American Snakes

[Lallans]

I don't have any really interesting snake stories, although I was apparently fond of picking them up to play with when I was a toddler- but I did want to get in the vital Canadian facts that Black Rat Snakes of remarkable size are found in Southern Ontario, as are, much more rarely, Timber Rattlesnakes. Due to a tendency to disappear over the horizon when encountering them, I cannot testify as to the size of the rattlers.

[dfmacliam]

I am with Zardoz on the Alabama Black Snake reference to male bits... and in the movie Full Metal Jacket and it being a Marine of the dark green variety, making the comment...

[Tobus]

Anyone with personal snake or shark stories ?

Way too many to count. Everyone I know in real life has snake stories. It's just something we deal with in my area of Texas. Mostly Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes. I had a step-brother growing up, who had been bitten on both shins and had scars all the way down his legs from where they had to cut him open to relieve the swelling and vent the poison from rattlesnakes. I've seen horses who got bit; it is not pretty.

The sad thing is that snakes of all kinds are on their way to becoming endangered. Human beings have a mostly illogical fear of them (as BEEDEE's post exemplifies). This is partially due to religious and cultural stigma, but it's also due to ignorance of snakes. People would just rather kill them than learn about them. In truth, though, snakes are very beneficial to have around. Obviously we don't want them in our homes, but they do serve an important role in the ecological system. And the more humans try to "tame" the land, the more they exterminate snakes.

Now I ain't sayin' I haven't shot my share of rattlesnakes. I will not tolerate them around my horses (and thankfully my horses have enough "horse sense" to stay away from them!). But I do leave portions of my land wild enough that snakes can have their place too. I think it's important to keep them around just like all the other wildlife.

[Dixiecat]

Sorry Canuck, looks like you won't get your chance to see a Timber Rattlesnake in Ontario. One hasn't been spotted since 1941 and then it was restricted to the Niagara Gorge.
http://canadianbiodiversity.mcgill.c...es/Cro_hor.htm


Now, the Massasauga rattlesnake on the other hand:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistrurus_catenatus

Anyone with personal snake or shark stories?

Nope, but I have a good bear story..........

[Lallans]

Sorry Canuck, looks like you won't get your chance to see a Timber Rattlesnake in Ontario. One hasn't been spotted since 1941 and then it was restricted to the Niagara Gorge.
http://canadianbiodiversity.mcgill.c...es/Cro_hor.htm


Now, the Massasauga rattlesnake on the other hand:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistrurus_catenatus




Nope, but I have a good bear story..........

OK, I have or had the idea that 'the Massasauga' is not the scientific name for them and 'Timber' is, but I am no expert and too wary to go ask them how they feel about it.

[Dixiecat]

Ah, no. Two different snakes. Sorry for the confusion.

Massasauga rattlesnake is a subspecies of Sistrurus catenatus. Timber rattlesnake is Crotalus horridus, see this link; http://www.rom.on.ca/ontario/risk.ph...id=102&lang=en.

[Radge]

Despite being a UK citizen, I have seen North American snakes in their natural setting. Unfortunately I had to 'stick the heid' on a Diamond Back and a Prairie Rattler in South Dakota, I was doing voluntary work with the Sioux YMCA and the snakes were a threat to our young wards, so it was either bitten wee Lakota or deid snake. The Prairie Rattler was a fine specimen and we ended up eating it. It was skinned, gutted and cooked by my mate Sean. A London Scotsman and a London Irishman eating a sauteed snake in the middle of South Dakota washed down with Snapple(!)

[azwildcat96]

Ah, no. Two different snakes. Sorry for the confusion.

Massasauga rattlesnake is a subspecies of Sistrurus catenatus. Timber rattlesnake is Crotalus horridus, see this link; http://www.rom.on.ca/ontario/risk.ph...id=102&lang=en.

We have the Pygmy Rattlesnake (Western Massasauga - sistrurus catenatus edwardsii) down here in Arizona. They're only found in the Southeastern Chirichahua Mountains of the state. It is one of the 4 protected species, and is considered the most primitive form of rattlesnake in the US. They only grow up to 22" long.

[Lallans]

People that I know who own land they're found on claim that pigs are mightly fond of a meal of Massasagua rattlesnake and clean them out in no time, and then they're occasionally heard to mutter something about letting some pigs loose. But I would rather have the snakes than wild pigs running around- I've seen Old Yeller. Not that anyone asks me.

[EagleJCS]

I don't have any shark stories (except maybe a snow shark or two ). Too far inland.

Snake stories, on the other hand....

Many moons ago my mother lived in what was once considered a rural part of the county (small neighborhood with a few farms around). As she was raking leaves one fall day - without her shoes on - a black snake went slithering across her feet! She didn't stick around long enough to identify what kind of snake it was.

My uncle once told me of a time when he was in the U.S. Air Force, stationed in Thailand (Vietnam War era). He was riding in a jeep with a couple of other GI's on their way back to the base when they see this dark shape in the road ahead. They slow down, and the thing rises up about 6 feet off the ground. Turns out, it was a king cobra. From where they stopped - a good 30-40 feet away - the hood appeared to be about a foot or so across, and the body still on the ground was at least 10 feet long. After waiting a couple of minutes and honking the horn a few times, they realized the snake wasn't going to back down. They then backed the jeep up and took another road back to the base.

My brother was doing some service work at what was then the new Scout camp (about an hour south of Louisville, KY) in the late 1980's, riding along the service road in the maintenance truck when they ran over what they thought was a large tree branch. The driver backed up, bumped over it, then pulled forward and bumped over it again. They then got out and discovered the "branch" was actually a timber rattler, about 10 feet long (when they laid it in the back of the truck, the body ran along one side of the 6-foot bed and across the end).

At Scout summer camp in 1999 (the same camp mentioned above), we had a 5-foot long copperhead come into the campsite one evening and start moving around the boys' tents. Now, technically, the Scout Reservation as a whole is a nature preserve, so we're supposed to report snakes in campsites to the Nature Lodge so one of the staff can come capture & relocate the snakes. This snake particular was being a little aggressive, so one of the other adult leaders with me took an axe to it and reported the snake later. I think he got fined for 'killing wildlife in a nature preserve', but it was that or risk one of the boys being bitten while we waited 1/2 hour or more for the staff to get there.

A third Scout-related summer camp story involves a young man (not me) in Southern Indiana walking along a trail next to the Blue River when a copperhead slithered across the trail directly in front of him towards the river. We heard his scream about 1/4 mile away!

Another Scout story occurred at Big South Fork National Park in southern Kentucky in 1998. We were walking along a trail and the two Scouts in front of me (about 15-20 feet) stepped right across a copperhead - they could have stepped on it for all I know! All I know is I saw it moving once they were a couple of steps beyond it. I stopped where I was and watched as the snake slithered off into the undergrowth at the side of the trail. I called out to remind them to keep their eyes open since they were the ones at the head of the line.

A couple of years ago I was hiking with some Scouts in the Jefferson Memorial Forest (our local nature preserve) and saw the back end of a large snake (about 2-3 inch diameter) as it slithered into a large pile of debris - downed trees and logs that were pile near the trail. Not sure if it was a rattler (which do live in that part of the county - the ranger has documented at least a dozen or so) or just a rat snake.

Another time I was walking along a trail - I don't recall where or when this was - and saw a rattlesnake sunning itself on a stump. I stayed well clear and didn't agitate the critter, so I didn't hear its rattle, but I did see it.

That's all the stories I can recall at the moment.