Word: snakes
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...intestines, the concrete floor awash with blood. On the right, a group of men squat on the floor in a row, holding a four-meter reticulated python. Even in the dim light of the slaughtering shed, the crisscross pattern of green, yellow, henna and black stripes that gave the snake its name glows with vivid life. The men flip the wriggling creature over, exposing its white underbelly. With practiced ease the python is slit open and gutted, then flung into a corner amidst the hoses and plastic buckets full of blood to await skinning, its vibrant colors already fading...
...within four months, the markets were open again. Now, two years after SARS, the wildlife trade is back in full swing, albeit more discreetly than before. Take the Guangzhou Snake Bird Animal Fair Market, the largest animal market in southern China. While many of the market's sellers appeared to be idling away their time one recent day, playing mahjong or smoking, their mobiles rang regularly as restaurants or familiar customers placed orders. "Now deals are usually carried out at dawn or dusk to avoid government inspectors," says Lao Xu, who sells hunting tridents and fermenting jars at the market...
Even if Las Vegas had not come calling, Great Basin water holes would be in trouble. Across the region, drought, agricultural diversions and overgrazing have done measurable damage, and there are examples in Snake Valley. "We're worried about southern Nevada because we know what we're doing to ourselves," says rancher Dean Baker. "And that's just a drop in the bucket compared to what they're talking about...
...River, clear across the Continental Divide, and Los Angeles to consider exploiting a groundwater field in the Mojave Desert. These and other communities will thus be watching Las Vegas closely, as will environmentalists who question, among other things, how much water, if any, the city can take out of Snake Valley without doing harm...
...more accurately they can model potential effects, and the more confidence the public in that state and elsewhere will have in the decisions the government agencies make. "When the water is gone, the future is gone," observes rancher Dean Baker. That's true not only for ranching families in Snake Valley but for families in the Las Vegas Valley as well...