Snakes Alive!

“Last summer, I was riding my mountain bike up a fire road in the mountains behind my house. I was in the lowest gear climbing steadly up a hill and I happened to look to the right side of the road and there was a large timber rattlesnake eating a ruffed grouse. He had it halfway swallowed and just the feet and tail were protruding from his mouth. He didn't rattle until I stopped and looked at him. I guess he felt helpless since he couldn't defend himself and hoped I wouldn't notice him. I didn't have a camera, but it was one of the coolest things I ever saw out there. I rode away as he kept rattling. I usually see a few rattlers per year. Anybody have any snake stories to share?”

“i caught an adult indigo snake in my junipers. after dragging the bastard out, i lugged it in the house and scared the piss out of jen with it. what a hoot!”

“I almost stepped on a Timber Rattler in Talladega NF once. He was about 4 feet long and was pretty thick. It was about 95 degrees out and he never even ratteled. I recon his heat sensors couldn't detect me or something. After seeing him I was on snake alert for the next 2 days. LOL”

“RichB, cool story! Neat...and ummm eeek too!
=:0”

“I did a lot of reading about rattlers since it's pretty rocky in the woods in my area and they thrive here. So I'm tuned in to keep an eye out for them. I used to be afraid of them years ago and I decided to do something about it. Many people are afraid of snakes and the best way to overcome it is to educate yourself about them. I read a book called "Rattlesnakes, Their habits and life histories" and learned as much as I could about them. Now they don't freak me out like they used to and I enjoy seeing them. In fact, I went looking for potential den sites and feel I know where some are located. They usually den up in groups of 50 or more snakes per den. In the spring, they don't go more than 100 yards from the den, so your likely to see lots of them concentrated in one area. I saw a large one out near the Quehanna trail near Mosquito Creek in central PA. and afisherman I talked to that day claimed he saw 2. Many times they don't rattle and just hope that you walk by them. Concealment is their first defense. They aren't aggressive and will hide or run.”

“I like watching The Crocidile Hunter fool with snakes. You really get to see just how much a snake will put up with and at times how much they will actually put up with.
Snake don't scare me but I do respect them.”

“I live 15 miles from an area that has one of the highest concentrations of snakes in the U.S. (45 different species including a dense population of Timber Rattlers, Copperheads, and Cottonmouths).

This area is so densely populated by snakes that 2 months out of the year (once in spring, once in fall) the Forest service closes a road (the levee road, known locally as Snake Road) for the snake migration. They travel from the bluffs to the swamp in spring and vice versa in the fall.

The snakes have to cross this road and at times it can be literally covered with snakes. A few idiots had taken to driving the road in order to run over snakes for fun. People like that, well, I probably shouldn't say what I really feel, but we'd be a lot better off without 'em.

Anyway, the Forest Service took action and got gates put up to close the road.

Check out this link about this unique occurance.

Shawnee Snake Migration”

“I used to live in Texas...'nuff said, but I'll say more anyways. Caught a Copperhead once when I was a kid and it escaped in the backyard, the folks didn't like care for that. I feed my own pet gopher snake, Slick Willie, quite often, he likes it that way and he just shed his skin too. Then there was the time out hiking at Lake Sonoma, I came across a King Snake swallowing a Rubber Boa, pretty cool.”

“No real good snake stories, not like the grouse anyway.
We had just decided to bushwhack when Bro's fiance damn near stepped on a rattler and f l e w backwards into me. We marched right back to the trail and stayed on it.”

“When I was in the Grand Canyon, I was walking around LOOKING for em. I wanted to get pics of Rattlers. Never could find any. They're never around when ya want em.”

“Hey folks - I have a fascination for snakes, especially timber rattlesnakes.

Check out a few of the photos I've made of them on my site:

Ladage Photo/Snakes ”

“When I was reeeeal young, I was walking the RR tracks near my house and somehow thinking of God. I heard this wierd whining sound and followed it to find a frog halfway ass-end in the mouth of a blacksnake. It just looked at me as if thinking "Well...aren't you going to help me?" It was pretty freaky, and since then I always wondered if it was a sign from the Man himself!”

“Ya'll have probably heard my story so if you have skip my post.

I was bit by a rattler when I was five. We were vacationing in the ozarks and out for a walk on a little used dirt road. My older brother and I were racing each other down a hill. He stepped on it and I got bit on the foot. My grandpa cut my toe and sucked the venom. My canvas tennis shoe absorbed most of the venom but I still had to spend a few days in the hospital. It was a pretty scarey experience. I AM afraid of snakes. It's not rational but I am. I don't shy away from the outdoors or anything but do pause and *gasp* when one crosses my path. Sometimes a well placed garden hose scares me!”

“There are only four kinds of snakes that give me any fear at all. They are the bigun`s, littleun`s, aliveun`s and the deadun`s and any one of these can cause me real harm, or cause me to harm you gettin` out of their way. There was a time I did love snakes and they didn`t bother me at all. I went out of my way to chase every one I saw down. I just had to get my hands on it, but I out grew that bad habit.

I live in the south and the snakes here are as thick as bugs are up north, you don`t have to do anything to find all of `em you can stand, the land is lousy with the critters. It`s nothing to see six good rattlers in less than 600 yards, in some places here. It makes it real hard to slip up on a squirrel, when you have to keep one eye on the ground at all times. Maybe that`s the reason there`s so many cockeyed folks around these parts, but that`s another story.

I have had my foot come down on more than my share of the creatures and it has caused me to get real good at the high jump and long jump. I see now how that could be considered funny as I do tend to do both of those at the same time, sometimes. It just doesn`t take much to get me up and out of the way of a snake. We have plenty of `em to go around and I`ve seen the roads in places in the fall covered with hundreds of dead snakes and three times that many alive ones.

My next to oldest brother and I were trying to get the bull back in our pasture and we`d got him back over three of the four fences he`d crossed on his get away adventure. We had him hot and bothered and fighting mad at us, he wasn`t ready to come home just yet and was wanting go back and finish what he`d set out to do in the first place. We had him so mad he would have bit us if he`d had upper teeth to do it with. Well, push turned to shove in the creek bottom and he decided to make a stand and just fight us off. We don`t scare that easy and we were having none of it and we made a run on him and turned him up out of the creek and back on his way to the house. I thought I`d run into a thorn tree cause, my leg was on fire and killin` me. We got the bull over the last fence and Jim noticed I had been snake bit. It wasn`t that hard to tell and I would have seen it too, but I was real busy with the bull and all. I looked down at my knee and sure enough there was a cottonmouth stuck to the side of my leg, coiled up all nice and pretty like. His fangs had hit me under the kneecap and he was unable to unhang hisself. Jim and I got him off me and we high tailed it to the house for some help. Did I tell you we were on horses? We were and I still got bit because cottonmouths like to lay up and catch the sun in bushes along the creek beds. Well, to make a long story short,.....er,... now I think of that!LOL I haven`t cared for snakes at all after that day.”

“When I was prolly 10 years old, I was coming back from fishing and crossing a farmer's pasture. This pasture had several large rocks, actually 'erratics' (boulders deposited by receding glaciers during the Ice Age).

Being a kid, instead of going around these rocks, I had to scramble over them. As I climbed on one of them and prepared to jump off, I saw a HUGE (to me, anyway) diamondback rattlesnake coiled up in a depression in the rock, sunning himself...and rattling at me! I jumped off the rock, actually jumping OVER the snake and ran like hell for home.”

“Two men were hiking in the desert and one got bit on his hose by a rattlesnake while doing a #1 behind a cactus.

The other, not knowing proper first aid, took off for a doctor. Well, the doc told him of how you have to suck the venom out, etc. and sent the hiker back to his ailing buddy.

When he got back to the scene his ailing buddy asked what the doc said. And his friend replied "Doc says yer gonna die!"”

“Did anyone else read the brief item in the current Backpacker about rattlesnake venom getting more toxic? Said only one type of rattler had neurotoxins in its venom until recent findings showed other species developing neurotoxins too. As if a collapsing circulatory/ventilation system wasn't bad enough. Three cheers for evolution.”

“Growing up on Jackson Lake GA, I did lots of bream fishing with the family. We had a pontoon boat that we'd usually anchor just offshore, and fish inward amongst the bream bed infested deadfalls, snags, stumps, etc...

If the wind was up, we'ed often kinda run aground, and fish outward. Snakes sometimes dropped onto the deck of the boat from the overhanging trees - we'd push them overboard with the large end of our cane poles.

Once, I had spied a banded water snake sunning in a nearby treelimb. Later, I watched a king snake - about twice the size of the water snake - Stalk the water snake from a considerable distance away. The king slithered silently up the tree, out the limb, and captured the water snake. The king constricted the water snake for a few minutes, then commenced to swallowing it head first. Within a half hour or so, the king crwaled away with about four inches of the other snake's tail hanging from it's mouth. Pretty cool episode.”

“Buddur, Great snake joke!”

“If you heard it, skip it.
Sleeping in a creek bottom with no tent in the Borego a few years back. Woke up to a coiled rattler a foot from the top of my head! Just sucking some heat off my melon. Petty cool, he was totally shut down, just caught me off guard.”

“Rich B is right on the money about researching the threat.

I see timber rattlers on an average of maybe one per year on central and north-central Pennsylvania trails. Never been bitten, nor attacked. They used to scare the helluva good cheese outta me --- and still do! But that won't keep me out of the woods. Stepped over curled-up ones (sleeping?) twice without incident, and another time just one more step and my boot would've been planted on one's tail - all stretched-out (asleep?) on the trail. On every other occasion, their rattle gives plenty of advance notice. Gives you the heebie-jeebies, makes all your hair stand up, and quite an adrenaline rush! But all "very wilderness" experiences.”

“When doin' an off-trail jaunt off the Quehanna trail, I hiked through a region of very rocky/bouldery ground and never gave the occurrance of snakes a thought...till I read of their prevalence within those portions of the Park. It was cold, snowcovered and certainly no snakes out yet...but I gotta remember about 'em when I go there in the warmer months.

Here's a good snake story...
Back home in PA when driving down a dirt road going to a quarry to swim, I saw a gardnersnake out sunnin' himself on the road. I stopped to "apprehend" this snake to impress a visiting friend. Well the snake was a little faster than me (caught lots of black and gardner snakes when I was young...but that was then) as it was ~3-4' long, and got me good by a finger (blood and all). By reaction I accidentally threw it up over my shoulder, it flew towards my car (door still open) and landed on the front seat. Of course he slidunder the seat to hide ffom us. My buddy Phil, who was driving the other carload had some leather gloves with him and took it upon himself to extract the poor boy. Fortunately I had my camera with me and I got some great action shots of Phil with Mr.Snake.”

“This is a good thread I never thought there'd be so many close encounters of the slithering kind.”

“The Northfork Of the Trinity in the Trinity Alps is full of rattlers.
One time I was fishing in the river (back when it was open to fishing)I came across one on a rock about 4 ft. from me. I started teasing him with my fly rod and he slide off the rock towards me. The scary part was when he hit the water I couldn't see him anymore, but new he was heading my way. I ran so fast through that water I think I was on top of it.”

“Buddur,
Man, you are quite the snake handler!

One day on the Golden Eagle Trail in central PA, I came upon two huge Black snakes doing their sparring (or was it mating?). All intertwined and interlocked - spinning and twisting and slithering around - right on the trail there. Watched this for maybe 30 minutes, knowing that I may never see anything like that again in my life. Didn't try to pick 'em up though!”

“LOL Buddur! Man, if I'd been in that car you'd have a sunroof now!”

“I encountered numerous water snakes and one copperhead in Conecuh NF on my bushwacky hike last spring - but not a single moccasin or rattler. The copperhead was swimming around in a blackwater slough I was preparing to wade across, so I figured I'd wait him out. Well, he milled around so long that I got impatient, so I plunged right in. He acted like I wasn't even there (I never got closer than 20 feet of him).

While crossing another slough, the water depth got above my snake leggings, so I doubled back and found a shallower route - I ain't neccessarily affraid of snakes, but I'm not about to take my chances with an unseen aggressive granny cottonmouth!”

“I bought my son a rod and reel set that came with two reels, I was so proud of it and he was too. He took off to the banks of the clear creek with it to give it a try and was having the time of his life. I was working and all of a sudden I hear him scream DADDY! Well, I don`t have to tell any of you that have children what happened, I was off in a flash, you don`t question things when you hear you child scream out like that. I was looking for him and scared out of my mind, I couldn`t begin to think what might have happened to him. I found him with his new rod broken and him white as a ghost, he`d been snake bit. I can`t tell you how much fear I felt for him, I don`t seem to have any for myself.
I got him out of there and called my brother-in-law that is a doctor and he said just watch him first and see if he shows any signs of sickness. I sat up with him all night about out of my mind worring, but he was fine. It was a small cottonmouth that got him and they can be the worst. My son broke his new pole on the snake that had bit him and that was the main thing he was worried about. God loves children and we were lucky that time.

My son later told me he saw the snake and was running from it, but the snake got him anyway. Water snakes are verry agressive here and so is my son, he fished that strech of the creek with a shotgun the next few times.LOL”

“I grew up in ranch and farming country in southwest Kansas and have seen alot of rattle snakes. I`ve always been interested in snakes and enjoy visiting the reptile houses at zoos. When i was just a young boy I had already had several encounters with rattlers, prarie rattlers in those parts. I remember one day our two dogs and I were out on an escapade when we ran on to a rsnake. The dogs were a rat terrier and a weany dog, the rat terrier was a supreme snake killer but, the other dog was not. The rat terrier would circle the coiled snake till he struck then grab him and shake him breaking his spinal column I guess because they usually were done then. This day the weany dog got in his road as he was circling the snake and he got bit on the neck. That was the second time he`d been bit and he didn`t survive.
I`ve seen lots of rsnakes while checking cattle on horses, building fence, and farming. I`ve also hunted them, these were live catches of course. When I was in college some of my friends and I went on a hunt in nw Oklahoma and we caught prarie and diamond backs. Prarie rattlers are smaller than Diamonbacks but they are more aggressive. We took 6 snakes back to college with us and kept them in a glass case for quite awhile. It was interesting watching them feed on white rats and wild rats. The white rats didn`t know what was up when we put them in the case but the wild rats sure did. After a rsnake strikes a rat it takes about 1 minute for the rat to become paralyzed and they expire pretty quick. After the snake strikes they resume the strike position without rattling then they slowly start edging out to the rat with their head and touch the rat, if he moves he is struck again. If he is dead they start to dine. It only takes a few minutes for an average size snake to eat a rat.
What I know about rsnakes from that part of the country is this. All of them have different dispositions, some are very aggressive and will come to you and others try their best to get away. Most of them will buzz to let you know they are aware of your presence but not always. I`ve seen snakes never buzz when you walk by and then strike when you walk back by.
They don`t have to be coiled to strike they can strike laying out flat if you are at their tail of course. I believe the four most impotant facts about rsnake bites are the size of the victim, the size of the snake(the bigger they are the more venom they have), the length of time they hang on you(the longer they hang on you the more venom they will inject), and I think it matters how close the bite is to vital organs(in other words a foot bite would be better than being bit on the hand.
Ther are alot of different species of rsnakes in the US. One thing that bothers me as a backpacker is sleeping on the ground without a tent. Even in the summer in sw Kansas at night they like to lay on the dirt roads and soak up the heat. So I think they would snuggle up to you at night just for the warmth. I`m living in Eastern Oklahoma now and haven`t seen a water mocassin or copper head yet but i`m sure i will. Anyway for what it`s worth that is what I know.”

“Don't like snakes. When I bushwhack, I wear snake gaiters. Got nailed in the knee by a rattler 20 odd years ago by a rattler while locking the hubs on my jeep.”

“Speaking of copperheads...

Was at Kettle Creek State Park in PA a about ten summers ago. One evening I noticed a group of about 20 people milling about in one of the park's playfields - apparently very concerned about something in the grass there. Turns out that some children playing there had noticed a large snake in their presence. Someone said it was a copperhead - first (and last) time I'd ever seen one myself. Fortunately it hadn't bitten nor attacked anyone up to that point. Somebody called the park ranger, who in turn called a local guy who the ranger thought could do something about the situation. We all just stood around there, watching the snake from a distance, and waiting. The poor snake was motionless - probably more scared than the campers. Finally, this guy shows up in an old beat-up pickup truck with two coon dogs leashed in the bed of the flat wooden bed. He was kinda shabby looking, wore a tattered clothes and baseball cap, and couldn't have had more than a total of five or six teeth in his mouth. Chewed tobacco too. Well, this local just matter-of-factly walks over to the snake, picks it up by the tail with his bare hands, and drops it into a bag, all in seemingly one motion - just like that! He chats briefly with the ranger, then drives away with the snake, coon dogs barking wildly. Don't know where he was taking the copperhead nor what he would do with it when he got there, but I wondered if the dogs' barking was any clue. Never saw anything like that in my whole life, except maybe in documentaries on TV about backwoods cultures. The copperhead was one thing, but that local snake guy was just as memorable.”

“Cool! Seeing those two snakes wrestle would've also been pretty cool.”

“BERLIN — A trio of packaged pythons has caused a scare at a German post office.

Police in Darmstadt said Friday that the snakes were stuffed into a parcel that was handed in for mailing to eastern Germany. It contained two tiger pythons and an albino tiger python of more than 3 feet in length.

A post office worker noticed one of the reptiles on Thursday afternoon after it apparently bit through the package. Colleagues caught the snake and put it in an empty box. Police then recovered two more snakes from the damaged parcel.

Police say they have put the package's sender under investigation for possible violation of animal protection laws. The animals have been taken to a reptile house.”

“Can you guys spot the copperhead. Stolen form another forum btw



Here he is!!!!

http://www.aikerd.com/images/cop2.jpg

Hopefully this works”

“I found it but it took some looking and I had to confirm it to be sure.”

“Took me a long long time!”

“I spotted it pretty quickly, but that is a very good depiction of how well they blend in.”

“Took me about three seconds. I'm an expert snake spotter. I even spot snakes that are really sticks and garden hoses, etc.

Once bitten twice shy.;)”

“I found it, took me about a minute.”

“It took me only a couple of seconds. I'm good at spotting all the weird things, hence my job as quality control for a while. ;P

Cute little snake, too.”

“Took me about a minute....but then my nose was an inch from the screen...and knew that there was supposed to be a snake there. I would never have seen it on the forest floor.

Still can't see which end is the tail or head though.

Btw, a person (The owner allegedly) was bitten by a poisonious African snake in Winnepeg, Manitoba a few weeks ago. He went to a hospital and asked for an anti-venom shot for a certain snake bite to his face. He denied that he was the owner of the escaped snake....it's now slithering somewhere in Winnepeg. Police are hoping the coming winter will kill the snake if it's not caught.
last edited: 11/07/08 5:14:40 AM”

“i couldn't find him so i called BrianSean over; he found him!

Good Job Brian!”