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Dangerous Job

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JonathanD

JonathanD

Ophiological Genius
Sep 3, 2004
13,028
1,830
Stourton,UK
I'd just like to publicly pay my respects to a fellow herpetologist Luke Yeomans who was bitten by a captive King cobra and died shortly after. Luke ran a King cobra sanctuary in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire and was dedicated to protecting the species and would have been opening its doors to the public this year.

Every herpetologist has his own methods, Lukes was pretty much hands on, up close and personal. From bitter experience early on, I was taught the hard way that you can never become complacent and predict the behaviour of even the most docile and familiar individual. Luckily I survived.

It looks like he was envenomated with such a massive dose of venom, which literally left him unable to raise any alarm at all, and was found by his daughter utterly incapacitated.

I sincerely hope that Lukes work will continue. My heart goes out to his family.

luke-yeomans.jpg
 
southey said:
That's a sad note matey, but it sounds like he went doing what he loved, Good speed Luke Yeomans.

David.
Click to expand...

He certainly did. There are far worse ways to go, and the risks are accepted. I just wish he had seen his breeding project reach a higher level of success before he went. I've worked with King cobras extensively and we really need to protect this incredibly intelligent reptile before it is too late.
 
I heard this on radio 2 (via Sky TV) while working at a job on Thursday. Jeremy Vine was chuntering on about it with his usual provocative/inflammatory way saying something like: "Was this was envitable? And should such things be "allowed"?" Naturally he was feeding the kneejerk reaction paranoia to a tragedy like this. In some ways inviting uninformed people to phone it and comment and add to the serves him right spin that Vine had started. I missed the rest of the show which is when I was outside sawing.

Sadly it wasn't the saving and endangered species Vine was focussing on but implied that people like that man doing the job he loved ought to be legislated for his own good and made to comply to some obscure Govt dept standard of risk assesments. Y'know the usual PC gumpf.

Anyway it's nice to read another angle on this, and one that I trust more so than some slanted report on the radio almost making it seem like he was some nutjob who slept with his pet snakes in the same vivarium.

Thanks for bringing him to our attention Jonathan. My thoughts are with his family too. I hope his work does indeed continue, but once that driving force and passion that he had has gone maybe it won't. I hope I'm wrong.
 
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I've seen some videos of him "showing off " his cobras & I personally found his behaviour rather disconcerting. When I saw his cavalier attitude faced with a threatening king cobra I thought there's an accident in waiting. It was as though he believed they would never attack him. Wild animals (even captive bred) can be unpredictable, even more so when out of their natural enviroment & those capable of killing you, should be treated with the utmost respect.( no risk taking.)
Misjudging a situation or taking as read a venomous serpent's reactions, is never a good idea.


I expect I'll recieve quite a bit of flak.....................
 
Wow, that's very very sad, I saw a king cobra on Deadly 60, what a way to go. thanks for letting us know, I will look up his work now. Is there like a memorial fund or something?
 
It is a very sad loss of life.

Why exactly do we need a cobra sanctuary in Eastwood? I saw a few grass snakes growing up around there, but nothing else. It wasn't his job it was a hobby. It's very sad but he didn't need to be doing it.
 
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