last guest in attendance: the aligator.

I'm sorry little gator but the snake kind of upstaged you.

"What? I was supposed to be the grand finale!"

Maybe next year gator.

This year it was all about the snake and the unruly turtle.