The small animal called "Goupo Snake" in my hometown This small animal is called "Goupo Snake" in my hometown. It is estimated that this name is common in many places in Hunan. From childhood to now, I have never understood why s...
The small animal called "Goupo Snake" in my hometown
This small animal is called "Goupo Snake" in my hometown. It is estimated that this name is common in many places in Hunan. From childhood to now, I have never understood why such a cute little animal was given such a vulgar name.
The Goubo snake is actually not a snake. It looks a bit like a loach, with a pointed head, but it has four legs and a very slender tail. Perhaps because it resembles a snake and has four legs, most places give it another more vivid name - four-legged snake, and some places call it "Snake Aunt", which is a very noble name.
In fact, the Goubo snake has nothing to do with snakes and loaches. It is a type of lizard. This is a cold-blooded reptile that is distributed all over the world. There are many types of it, with more than 3,000 species on the earth. There are more than 150 species in our country. Its scientific name is Skink, or Chinese Skink.
I used to catch them as toys when I was a child.
Many male compatriots in the south should have caught snakes when they were young. This animal is fleshy and quite cute, and it has four legs and a very slender tail, which basically takes up half of its body.
This kind of animal often comes out and move around in summer. It is more common on roadsides and paddy fields near water sources. It is a very timid and vigilant animal. When it sees someone approaching, it will quickly get into the grass and disappear without a trace.
But even such powerful animals were often caught and played as pets by children in the past. Some older children will take hoes to the grassland near some paddy fields to look for it. When they find a cave, they will find the dog snake hiding inside after digging it.
And it looks a bit like a snake, but children are not afraid of it. They often tie a rope to its abdomen, and then lead it to the fields to play like a dog. Just because many children at that time knew very well that although it was called "Goupo Snake", it did not bite people and was not a poisonous animal. What's more, rural children used to be very courageous, which they learned from childhood. At that time, the summer vacation was coming, and for rural children, going to the fields to search for and dig up snakes was a daily routine.
Is the dog snake a beneficial insect or a pest?
These snakes are small, egg-laying animals that often live in low-altitude mountain forests, mountain roads and some riversides. They especially like to be active on sunny slopes with higher temperatures, such as many riverside grasses, where they are often seen.
And it is also an animal that mainly feeds on insects. In the spring, it often preys on locusts, worms, rats, coleopteran insects, etc., among which pests account for about 46% of the insects it eats; In summer, because there are more insects in this season, its food range is wider, mainly larvae of kowtow beetles, rats, ants, etc., and the proportion of pests among the insects it eats also increases accordingly.
It can be seen that it is an animal that is very beneficial to agriculture, which means that the dog snake can be regarded as a "beneficial insect".
Value Reference of Goubo Snake
In the past, many rural children often caught Goubo Snakes, not only for fun, but some also ate them as delicacies. Although some people may not accept it, it was really eaten by many people at that time. And people also say that it is very nourishing and can be used as medicine.
It is also recorded in some ancient medical books that the dog snake can indeed be used as medicine. It is recorded in the earliest medical book "Shen Nong's Materia Medica" in ancient times, and the name Shilongzi comes from this book. In addition, it is also recorded in books such as "Gangmu" and "Ben Jing", and it mainly has the functions of detoxifying, dispersing stagnation and diluting water.
During the summer vacation, when I went to the roadside in the fields, I would sometimes encounter seven or eight snakes, and sometimes some would run directly into the yard. But it is difficult to see it now, because compared to the past, this cute little animal has become rare.
As for the specific reason, I think that on the one hand, it was captured by others. In the past, although many children caught it and played with it, they always released it after playing with it. However, in the past few years, some restaurants and barbecue restaurants in some places have eaten it as food. One piece costs more than ten yuan, so many people go to catch it.
Another reason is that the rural environment has changed. In the past, rural roads were basically dirt roads, which were also very suitable for them to hide. But now there are basically cement roads and there are no caves. At the same time, due to the large-scale application of herbicides, pesticides, etc., insects have decreased, so there are also fewer dog snakes.
Conclusion
There are many types of snakes, and a small number of them have now become protected animals, such as the blue-tailed skink, which is a protected animal. So if you see this small animal that looks like a loach and has four legs in the wild, don't hurt it casually, let alone try to catch it and eat it. After all, it looks cute and is an animal that is useful for agriculture. What's more, some species have now become protected animals. If you don't know how to catch protected animals, the consequences will be very serious.
It’s summer vacation again, friends, can you still see dog snakes on the roadside in your hometown? What is it called in your hometown?
