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Mark Greene is stuck on snakes and thinks they deserve a better rep. He's a professor of biology at the University of California at Berkeley. He not only believes snakes have been badly affronted, but has made it his life's work to wage war on ophidiophobia, also known as fear of snakes. It hasn't been easy.

A collector since he was a seven-year-old in rural Texas, Greene sees snakes as biologically and esthetically interesting. "Snakes are natural puzzles, suggestive of things that haunt and inspire us. We ought to consider them worthy of respect and deserving of a place in nature."

Greene says we should suspend our natural preference for animals with fur, feathers and facial expressions. In addition to teaching students in the classroom, he guides skeptical, and often frightened, visitors through the double-bolted doors of the venomous-snake room at Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

Greene emphasizes his theory by plucking a yard-long rattlesnake out of its cage and telling visitors: "Touch his skin or feel his rattle. They're really works of art!"

Besides alleviating fear, herpetologists know education is important for other reasons. It's the first step in any preservation effort. To save endangered reptile species and protect those that aren't endangered, herpetologists often take their message into classrooms.

"We're hoping that the kids in those classes will look at the snakes and learn to appreciate them, rather than be afraid of them," says Greene. "And not that they're going to do anything today, or tomorrow, to help them, but somewhere down the line, something will click."

Robin Andrews, a professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, also shares a love of the "unlovable." As a teenager, Andrews spent much of her time wading through the swamps outside New Orleans, catching snakes, turtles and lizards. "There's no better feeling in the world than driving home after a long day, covered with mud, with a pillowcase full of rat snakes beside you. You feel like Jason after he's found the Golden Fleece."

Andrews can't understand people's fear of reptiles. "They fascinate me. Here's an animal that's evolved virtually unchanged over thousands of years. I look at this from a scientific point of view."

Most herpetologists had a fascination for reptiles and amphibians as children. James Bogart, a university zoologist, says: "I was one of those kids who liked to go out into the woods and catch animals -- and some of the easiest things to lay your hands on are frogs and box turtles."

Not content with a simple aquarium, Bogart dug a backyard pond, lined it with cement and fenced it in to keep his menagerie of reptiles happy. His favorite snakes stayed in the basement until his mother discovered them. After that, they joined the group outside.

Bogart believes that reptiles make the best house pets. "Why? I'd say because reptiles are much more easily managed than other animals. Monkeys aren't very good house pets. From my observations, the little children who visit our reptile house aren't frightened by reptiles. It's when they're older that they begin to respond negatively. I've seen many teachers shudder when they pass through. Kids pick up on this."

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