In the field

[adamanteus]

I'll look forward to seeing those pics Sid! And if you need someone to carry your bags.......!

[adamanteus]

Sid,
Have you ever come across Crotalus adamanteus in the wild? As I mentioned I kept them for years, but they were long term captive bred. It must be quite different in the field, and something I mean to experience if I ever get "Stateside"!

[Sid]

Several years ago, in the mountains, north of me. I'll be back there some this spring.

Sid

[adamanteus]

Sid, That just isn't enough information...! Tell the tale!

[Sid]

Sorry about the brief reply. Fact is , I was a Boy Scout Troop Master and took my troop up for the week-end along with some other local scout masters. Several Timber Rattlers were found by the boys. You should have seen the kids "proudly" displaying them. They were marching around with them crawling around on dead tree limb that they were using as make shift reptile hooks. We locked them in cages until our stay was over. The camp master release them in a more remote area after we left. Had it not been for the fear of the kids getting bitten, it would have been a little funny, just wasn't at the time.

Sid

[adamanteus]

I never dealt with a Timber Rattler, but I've always wanted to. What's the specific name for the "Canebrake" variety (Crotalus horridus.....?) I can't remember without consulting books! I've always thought they were particularly attractive.

[KITKAT]

When I was young and foolhardy, I came across a black snake that was hidden in some orchard grass. I could see the midsection but not the head or tail.

Well, thinking a black snake would be a Racer, I foolishly took hold of the middle of the snake and withdrew it from the grass.

When I saw the rattle... I tossed it very fast!

Melanistic Massasauga.

But I'm glad to say it is on my life list!

[Cazador]

Even better, I'm glad is wasn't the last one on your life list .

[adamanteus]

Not quite "in the field" but close......

One Saturday night, a few years ago, just as I was getting ready to go out and "hit the town" I had a call from the police to say that a guy had found a 2 foot snake in his luggage on returning from holiday in South Africa, and would I please go get it.

I turned up at his house armed with a snake-hook and a large bucket with a snap on lid. He directed me upstairs and said the offending ophidian was hiding in a cardboard box full of computer parts. When I opened the box I couldn't see a snake at first, there was a printer and a jumble of cables, wires and scart leads. I had to lift the printer out, which was awkward because of the wires, and there underneath it, all coiled and ready to strike was a juvenile Cape Cobra (Naja nivea)! To my horror the printer had stuck as I lifted it, so I was lifting the box too. Also, the wires were plugged into the printer and the snake was entwined in the wires. I couldn't drop the printer without crushing the snake, nor could I lift it out quickly and cleanly.

I stood totally still, not even daring to breath and after a few seconds the snake relaxed a little, so I was able to pull the machine clear leaving the wires trailing into the box.

I then had to disentangle the animal from the cables using the hook. Deadly spaghetti!! As I lifted it out the snake was going wild, striking out in every direction, Cobras are so fast and supple it was like trying to pick up water on the hook. It might have been easier if the animal had been a bit bigger, but then again he would have had a longer reach.

I was able to persuade him to wrap the front of his body around the hook and then with my free hand I took his tail and, pulling slightly to encourage him to pull against me, I managed to drop him into the bucket.

I took him home and put him in an empty viv. Then I got the shakes!! At that time he was the only Cape Cobra in the UK, so I knew there was no antivenom in the country.

He was a fascinating snake. I kept him for about 18 months. During that time he settled really quite well and stopped going "hoody" (except when I lifted him out to clean up). He was really inquizitive and never stopped searching his vivarium for a way out, checking every tiny hole in the air vents and the edges of the glass doors. Pretty unnerving really, even though I had complete faith in the integrity of the viv.

[drache]

scary
I once came upon a rattler when taking a moonlight walk along a small airstrip in the Mojave near Joshua tree.
I was walking past something that looked like a small rounded rock, maybe a foot in diameter and half that high. Suddenly the rock rattled. It felt like it was rattling my spine, actually. I just kept walking . . .
When I was a little kid - six or so - I was with my dad and we came upon a vipera berusin a pile of leaf litter under the filbert trees. I remember it being pretty and my dad telling me to leave it alone. I only saw it that one time.
Last summer I saw a large garter in a loose rock wall, at a friends house about an hour north from here. She just moved there last spring and said that there's lots of snakes there in spring and early summer. I'm hoping to check that out this year