New Snake Owner

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Where does this story of snakes milking cows come from???

found this!

"Appropriately, there is a dietary story behind the common name of our local king snake. Besides its occasional taste for reptilian prey — as well as frogs, fish, birds, and eggs — the milk snake avidly hunts small mammals such as mice and voles. After European settlement of North America, the milk snake's searches for these rodents soon brought it into close quarters with humans. Milk snakes were undoubtedly drawn to mice that foraged on waste grain, and there they found shelter in barns and other farm buildings. Humans who encountered milk snakes in their barns creatively imagined that these creatures came to milk the cows, hence the name "milk" snake. In the Chicago Wilderness region, milk snakes are still found in and around some remaining farm sites.
A look at the milk snake's local distribution and habitat suggests that while early farmers may have viewed it as a rogue cow milker intruding on their barns, the snake was actually hosting the farmers on its home turf."

[Sid]

found this!

"Appropriately, there is a dietary story behind the common name of our local king snake. Besides its occasional taste for reptilian prey — as well as frogs, fish, birds, and eggs — the milk snake avidly hunts small mammals such as mice and voles. After European settlement of North America, the milk snake's searches for these rodents soon brought it into close quarters with humans. Milk snakes were undoubtedly drawn to mice that foraged on waste grain, and there they found shelter in barns and other farm buildings. Humans who encountered milk snakes in their barns creatively imagined that these creatures came to milk the cows, hence the name "milk" snake. In the Chicago Wilderness region, milk snakes are still found in and around some remaining farm sites.
A look at the milk snake's local distribution and habitat suggests that while early farmers may have viewed it as a rogue cow milker intruding on their barns, the snake was actually hosting the farmers on its home turf."

Well put, Shannon. It is incredible at some of the myths that are ages old and still believed today. It's the reason I enjoy doing exibits for kid groups and helping eliminate some of this.