The Investigation of Snake-phobia Management by the Inhabitants of the City of Kumba, Southwest Region, Cameroon

Abstract

Humans have had a long standing history of interaction hostility with snakes, and most snakes have been killed by this interaction in Cameroon and many other parts of the world. Basic education on snake conservation importance has to be provided to the communities to avoid unnecessary killing of snakes. The objective of this survey is to investigate the management of snake-phobia by the inhabitants of the city of Kumba. The research data collection witnessed the administration of two hundred and fifty questionnaires in the study area to a randomly selected population sample. The results recorded a significant association between Gender and snake phobia (X² = 17.725 df=1, P<0.05. Inaddition, there is a positive correlation between Profession and the knowledge people on non venomous snakes (R² = 0.446, P<0.05).  Moreover, the survey revealed a significant link between the Age Category and Snake-phobia (X² = 16.134 df=2, P<0.05).  Furthermore, there exist a significant association between the snake phobia and human reaction at snake sight (X² = 16.521 df=3, P<0.05).  A respondent score of 70.15% is recorded on snake phobia. A respondent score of 56.72% is recorded on Black cobra, as a snake most commonly seen in the study area. Snakes are not human enemies, rather are important for human existence, ecologically and biomedically, hence their killing must be avoided during interactions. There need to be a public educational programme on the education of snakes species and behaviour to reduce and eliminate human snake-phobia. It is also very important to know that the existence of snakes should never be mystified, so many species commonly seen around like green tree snake (Dendrelaphis punctulata) are non venomous.

Keywords: Snake-phobia, Non-venomous snakes, Green-tree snake, Profession, Humans