The problem is that the article doesn't specify if it was a dangerous snake or not, it's possible she recognised the type and knew it was safe to pick it up.
However, you'd have to say that fear of animals like this is a pretty good evolutionary development designed to protect us from threats where are own knowledge doesn't let us know for sure if it's safe or not (i.e. when it comes to snakes, most of us won't recognise how safe or not a snake is, so it's safer for us to be afraid of all of them.)
However, you'd have to say that fear of animals like this is a pretty good evolutionary development designed to protect us from threats where are own knowledge doesn't let us know for sure if it's safe or not (i.e. when it comes to snakes, most of us won't recognise how safe or not a snake is, so it's safer for us to be afraid of all of them.)