Adaptation is a funny thing. News reports came out throughout the zoological world, and two particular snakes were in trouble. The rare eagle, Assad's Raptor, had exploded in population in just one region in the entire world - North America. But for herpetologists Sara and Neil, this posed a particular very real threat. Assad's Raptor was known to only dine on two specific species of snakes...the North American King Snake, and the North American Coral Snake. To make matters worse, the Assad's Raptors were hunting in groups, virtually annihilating huge fractions of the population of both species. And the population of the raptors in the United States was getting way out of control; so much so that both species of snakes were known to cohabitate in the same environment...sometimes even the same den! According to studies, this was unheard of until recently, considering the King Snake had been famous for eating Coral Snakes. But the threat of the new neighbor, the imfamous Assad's Raptor, had forced the two species to adapt. That adaptation resulted in even more visible similarities than already existed. Scientists were puzzled at the phenomenon, but Sara and Neil knew they had to do something.

Now Sara and Neil set out to save the snakes. They got teams together, and they ventured out into the hot desert areas where the population for both species was most prevalent. Each team went their separate ways to attack the problem. Now Sara's team of zoologists was made up of mostly young college students, and they wanted to 'Save the snakes'. They had such big hearts, they threw caution to the wind, and braved the wilds, and dug into these new dens where the snakes had been known to dwell. There was only one problem; the Coral Snakes were extremely venomous, and the two scientists certainly couldn't afford to bring extra anti-venom along. But Sara and her students knew that what they were doing was right, and when they saw flocks of Raptors in the sky, they knew they had to act. They just knew their great big hearts for the beautiful Coral Snakes would be worth it if they got bitten...they could just milk some of the Coral Snakes if anyone got in trouble. After all; these students were science students; surely they could tell the difference between the two species, and just be cautious around the Coral Snakes they could identify. But when Sara's team encountered the den of snakes, all of the snakes looked alike. Although they were a little more frightened about this, the screeches of the raptors outside the den spurred them on. But as they rounded up as many of the snakes as they could in order to give them a safer place to live, student after student was bitten. Pretty soon it was too difficult to tell any snakes apart, and just about everyone in Sara's team began to pass out from the effects of snake venom.

Meanwhile, Neil's team attacked a much larger den a little farther to the north. Here, too, were the two species living amongst each other, and they could not tell them apart. But Neil's team of older, more veteran, scholarly folk of a different generation were careful. Every snake they found was handled with a snake handler's claw, and they used special thick canvas bags that were strategically just porous enough to allow snakes to breathe, but not bite through the bag. And although they could hear the same shriek of the approaching raptors, members of Neil's group treated each and every snake like it was venomous, just in case. Before long, they had saved most of the snakes in the den; they'd rounded up as many as they brought containers for, and they loaded them all up and carried them away.

Neil and his team showed back up at the base camp. They arranged for transportation for twice the number they'd captured because they were still expecting Sara to get back with her students. After waiting for quite a while, Neil rounded up a search team to hunt for Sara and the students; they should've reported back to the camp a long time ago. So they left some people to watch the snakes, and they went searching for the other team. It took a while, but eventually Neil ran to a cave where one of the search party had been yelling, "Over here! Over here!"

And there inside the snake's den, Sara and her team were scattered about on the ground...with no more snakes to save, and raptors picking at the bones of students and snakes alike.

Well - this was a gruesome ending, wasn't it. However, the world we live in is much more dangerous than a few venomous snakes and raptors...just ask ISIS. Ask yourself...shouldn't we at least take all the same precautions with every refugee that comes here to seek refuge from a Muslim country. No - not all Muslims practice radical teaching. But the ones that do easily blend in amongst the ones that don't, with the strategy of piercing the whole of the world with their venom. And before it's all said and done, they won't even be the victors...someone much bigger and badder will come along. Food for thought - no pun intended.