Snakes and Stones

Basically, almost my entire life is snake incidents of all kinds, in the US and other countries, some of which are pretty hair-raising. I've had some serious run ins with some scary ones in central and South America including Fer-de-Lances, eye-lash vipers, etc. Went on a bushmaster quest in Venezuela once, but didn't succeed in finding one. One of my big thrills in life is seeing animal behavior in the field, especially reptile behavior, so I'm out in the field a lot. In these pics is the smallest and largest species in the US. Can anyone tell what is going on with those two snakes I'm holding in one hand and why I'm allowing one head to be free and the other not?

Way to go! The non-coral is the Mexican milksnake native to southern Texas and beyond. I have to run out the door now, I don't have time to look up but maybe it's the same species or almost as the one you mentioned.

For anyone reading this thread, I just wanted to caution DO NOT pick up a venomous snake! Do not attempt to hold a coral snake like I did w/o training, as it's very dangerous. I am an experienced herpetologist with decades of experience capturing and holding venomous snakes. I should never have posted that photo w/o a warning like this. Being bitten by a cobra (our coral snake is essentially a New World cobra) is a very serious thing. Holding a venomous snake in the presence of others is even more dangerous as your attention must be 100% on what you are doing and not what anyone around you is doing or saying. That is why in the attached photo teaching my 5 year old twin girls about the timber rattler my face looks like I'm in another world--my world at that moment is just me and that snake and doing it all super controlled and safely. Notice its rattle is going fast and furious and its fangs are erect. That was their first time holding a venomous snake. They are 19 now and are experienced snake handlers.

Now, for one more thing then I will stop offending by putting more snake stuff in a rock forum. Coral snakes are some of the most gorgeous snakes out there. Their colors are shockingly brilliant. They occur way down into South America. Our native coral snake is a strange snake to handle. It's round, muscular, small, and for a long time after shedding--due to its very smooth scales--is so slippery that it's almost oily in feel. So, all that, plus the lack of a neck, makes holding one *extremely dangerous*. In the photo, you can see that the colors on the coral snake go all the way around the body, being therefore what we call rings of color. This is very rare in our US native snakes. In fact, at the moment, I can't think of another species for which this is true.

This is one species I've never encountered in the wild, nor handled. But I have examined its formidable dentition in museum specimens. I was pretty shocked at the length of its teeth and how sharp they were. For anyone reading this that doesn't know, this lizard is venomous because it has toxic saliva, but it has no fangs by which to inject.

The anatomy of the skull and the musculature of it suggests to me that its bite could be very hard and that if it wanted to hang on, it would be hard to remove and might just keep clamping down. Did you witness this close enough to see if this happened? Did someone attempt to remove it and the lizard just punished those attempts by clamping down even harder like many upset lizards do? Do you know how long the thing was on him? I have been bitten by lizards half that size and had trouble removing them w/o having to harm them which I'm loathe to do.

I have no idea how many venomous snakes I've handled, but I've never been bitten or had a close call, but I'm not complacent enough to say it won't happen. I apparently got bitten by a copperhead when I was 10 years old. I say probably, because my dad was teaching me how to catch crayfish at night at the waters edge of a muddy lake with a flashlight. We were turning over flat rocks. Under some, were very small copperheads that would swim out to get away and he said not to be overly concerned given their very small size and our high top tennis shoes A couple of times those little copperheads latched onto our shoes and attempted to bite, but it was nothing. When I took off my shoes at home, I discovered two fang punctures at exactly the place and right distance apart. Apparently one had bitten, and the tips of the fangs had penetrated my shoe and sock just enough so that maybe 2 mm had gone in my foot. Had never felt it happen.

Until this week, I never knew venomous reptiles were referred to in the herpetoculture business as hots. Makes perfect sense though. I can see that lizard's head in my imagination clamping down hard and not letting loose. Must have been very scary to see.

A few years back, I was posing for a photo with a number of reptiles on me, including a rather large collared lizard that had just been caught so it was still warm and feisty. Just after the camera clicked (thank God after) it turned slightly and unfortunately for me, clamped down hard on my nipple through my shirt. I screamed so loud everyone practically had a heart attack. I don't know what was worse, that initial bite or the 5-10 minutes of agony I endured trying to coax the thing off, but it's response was merely these pulsing jaw contractions every single time it was touched. It was small, but it had complete control of a 170 lb mammal with just a few teeth at the tip of its jaws and it seemed to relish what it was doing. Another bizarre lesson learned the hard way--the story of my life it seems.

I apologize also.

Photo #29

Me too, lordsorril .  Will try to reign it in in the future.

No worries all: I enjoy the stories and your passion for reptiles!

I look forward to reading your additional tales in a new thread.  I think Bob probably has enough to write his own book.