NAJRAN, 26 July 2006 — Saudi Arabia is home to a few species of venomous snakes. To the north of the Kingdom reside the Egyptian cobra (Naja haje), the horned desert viper (Cerastes cerastes), the Levant viper (Vipera lebetina) and the Palestinian viper (Vipera Palestinae).
Widely distributed throughout Saudi Arabia are the sand viper (Cerastes vipera), the saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus) and last but definitely not least — the puff adder (Bitis areatans), which is the second largest of the viper family and can grow up to 1.8 meters in length and has a reputation to match: It’s notoriously un-shy when approached and quick to strike any intruders.
So, you ask, why the herpetology lesson?
The daily Al-Watan reported yesterday that a man was pulled over by a traffic cop in Najran, to the south of the Kingdom.
When the driver emerged from the vehicle to try to talk his way out of the ticket, he and the cop were shocked to see a snake emerge from beneath the driver’s seat.
The cop recognized it as one of the poisonous kinds, though the report did not mention which of the three candidates it could have been.
The man generously thanked the cop for pulling him over. For his part, the cop decided not to give the man a ticket.
Both men parted ways with a bad case of the heebie-jeebies.
It is important to note that while such snakes can pose a fatal threat to people and livestock, they are also an integral part of the ecosystem and help to control the population of vermin, such as crop-eating rodents and other furry pests.
These slithering creepers are as afraid of people as people are of them, and their main motivation for attack is to escape. They are part of the diverse zoo of God’s creatures and should be treated as such.
