Human uses of reptiles

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The artist Charles R. Knight working on a Stegosaurus model, 1899

Human uses of reptiles have for centuries included both symbolic and practical interactions.

Symbolic uses of

Aztec
and other Latin American cultures.

Practical uses of reptiles include the manufacture of snake antivenom and the farming of crocodiles, principally for leather but also for meat. Reptiles still pose a threat to human populations, as snakes kill some tens of thousands each year, while crocodiles attack and kill hundreds of people per year in Southeast Asia and Africa. However, people keep some reptiles such as iguanas, turtles, and the docile corn snake as pets.

Soon after their discovery in the nineteenth century,

John Mandeville and William Shakespeare
. Negative attitudes to reptiles, especially snakes, have led to widespread persecution, contributing to the challenge of conserving reptiles in the face of the effects of human activity such as habitat loss and pollution.

Context

Further information: Culture and Ethnoherpetology
Sabarimala

Culture consists of the

mythology, philosophy, literature, and science.[1]

The ethnobiologist Luis Ceriaco reviews the place of reptiles in culture, as studied by ethnoherpetology, considering their practical uses, namely food, medicine, and other materials; their contribution to "ecological equilibrium", the balance of nature; and negative or fearful attitudes to them (especially snakes), causing persecution, an additional challenge for conservation. This persecution, Ceriaco states, is related to and perhaps caused by myths and folklore about the animals.[2]

More broadly,

conservation.[3]

A more recent perspective is to view the interactions of humans and reptiles as something of "more-than-human agency", in other words the subject of a multi-species study. For example, the behaviour of crocodiles "is constructed in interaction, both between people and crocodiles, and among people";[5] markedly different results depended on "institutional arrangements and attitudes towards sharing a dam with crocodiles" in different villages in Benin, where knowledge of crocodile habits reduced attacks.[5][6]

Symbolic interactions

In mythology and religion

Longshan Temple
, Taiwan

Reptiles both real, like crocodiles

magic spells, attracting sexual partners, and as amulets to protect against the evil eye.[4]

A

myths of European and Chinese cultures, with counterparts in Japan, Korea and other East Asian countries.[9]
The (genuine)
Titans are also depicted in art with snakes instead of legs and feet for the same reason—they are children of Gaia and Uranus, so they are bound to the earth.[13]

The Ancient Egyptian crocodile-headed god, Sobek

Crocodiles have appeared in religions across the world.

Nahua peoples.[20]

Samudra manthan-Vishnu in the centre above his turtle avatar, Kurma

In Hinduism,

Nag Panchami, snakes are venerated and prayed to, and given gifts of milk, sweets, flowers, and lamps.[8][21]

In religious terms, the snake rivals the

Coatlicue.".[22]

The Amaru, a mythological being with serpent-like characteristics, is a common motif in Andean and South American mythology.[23]

In Christianity and Judaism, a serpent appears in Genesis 3:1 to tempt

Neo-Paganism and Wicca, the snake is seen as a symbol of wisdom and knowledge. A legend tells that Saint Patrick banished snakes from Ireland; there are no extant native snakes there.[25] The legend of Saint George and the Dragon, which has pre-Christian origins, tells that the saint, often depicted on horseback and armed with a lance, killed a dragon.[26]

More recently, the

urban legend of New York sewer alligators holds that pet reptiles, released when they grew too large for their owners' comfort, thrived and grew to monstrous size beneath the city's streets.[27]

serpent-entwined Rod of Asclepius
, a symbol of medicine

As symbols

Further information:
Serpent (symbolism)

The snake or serpent has played a powerful

Creek Nation in 1829 that he spoke with a straight tongue, not a forked one.[28]

Three medical symbols involving snakes, still used today, are the Bowl of Hygieia symbolizing pharmacy, and the Caduceus and Rod of Asclepius, symbols of medicine.[29]

The

Chinese Zodiac. Ancient Peruvian cultures often depicted snakes.[30][31]

The

cosmological myths of several cultures a World Turtle carries the world upon its back or supports the heavens.[35]

In literature

"How the elephant got his trunk" in Rudyard Kipling's 1902 Just So Stories
Further information: List of fictional reptiles

Reptiles have appeared in literature since ancient times. Pliny the Elder, for instance, describes the legendary basilisk as a snake "twelve fingers in length".[36] The animal reappears many times in Western literature, including in Isidore of Seville's medieval Etymologiae,[37] and more recently in J. K. Rowling's 1998 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.[38] Among the many other reptiles in children's literature, Rudyard Kipling's story "How the Elephant got his Trunk" in his 1902 book Just So Stories features a crocodile who grips and stretches the elephant's nose.[39]

Turtles and tortoises feature in books for children and adults, from

The Dark Tower series, the world was created by the turtle Maturin, one of the guardians of the tower.[41]

Snake woman on cover of Other Worlds, November 1949

Snakes, too, have played a role in literature since ancient Rome, where Cadmus kills a gigantic serpent in

asp viper, while John Milton's Paradise Lost describes Satan as a mighty serpent, "Fold above fold a surging Maze his Head / Crested aloft, and Carbuncle his Eyes; / With burnisht Neck of verdant Gold, erect / Amidst his circling Spires."[42] In D. H. Lawrence's Snake, the thirsty poet is forced to wait while the snake "sipped with his straight mouth, / Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body, / Silently."[42] Among the novels that feature snakes, Lemony Snicket's 1999 The Reptile Room tells of a herpetologist who cares for orphaned children and dies of snakebite, while Barbara Kingsolver's 1998 thriller The Poisonwood Bible portrays a missionary in the Congo, who is greeted by the planting of deadly snakes in his friend's houses, and then his own.[42]

The supposed weeping of insincere

Sir John Mandeville in the 14th century, and appears in several of Shakespeare's plays.[44] In fact, crocodiles can generate tears, but they do not cry.[45]

In art

Reptiles including crocodiles, lizards, snakes, and

symbolism, as with snakes.[46][47][48] M. C. Escher explored tessellations in his graphic art using lizards and snakes among other animals.[49]

  • Tortoise figurine, ceramic, Near East, 3rd millennium BC
    Tortoise figurine, ceramic, Near East, 3rd millennium BC
  • River scene with crocodile. Fresco from Pompeii, 62–79 AD
    River scene with crocodile. Fresco from Pompeii, 62–79 AD
  • Roman snake ring, 1st century AD
    Roman snake ring, 1st century AD
  • Apollo the lizard-killer (detail), Roman copy of Praxiteles, 4th century BC
    Apollo the lizard-killer (detail), Roman copy of Praxiteles, 4th century BC
  • The adoration of the bronze snake by Agnolo Bronzino, c. 1545
    The adoration of the bronze snake by
    Agnolo Bronzino
    , c. 1545
  • Boy Bitten by a Lizard by Caravaggio, c. 1595
    Boy Bitten by a Lizard by Caravaggio, c. 1595
  • Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt by Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1616
    Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt by Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1616
  • Nudes with Tortoise by Gyula Tornai (1861–1928)
    Nudes with Tortoise by Gyula Tornai (1861–1928)
  • Aboriginal Australian painting with lizards and snake, 1900–1970
    Aboriginal Australian
    painting with lizards and snake, 1900–1970
  • Sandsculpted dinosaurs in Australia, 2009
    Sandsculpted dinosaurs in Australia, 2009

Depictions of dinosaurs

The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs under construction at Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' studio in Sydenham, c. 1853
Main article: Cultural depictions of dinosaurs

Dinosaurs have been widely depicted in culture since the English palaeontologist Richard Owen coined the name dinosaur in 1842. As soon as 1854, a group of life-sized models, the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, were on display to the public in south London.[50][51] One dinosaur appeared in literature even earlier, as Charles Dickens placed a Megalosaurus in the first chapter of his novel Bleak House in 1852.[52]

The dinosaurs featured in books, films, television programs, artwork, and other media have been used for both education and entertainment. The depictions range from the realistic, as in the television documentaries of the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century, or the fantastic, as in the monster movies of the 1950s and 1960s such as Q – The Winged Serpent.[51][53][54] These were followed by Steven Spielberg's highly successful[55][56] 1993 Jurassic Park, a film adaptation of Michael Crichton's 1990 novel, and its sequels, based on the idea of bringing a terrifying beast back from extinction by cloning from fossil DNA.[57] Critics have noticed that Jurassic Park echoes themes from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the aggressive Velociraptor taking the place of Frankenstein's monster.[58]

The 1897 painting of fighting "Laelaps" (now Dryptosaurus) by Charles R. Knight

The growth in interest in dinosaurs since the

Dinosaur Renaissance has been accompanied by depictions made by artists working with ideas at the leading edge of dinosaur science, presenting lively dinosaurs and feathered dinosaurs as these concepts were first being considered. Cultural depictions of dinosaurs have been an important means of making scientific discoveries accessible to the public.[53]

Cultural depictions have created or reinforced misconceptions about dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, such as inaccurately and anachronistically portraying a sort of "prehistoric world" where many kinds of extinct animals (from the Permian animal Dimetrodon to mammoths and cavemen) lived together, with dinosaurs living lives of constant combat.[51][59]

Other misconceptions reinforced by cultural depictions came from a scientific consensus that has now been overturned, such as the alternate usage of dinosaur to describe something that is maladapted or obsolete, or dinosaurs as slow and unintelligent.[51][60]

Practical interactions

Food and other products

Osteolaemus tetraspis) skin at the Natural History Museum
, London

Crocodiles and alligators are

Crocodile leather is made into wallets, briefcases, purses, handbags, belts, hats, and shoes. Crocodile oil has been used for various purposes.[62] Snakes are traded in the tens of thousands each year to meet the demand for exotic leather, for meat and for pets; some of this trade is legal and sustainable, some of it is illegal and unsustainable, but for many species we lack sufficient data to assess whether all trade is legal and sustainable[63]

Iguana meat is popular in Mexico, a traditional food for thousands of years. Their eggs taken from pregnant females are a special delicacy.

Sea turtles, fresh water turtles, and tortoises have been eaten since prehistoric times. Because they are generally slow moving and defenseless they present an easily exploitable meat source.

Sea turtle eggs harvested from beaches have always been a part of local diets where they are laid; eggs are often traded and sold inland as a commodity. Adult sea turtles are harpooned or speared and used for meat, fat and the shell. "Tortoise shell" is usually a product of a sea turtle shell. This is used in decorative items. The oil processed from the fat is sold as turtle oil, and is used in beauty products.

Fresh water turtles are also exploited for food in the form of soup and live animals. Turtle soup as a canned luxury item was once the source of large "fisheries" on the Chesapeake Bay and the San Francisco Bay. This resulted in the near-elimination of the Diamond-back Terrapin, and the Pacific Pond Turtle in their respective estuaries.

Turtle meat is considered a delicacy in Asian cuisine, while turtle soup was once highly prized in English cuisine also.[64][65] Turtle

plastrons (shells) are widely used in traditional Chinese medicine; hundreds of tons of them are imported into Taiwan each year.[66]
In the modern day the demand for live fresh water turtles for consumption in South East Asia, and particularly China has resulted in a worldwide market that is threatening a great number of species. A few are farmed, but the vast majority are collected from the wild.

Land tortoises are eaten for their meat, and have their shells used in various applications as vessels, rattles, fetishes, and art objects.

Crocodile meat is occasionally eaten as an "exotic" delicacy in the western world.[67] Alligator meat is farmed for human consumption in the United States.[68][69]

Western Zhou dynasty and considered an important curative and believed to reinvigorate a person according to Traditional Chinese medicine.[72] Snake meat is rarely used in western cuisine, but rattlesnake meat is eaten in Texas.[73]

In medicine

Lizards such as the

Alzheimer's drug.[75]

The

cytotoxic effect of snake venom is being researched as a potential treatment for cancers.[76]

Reptiles including crocodilians, snakes, turtles, and lizards are used in

impotence, infections, jaundice, respiratory diseases, snake bite, thrombosis, toothache, and wounds.[4]

As threats

snake charming with Indian cobras
Main articles: Snakebite and Crocodile attack

Deaths from snakebites are uncommon in many parts of the world, but are still counted in tens of thousands per year in India.[77] Snakebite can be treated with antivenom made from the venom of the snake. To produce antivenom, a mixture of the venoms of different species of snake is injected into the body of a horse in ever-increasing dosages until the horse is immunized. Blood is then extracted; the serum is separated, purified and freeze-dried.[78]

Large crocodiles, especially the

attack and kill hundreds of people each year in Southeast Asia and Africa.[79]

For entertainment

In India, snake charming is a traditional roadside show. The snake charmer carries a basket that contains a snake to which he plays tunes from his flute, to which the snake appears to dance.[80] Snakes respond to the movement of the flute, not the actual noise.[80][81]

In the Western world, a variety of reptiles including iguanas, turtles, and some snakes (especially docile species such as the

ball python and corn snake) are kept as pets;[82][83] pond turtles were already used as pets in Roman times.[84] Reptiles have a strong capacity for learning and can be playful. They have specialised diets and require some skill to feed; many lizards and turtles are found on veterinary inspection to be suffering from metabolic bone disease, which can be caused by poor diet or lack of ultraviolet lighting. Poisoning by venomous reptile pets is rare, but bites from large lizards like green iguanas, which are widely kept as pets in the US, are more common, with some 800 cases per year.[82][83]

Persecution and conservation

Snakes like this Western rat snake are often killed, accidentally or intentionally, on roads.

Cultural attitudes to reptiles include a widespread fear, sometimes extending to

alien species, and excessive exploitation, such as for bushmeat.[2][87] Persecution includes the deliberate killing of snakes across Europe, and the "rounding up" of rattlesnakes in America.[2][88] An experiment using fake snakes and turtles in Canada showed that snakes were run over more often than turtles, often when drivers apparently intentionally swerved to strike the snakes.[2] In Australia, 38% of people surveyed stated that they attacked large elapid snakes to protect children and pets, and because they feared and hated these snakes.[2][89]

Several non-profit organizations around the world focus on reptile conservation, including the International Reptile Conservation Foundation,[90] and the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust.[91] A peer-reviewed journal, Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, publishes research on the topic.[92]

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