American Snakes

[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.

[HarborSpringsPiper]

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

This is the only venomous snake in Michigan, where it is known as the Michigan rattler, and in Ontario.

Yes, this is the only venomous snake we have in the State of Michigan and I for one and quite happy about that. Possibly could kill your dog, might make a child quite sick but unlikely to be lethal to adults.

It's a good thing to be on top of the food chain!

[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(!)

[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.

[Inchessi]

There is one Rattlesnake that I have not encountered, that I did not see on your list.

Massasauga Rattlesnake

http://herpcenter.ipfw.edu/index.htm...ke/index.htm&2

I do a lot of hiking, and I incorporated Geocache(sp) as well. While working as a fish biologist on the Great lakes, I went in search of one cache. while crawling under a large root wad, it dawned on me that the area I was in was set aside specifically for protection of the endangered Massasauga Rattlesnake.

While serving in the Marines, a good friend of mine woke to what he swears was a thirty foot rattlesnake. It was sadly, quite comical. The Marine in Question was the darkest man I know. I heard a blood curdling scream and sprang up to investigate. I saw him as white as I, and I did not see him touch the ground in the half second it took him to cover one hundred yards. I may be exaggerating about the color, I am pretty pale.

He got up to put on his socks, saw that poor defenseless snake and took off. It really was a large snake, I didn't feel compelled to play with it and see how big it really was.

[Pleater]

Over here we only have the adder, Vipera berus, a not all that poisonous venemous snake.

People who are bitten seem to have trapped one either by accident or intentionally. Most people don't seem to be able to identify an adder, nor differentiate it from the grass snake, Natrix natrix, nor the slow worm, Anguis fragilis, which isn't even a snake.

I think that having a fairly boring reptilia class in the local fauna is all to the good.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Tartan Hiker]

Crotalus horridus, Buncombe County, NC.



Close-up of the same individual.

My M.S. in Zoology was earned at Louisiana State University. I spent 5 years there studying water snakes in the coastal region from Texas to Florida. Needless to say I have a ton of snake stories, and have lost a lot of blood to ill-tempered Nerodia species.

[Woodsman]

My M.S. in Zoology was earned at Louisiana State University. I spent 5 years there studying water snakes in the coastal region from Texas to Florida. Needless to say I have a ton of snake stories, and have lost a lot of blood to ill-tempered Nerodia species.

I have a copy of "The Amphibians and Reptiles of Louisiana" by Harold A. Dundee and Douglas A. Rossman. I encounterd a beautiful specimen of Lampropeltis getulus in Baton Rouge.

[Bigkahuna]

A number of years ago, when "JAWS" first came out, I had the pleasure of seeing it in a quaint little Northeastern USA fishing village called Provincetown, Mass. A day or two after seeing this movie, I was snorkeling around Provincetown Harbor catching crabs. This would entail my swimming along until I spotted a crab on the bottom, then I would dive down and scoop it up with a small net and bring it up to the small inflatable raft that I had with me. I was in about 30 feet of water, swimming along the bottom, when a large shadow passed over me. DumDum, DumDum, DumDum, Dumdum, was the very first thing that entered my mind as I had been on fishing trips and frequently caught large sharks just offshore. I froze and tried to become one with the sandy bottom. As the shadow passed over me, I glanced up, only to see the raft floating over my head. I was about 20 years old then and have dived many times since around sharks without incident. Those times though I made sure I had a bigger boat!

[MacLowlife]

I have heard that the Opossum is a great enemy of copperheads. I live on nearly two acres in an established suburban area, but close to several patches of woods and swamp. (This means there are deer within a half mile or so of me, but not in my yard or block.) My belief is that black snakes keep down the rat population. Unfortunately, most of the snakes I see are dead. I try to provide them with a little cover.


Pythons, among other non-native species, are thriving in the everglades.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2009/09/2...verglades.html