Published for International Snakebite Awareness Day by the Save The Snakes Founder & Executive Director Michael Starkey. 

Every year on International Snakebite Awareness Day, September 19, the global conservation community reflects on one of the most complex challenges in wildlife preservation: human-snake conflict. At Save The Snakes, our core mission is to protect snake populations worldwide. However, true conservation cannot exist in a vacuum, nor can it be achieved through idealistic platitudes. To meaningfully save snakes, we must directly confront the stark human reality of the global snakebite crisis.

Confronting the Reality of the Snakebite Crisis

In many parts of the Western world, human interaction with snakes is occasional, and medical care is readily accessible. In this context, advocacy often centers around dispelling harmless myths, keeping snakes as pets, and promoting appreciation for neighborhood wildlife. But across the global South—particularly in low-income, rural agricultural regions of sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America—the relationship between humans and snakes carries severe, life-altering stakes.

A landmark study published in PLOS Medicine estimates that global snakebite envenoming causes between 274,000 and 513,000 deaths annually. This burden is up to four times higher than former official baseline figures, driven largely by severe underreporting in remote communities where victims lack transport to clinical care or pass away before ever reaching a hospital.

Expecting a farmer or parent who has lost a family member to a fatal snakebite to simply appreciate or love snakes is not only unrealistic, it is deeply insensitive to the profound human toll of this neglected health crisis. When fear is rooted in real, physical danger, telling communities not to fear snakes ignores their lived experience and undermines conservation efforts.

Bridging the Empathy Gap: What Elephant Conservation Teaches Us About Snakes

When evaluating successful wildlife conservation around the globe, one fundamental principle stands out: conservation only works when it is led by and supports the communities living alongside that wildlife.

Consider the conservation of African elephants. Elephants are cherished globally, yet for agricultural communities in rural Africa, an elephant encounter can mean ruined crops, destroyed livelihoods, or even human casualties. Asking a farmer whose family’s survival is threatened by crop-raiding elephants to simply love those animals is a tall order. True elephant conservation did not succeed through top-down messaging telling people not to fear wildlife; it succeeded when local conservationists built practical solutions, like bee-hive fences and early warning systems, that protected human safety and livelihoods first.

Snake conservation faces this exact same reality. We must navigate a vast empathy gap, bridging the perspective of those who can safely welcome snakes into their hearts and homes with the reality of those for whom a snake encounter carries life-or-death consequences. You cannot educate a community into respecting an animal if they live in constant fear for their children’s safety. Safety builds the necessary foundation for coexistence.

The Vector Paradox: Why Eradication Is Not an Option

The World Health Organization officially classifies snakebite envenoming as a Neglected Tropical Disease. While this classification is vital for securing global medical attention and antivenom resources, it creates a unique conservation dilemma.

When society labels a disease vector, like mosquitoes carrying malaria, the immediate public response is often an effort toward total eradication. Yet, applying an eradication mindset to snakes would trigger catastrophic ecological fallout. Unlike mosquitoes, snakes are vital predators that keep ecosystems balanced and healthy. Eradicating snakes would destroy the natural order, causing rodent populations to explode, destroying agricultural yields, and accelerating the spread of rodent-borne diseases like hantavirus, leptospirosis and plague.

We cannot eradicate snakes, nor can we ignore the human toll of snakebite. Therefore, peaceful coexistence is the only sustainable path forward.

Respect Through Education: A Balanced Approach

At Save The Snakes, we do not sugarcoat the danger that venomous snakes can pose. Instead, we bridge the gap between human safety and wildlife preservation through pragmatic, science-based education. We move beyond emotional pleas, focusing on building respect, safety, and mutual understanding. Our approach rests on a fundamental principle: when people feel safe and equipped to handle snake encounters, snakes are far less likely to be killed out of fear.

To achieve this, top-down foreign conservation models are discarded in favor of empowering local trust and context. Through our Save The Snakes Grants Program, our organization funds local conservationists and community leaders who live and work in high-conflict areas. These local experts design tailored mitigation strategies, ranging from distributing snake-proof footwear to agricultural workers to conducting community first-aid seminars. Empowering local leaders ensures that human safety and snake protection advance together seamlessly.

This commitment to safety extends to domestic challenges in our own backyard well. In California and across the Western United States, suburban expansion continuously overlaps with native venomous species like rattlesnakes. Conflict between humans and snakes is a constant struggle. Through our professional Venomous Snake Training Program and community outreach events, our team trains homeowners, outdoor workers, and emergency responders in safe protocols, humane relocation, and snake behavior. Equipping local communities with clear safety guidelines reduces emergency room visits while protecting vital native apex predators.

Furthermore, ending the neglect surrounding snakebite envenoming requires conservationists to actively participate in global public health discussions. Save The Snakes engages directly with international scientific communities, from contributing to landmark epidemiological literature, such as the recent PLOS Medicine paper citing team members like Dr. Hiral Naik, to presenting at major international forums, including the upcoming European Conference on Snakebite in the Netherlands and the IUCN World Congress of Snakes in Sri Lanka.

Coexistence Between Humans and Snakes Requires Honesty and Action

Protecting snakes requires protecting the people who live alongside them. Despite the staggering global toll of snakebite, finding funding for snake conservation and human-conflict mitigation remains an uphill battle. Save The Snakes remains one of the few organizations in the world providing direct grant funding to local field conservationists tackling this issue, even as we fight for every dollar to keep these programs running.

By acknowledging the true severity of the snakebite crisis without hesitation, we earn the trust of vulnerable communities. That trust allows us to introduce safety measures, dispel dangerous misconceptions, and implement effective conflict mitigation.

As we mark International Snakebite Awareness Day and prepare to announce our newest cohort of international grantees on October 1st, Save The Snakes remains dedicated to this balanced, honest approach. Together, through practical education, research, and direct community support, we can reduce snakebites, safeguard human lives, and ensure the long-term survival of snake species across the globe.

To learn more about our ongoing field projects or support our international grantee network, visit savethesnakes.org.

Featured image for this article of a spectacled cobra, Naja naja, was contributed by Living Zoology.