The media usually doesn't do a very good job with its coverage of snake stories, so when it does, we take notice.

Compare these two articles: One uses science to tell its story, and one uses media panic.

London's Camden New Journal gives an overview of the discovery of a colony of around 30 Aesculapian snakes living nearby:

But the "non-native species" has been ranked "of high concern" by the London Invasive Species Initiative (LISI), a government advisory quango which has called for the "foreign" family of snakes to be eradicated. It claims, if not stopped, the snakes could spread, causing "serious negative impact" on the eco-system.

This tough-line stance was this week disputed by Dr Wolfgang Wuster, a snake venom expert and senior lecturer of the School of Biological

Science in Bangor University, who told the New Journal: "Any attempt to eradicate the Aesculapian snake would require justification of resources to be devoted to an almost certainly non-problematic introduced species with little prospects of spread, as opposed to the many far more damaging species already out there."

Sane. Balanced. Investigative, even.

Then there's the Daily Mail, whose coverage can be well-summed up by the headline: "Colony of killer snakes 'capable of crushing small children to death' on loose in London."

Of course we all know the Aesculapian snake (now Zamenis longissimus, previously Elaphe longissima, is built much like our native bull snakes. and obviously not large enough to kill a child. But why should that get in the way of some sleezy tabloid clickbait?

Photo: kingsnake.com user nechushtan