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Summer Session Kansan Tuesday. July 26, 1960
KU Display Shows Problems Faced by Snakes of Kansas
Snakes have problems, indicates a 40-foot-long display opened this week on the second floor of the Museum of Natural History. The problems stem from fact and fiction.
Fact, in that snakes have been forced to evolve specialized methods of getting food because—as every one knows—snakes have no leg with which to pursue prey, and— as few people realize—snakes lack teeth adapted to tearing or chewing.
Fiction, in that most snakes suffer bad reputations. The dictionary offers one definition of the snake as "a worthless or treacherous fellow," referring to his human counterpart.
But in graphically presenting the three main methods by which snakes get food, the KU display notes that many snakes are valuable friends of the farmer. The display also warns about poisonous snakes found in Kansas.
Six months in preparation, the display includes 31 life-like casts of common snakes in Kansas that were among the casts bequeathed to KU by the late Dr. Glenn C. Rinker, a dentist and competent naturalist of Hamilton.
The display states that "Dr. Rinker, a dentist by profession, made scientific collections, studied animal life, and interested others in natural history." He also gave about 5,000 specimens of mammals to the KU museum.
The snake models are made by pouring latex rubber over recently
Kansan Tastes Political Whirl
EDITORS' NOTE: Lanny D. Unruh,
17, Newton, won the American Legion
high school oratorial contest
and addressed the publican National
Convention yesterday.
By Lanny D. Unruh Written for United Press International
CHICAGO—I can truly say that I have had a taste of politics — in fact, quite a mouthful.
I am most proud to be even a small part of government in the making.
Although this is a Republican convention, I do not claim to be a Republican—nor do I label myself a Democrat. Actually, at the moment I am quite earnestly trying to analyze the high points of both parties.
Rather than analyzing, however,
I find myself looking and listening
and admiring. Everywhere I turn
there is excitement. Everyone is
hurrying in opposite directions at
the same time. There are big people,
little people, important people and
seemingly-important people.
I was privileged to sit in on a press conference of Nelson Rockefeller's. It is certainly a strange feeling to see and hear a national celebrity in person. Mr. Rockefeller answered questions that he had answered perhaps a dozen times in the past. He also burned his finger on a hot moke.
The activity of the politicians and delegates is extremely interesting, but behind the scenes it is even more fascinating. In the huge basement of the hotel headquarters alone, hundreds of typewriters pound out the news. In the press rooms and in the giant amphitheatre a multitude of television and movie cameras bring every detail to every part of the country.
The convention as a whole is tremendous, but of course the highlight of my entire visit was my opportunity to address the convention itself. I realize that I was speaking for every high school student in the nation.
live snakes, producing molds from which casts are made. The body markings are clearly indicated, and these are painted to reproduce the original coloration.
Dr. Rinker's casts range in size from the tiny worm snake to the large bull snake. All of the snakes represented have eating problems.
The most primitive method of obtaining food is illustrated by a representation of a coachwhip snake swallowing a gopher.
The coachwhip snake is able to swallow creatures up to twice as big around as the normal circumference of its own body. In Kansas such snakes help farmers rid fields of troublesome gophers.
Snakes like the coachwhip have loosely-hinged jaws which enable them to grasp their prey and swallow victims alive, "Powerful digestive juices complete the killing process," the display explains.
Other snakes helpful in controlling rodents are more advanced—they crush victims before swallowing, perhaps avoiding indigestion.
Best known of these constrictor snakes in Kansas is the bull snake, which the display states "will rid a barn of rats and mice much more effectively than will cats."
Finally, the most specialized method of obtaining food is represented by poisonous snakes. Only six poisonous species are native to Kansas, and four of these are rattlesnakes—the timber rattler, prairie rattler, diamond-back and Massasauga.
The other two kinds are the copperhead, easily recognized by its "hourglass" markings and locally abundant in the eastern one-third of Kansas, and the cottonmouth, found only in extreme southeastern Kansas.
All poisonous snakes native to
Kansas are called pit-vipers. They have small heat-detecting pits one on each side of the head—used to locate warm-blooded animals at night.
An animated model made by George P. Young, KU taxidermist, shows a close-up profile of a poisonous snake's head in the act of striking.
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"The mouth is opened, the fangs are erected, the snake strikes and venom is forced from the glands through the ducts into punctures made by the fangs," the explanation reads.
Visiting scientists who attended a national meeting of directors of natural history held at KU in late May praised the display.
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But J. Knox Jones Jr., assistant curator of herpetology, says the museum staff realized the display was successful when it passed the "smudge-test" soon after the permanent display was opened to the public.
"Our janitors found that the glass in front of the snake display is well-smudged at the end of each day," Jones said. He was happy that most smudges are found at the level of children.
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Airman's Body Starts Trip Home
MOSCOW — (UPI) — The body of Capt. Willard A. Palm, of Oak Ridge, Tenn., pilot of the American RB-47 shot down by the Soviet Union over the Barents Sea July 1, began its homeward trip by air to the United States yesterday.
Soviet officials formally turned the body over to U. S. officials and it was placed aboard a Dutch KLM airliner which took off for Amsterdam on the first leg of the journey.
Mass of Boy Scouts See Wild West Rodeo
COLORADO SPRINGS. Colo. — (UPI) — Fifty-five thousand Boy Scouts streamed into a giant arena for Rodeo Day at the National Boy Scout Jamboree yesterday.
The Rodeo Cowboys Association provided its best performers. And the weather was at its hottest, dustiest, wild westiest best for a rodeo on the 2,000 acres of the Reverse J. Diamond Ranch covered with the tents of the jamboree encampment.
NOW SHOWING!
Audrey Hepburn in
"The Nun's Story"
and
Walt Disney's
"Sleeping Beauty"
NOW SHOWING!
"Wild River"
and
"13 Fighting Men"
STARTS WEDNESDAY!
Richard Burton
in
"Bramble Bush"
NOW SHOWING "The Wind Cannot Read"
STARTS WEDNESDAY!
"The Story of Ruth"