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Madelia man displays snake, salamander

Staff photo by Fritz Busch Tom Jessen of Madelia, left, holds and describes his five-foot long fox snake at the Harkin Store Sunday afternoon as Autumn and John Zander of Janesville listen. Horses and transportation of the 1870s will be featured in a program about the town of West Newton plus leatherworker Dan Cochran, at the store, 1-4 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 23.

NICOLLET COUNTY — Tom Jessen of Madelia talked about and displayed a snake and salamander with passion at the Harkin Store Sunday afternoon.

“I found the snake on a bike trail east of Mankato in 2011,” Jessen said. “It hissed at me at first. We’ve gotten along fine since then.”

Fox snakes are known for their stalking behavior, odor and often a combination of stripes and blotches.

“I feel it mice and striped gophers, which they grab and squeeze on their own if they’re hungry,” Jessen said. “They don’t have fangs but can bite, which feels like a scratch from a raspberry bush.”

Jessen, who breeds snakes, kept the snake in an aquarium but slowly pulled out of captivity as he talked to Harkin Store visitors about it. They can be found in forests, grasslands and farm areas in the Midwest and Northwestern United States.

He talked about and played with “Slippery Jim,” his salamander, that he found on a road south of Madelia.

“They do well in ponds without fish, since fish would eat their eggs,” Jessen said. “Salamanders eat worms, insects and crickets. You can expect to see salamanders out on country roads during and after September rains. They look like a black cigar running across a road.”

Salamander are capable of regenerating lost limbs, plus other damaged parts of their bodies. Researchers hope to reverse engineer the remarkable regenerative processes for potential human medical applications, such as brain and spinal cord injury treatment, or preventing harmful scarring during heart surgery recovery.

The skin of some salamanders contain a powerful poison, tetrodotoxin. Those salamanders are slow-moving and have bright, warning coloration to advertise their toxicity. Ingestion of even a small amount of tetrodotoxin is deadly.

While snake skin is dry, salamander skin is wet to the touch. Salamanders range in size from 1.1 inches to Chinese giant salamanders that can be nearly six feet long and weigh up to 143 pounds.

Salamander glands discharge mucus that keeps their skin moist, important for skin respiration and thermoregulation. A sticky layer protects from from bacterial infections and molds, reduces friction when swimming, and makes them slippery and harder for predators to catch.

Next Sunday, Sept. 23, Harkin Store visitors can learn about 1870 transportation and hardware supplies. The nearby town of West Newton had two blacksmiths, a wagon shop, molasses press, hotel, private school, sawmill, flour mill and boarding house. Leatherworker Dan Cochran will have a display of his wares.

For more information, visit http://www.mnhs.org/event/6052

Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.

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