Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Standard first-aid equipment for poisonous snake bites in Ecuador is an electric "stun" gun.... But in a bind, any sort of moderate electrical shock should work; lawn mower engines work well... (just keep your toes clear of the spinning blade). But watch the current flow.... The sooner you can get the shock after the bite the better (a few minutes) and it should be as close to the bite as possible... One of our former clinical researchers did a study of it and it works... (He is a world class CR by the way). The herpetologist of the snake museam in Quito doesn't bother taking anti-venom after bites anymore...just uses the stun gun... But it is best used as a first aid treatment.... always seek medical treatment and anti-venom. Shooting yourself in the foot is not out of the range of possibility if the snake moves quickly towards your legs... I saw a documentary on the discovery channel about rattlesnakes.... I wouldn't purposely go out to photograph them in the wild.... and I definitely wouldn't consider trying to get pictures of them striking or macro images without a large sheet of something and several trained herpetologists... Duane (I hate snakes) Birkey