Annabella Mireles
Models
Paulina Lopez (Human); Martin, Gina, and Coco (Reptile)
As we slither our way into 2025, we can hope for fresh starts, positive changes and success. What may help us understand what the year has to bring is referring to the Chinese zodiac.
According to Chinese astrology, zodiacs follow a 12-year cycle that links years to animal signs as well as five basic elements, making this year the year of the wood snake.
In some Western cultures, snakes tend to have a bad reputation. From portraying Satan in the story of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis to being essential in villainous characters in pop culture such as Nagini, Voldemort’s snake in Harry Potter.
However, according to an article written by Professor Xiaohuan Zhao from The University of Sydney, snakes can also represent positivity since they can be seen as “little dragons” in which their shedded skin can represent good luck and even rebirth, something to look forward to in the new year.
Still, snakes can still have a bad stigma around them, but to better understand the animal that represents the year, Mariana Hernandez with the Conservation Society of El Paso is ‘shedding’ some light on our scaly friends.
“A lot of people are scared of snakes and think that they’re super aggressive or that they’ll come out and hurt them, but they’re actually defensive animals,” Hernandez said. “They are prey just as much as they are predators. Road runners, hawks and owls are all animals in the area that they have to defend themselves against.”
If you’ve never touched a snake, you may think that they are cold and slimy, which are some common misconceptions according to Hernandez, but they are actually soft and smooth. Another misconception is that they don’t serve a purpose to the environment and are simply predators, however, they play an important role in our ecosystem.
“Snakes eat a lot of the pests that harm the environment,” Hernandez said. “They fit this really cool niche where they eat animals that may have been brought over like Cane Toads which are considered an invasive species. On top of that, they are also secondary seed spreaders. They eat animals that eat seeds and through the process of digestion, they spread those seeds.”
As El Pasoans, we are no strangers to snakes and have plenty of reptile friends that have been able to acclimate to our desert landscape and have specific characteristics that help them do so.
“Desert snakes tend to exhibit a couple of properties to acclimate to the environment,” she said. “A lot of them have burrowing techniques that help them burrow and keep warm since they are coldblooded. There are also sidewinder snakes that move side-to-side to get over sand dunes.”
As with most things in life, we are constantly learning, and we haven’t learned everything about snakes yet.
“There are some studies that have been coming out recently that show that snakes will even recognize their siblings,” she said. “They’ll even try to bathe in the sun next to them rather than other random ones. Snakes actually have a strong social culture in which they also have specific mating rituals like males will fight each other but the females will just stay around.”
Although snakes may be seen as lonely animals, some species actually travel in groups and develop close bonds with their family, caring for their nest.
“Garter snakes are probably one of the most well-known examples,” she said. “They tend to live socially and even live together in groups and brew mate together. They also eat slugs and bugs that are in your garden. Most El Paso snakes tend to be nocturnal so snakes like the Trans Pecos Rat snake won’t come out during the day.”
It’s clear that snakes have a talent at adapting to change and there is no doubt that they are strong creatures that can persevere through various environmental conditions and have traits that we can admire and apply to ourselves this year.
“They tend to be really adaptable,” Hernandez said. “They live in a lot of different places and they’re intelligent animals. Snakes have existed for millions of years, so I think characterizing them as flexible, sociable, hearty and strong is only natural. They’ve evolved from prehistoric versions of themselves such as the Titanoboa that existed alongside dinosaurs. They’ve developed into these smaller, more efficient animals now.”
According to Zhao, the wood snake is the most tenacious of the 12 zodiac animals and is supposed to bring new beginnings. Maybe we can learn from the snake and ‘shed’ the negativity from last year and adapt to change like our reptile friends.
