Building Indigo Snake Populations In Florida

Still considered a threatened species on the US Endangered Species list, efforts are being made to re-introduce these beautiful snakes into former habitats.

When I first expressed a desire for a pet snake as a boy, my father took me to a pet shop and I was shown three snakes: an Indigo Snake, a Southern Hognosed Snake, and an Eastern King Snake. The Indigo Snake was rather sluggish and plain; the Hognosed Snake was active and interesting, but when the pet store clerk told me I'd have to catch toads for it to eat, my interest waned. The King Snake was both active and beautiful, and I ended up with that one. It must have been not too long after that that Indigo Snakes were banned for sale in pet shops.

They're the USA's longest native snake, growing up to 9' in length. They are a glossy blue-black in color, hence their name, although it's possible that they were found preying on rats and other rodents in coastal indigo plantations in the antebellum era.

Home Invader

He got in through the back door:

That's a Ringneck Snake, by the way. Poor weatherstripping on the back door of our rental home allowed him to enter.

Serpentarium Owner Allegedly Murdered By Wife

Dean Ripa, the owner of the Wilmington, NC Serpentarium, was shot to death over the weekend.

The Serpentarium is a nice attraction in downtown Wilmington, I've been there myself and seen Ripa at work. He's been as much a fixture on the Carolinas herpetology scene as Bill Haast or Ross Allen was in Florida.

Copperhead Feeding Behavior

In summertime, it's possible that you might encounter large numbers of Copperheads feeding on baby cicada insects as they emerge from the roots of trees.

Each summer, usually beginning around the first of June and continuing into September, cicada larvae that have spent their developmental period burrowed in the soil around the tree roots on which they feed, begin emerging for their metamorphosis into adults.

The larvae, looking like hump-backed beetles, begin digging their way to the surface around dusk. They emerge from the ground, crawl to the nearest vertical structure (usually a tree), climb a foot or two up the trunk, their "shell" splits along its back and the adult cicada works its way out.

Some of the highest-volume movements of cicada larvae are to large oak trees on lawns. These nocturnal emergences of cicada larvae are like the opening of an all-you-can-eat dinner for some wildlife. Yellow-crowned night herons are one of the species that regularly prey on emerging cicada larvae. Copperheads are another. And when the cicada dinner bell rings, it can draw a copper-colored, fanged crowd.

Amazing that this wasn't known before now. There's still plenty to learn in this old world of ours.

Thanks to Brock at Free North Carolina for linking it.

That's How Anti-Venom Is Made, You Know

Do you know how anti-venom for snakebite and other venomous creatures is made? A sub-lethal dose of venom is injected into a subject animal - - a horse or sheep, usually - - and, over a period of weeks, the dosage is increased. The animal manufactures antibodies to cope with the venom, and after a while, the animal becomes totally immune to the venom, at which point blood is drawn from the animal to manufacture into anti-venom. Herpetologist William Haast did the same thing by injecting himself with a cocktail of sub-lethal snake venoms until he became immune to most snakebites (he lived until nearly 100, also, which might say something about the therapy).

Why am I mentioning this? Because it's the approach that the MSM is mistakenly taking in attacking Donald Trump. It's been well known that the MSM is sitting on plenty of dirt that they have dug up on Trump, and teams of journalists (the Washington Post alone has assigned 50 reporters to dig up dirt) busy 24/7 digging up more. They intend to trickle this dirt out a little at a time, thinking that Trump will suffer from an extended attack, rather than release it all at once. Well, think about it. All they are really doing is making Trump, and the voters, immune to the venom (stories) that they have dug up. Will it work? We'll see on Election Day.

Snake Island!

Ilha de Queimada Grande, off the coast of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

It's home to the Golden Lancehead (Bothrops Insularis), a venomous snake that is both beautiful and deadly. And there's lots of them on the island.

The Animal Planet network used to have a show called "O'Shea's Big Adventure" in which herpetologist Mark O'Shea traveled the world in search of the planet's venomous snakes and lizards; one of the shows featured Ilha de Queimada Grande and the Golden Lancehead. The island is actually closed to the public because of the danger presented by the snakes.

Yer Distressing "Nature In Tooth and Claw" Video of the Day

Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake vs. Cottonmouth:



There's even a death rattle!

via Field and Stream.

Headline of the Day

"Cebu City Zoo in the Philippines offering python massages."

Any of you old Navy veterans out there know you can substitute the word girls for Zoo and the headline will be just as valid. ;)

Just Another Day In the US of A

Handling snakes - - and dying from same; (h/t Brock Townsend) Eating dirt - - because it tastes good, and helps you lose weight.

Folks are strange, ain't they?

I'd Like One of Those Belts, Myself.

That would be a belt made from the hide of an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake.

The Eastern Diamondback is, in my opinion, the most beautiful of the US's rattlesnakes. It's also one of the few rattlesnakes in the US that gets long enough to provide leather to make a belt out of. The conservation status of the Eastern Diamondback is currently "least concern," but that is probably inaccurate, and putting them on the endangered species list as at least threatened would probably be wise. They've been wiped out in Louisiana, and here in NC they are on the state's endangered species list.

Still, if I happened across a fresh roadkilled specimen 5 feet long on a trip to the NC coast, I'd certainly stop and skin it out and save it to tan for a belt.

Found this hilarious bogus edit on Wikipedia:

Encountered During Walk

Worm Snake. Tiny little thing. It was on the asphalt of the road, I moved it over into the grass. About 8" or so.

Yer Survival Advice of the Day

Even if you cut the head off a venomous snake, it can still bite you:



Found here.

Like a Bad Lone Ranger Joke

A man in Haifa, Israel, was sent to the hospital after a snake bit him on the penis while he was urinating.


The Lone Ranger joke I mentioned in the post title:

The Lone Ranger and Tonto were camped out in the desert. Late in the middle of the night the Lone Ranger went to relieve himself and was bitten on the penis by a rattlesnake hidden in the sagebrush. The Lone Ranger, in great pain, ran back to the campfire. "Wake up, Tonto!" he cried. Ride into town and bring the doctor, I'm dying!"

Tonto quickly mounted his horse and rode into town, and pounded on the doctor's door. The doctor's wife came to the door and told Tonto that the doctor was sitting up with a woman who was giving birth, and couldn't come to the Lone Ranger's aid. She went back to her husband to ask him for medical advice that Tonto could use to help the Lone Ranger. "Here's what my husband the doctor says to do, Tonto," she said, upon returning. "He says you have to tie a tourniquet around the bitten limb, then cut an X across each bitemark with a knife, then suck the poison out. Do you understand all that? Tourniquet, cut, suck." Tonto, frowning, said that he understood.

Tonto quickly rode back to camp, where the Lone Ranger was curled into a ball, in obvious agony. "Where's the doctor, Tonto?" he gasped. "Why isn't he here? What did he say?"

Tonto, still frowning, looked down at the Lone Ranger and his inflamed, purple penis. "Doctor busy with childbirth, Kemo Sabe," he said. Then he though to himself, Tourniquet. Cut. Suck. He looked at the Lone Ranger's purple, swollen penis. "Doctor say you gonna die, Kemo Sabe."

More About US Snakebite Treatment

Story from the Gainesville, Florida Sun.

My eyebrows went up at the markup on antivenin. Purchased for $2700 per 1-oz. vial by hospitals for emergency room use, it shows up for $20,000 or higher on a hospital bill.

Headline of the Day

"66 vials of antivenin later, boy bitten by rattler is OK."

Yeeks. That was in Newberry, Florida. The snake was an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake, which is now dead, and will be made into a wallet for the boy as a memento of the encouter.

The story theorizes that the recent tropical storm that passed through North Florida caused the snakes of the area to move to higher ground to escape flooding, which probably led to the encounter. The bite in this case was a legitimate one, meaning that it was purely an accident, and not the result of trying to capture, kill or otherwise tease the snake.

When I was a boy growing up in Melrose, Florida, the local hardware store had a rattlesnake skin mounted on a board at the back of the store, the skin was about 6' long. President Teddy Roosevelt used to pay a bounty on rattlesnakes over a certain length, I seem to recall reading, possibly in Marjorie Rawlings' book Cross Creek.

Headline of the Day

"Mississippi Courthouse Has Sneaky Snake Invasion."

Non-venomous snakes are slithering into a Mississippi courthouse this spring, posing no threat but giving workers the creeps.

Five of the brown DeKay's snakes - sometimes called earth snakes - have been found in the Hinds County circuit clerk's basement office since April 8.

A deputy clerk, Kelly Phillips, said Thursday that the largest was a big around as her finger and a few inches long. She didn't stop to measure it. She said the smallest looked like an overgrown earthworm.

Former zookeeper Percy King, who does reptile shows at local schools, went to the courthouse to identify the serpents. He said DeKay's snakes, which eat lizards, worms, crickets and other small bugs, have soft teeth that probably couldn't even break a human's skin.

Won't Hear That In NYC

Ericcson claimed he was so distraught over the snake’s death, he shot up the large cabinet that contained his Dale Earnhardt collection.

You'll burn in NASCAR Hell for that, dude.

Hunting Everglades Pythons...With Labrador Retrievers

92% success rate for the dogs, says the article:

"We found the use of detection dogs to be a valuable addition to the current tools used to manage and control pythons,” said Christina Romagosa, of AU’s School of Forestry and Wildlife, in a press release. The dogs can detect pythons from a distance and when they spot one they stop in their tracks and crouch. The pythons’ reaction is strangely poignant. Rather than striking when discovered, they curl up and hide.

“It’s their first line of defense,” said Melissa Miller, biological sciences doctoral student who handled the snakes. “People think when you catch a snake it’s going to come back biting at you...but they see us as a predator even though they’re a large snake.”

So far Jake and Ivy have located 19 pythons, one of which had 19 eggs.

*applauds*

New Snake Species Discovered.

The Matilda's Horned Viper, discovered in Tanzania.

It's a handsome snake:



Being a viper it's venomous, although the article doesn't say exactly how venomous. Being a new species the research into venom toxicity might not have been done yet. As the article states, though, bites from similar species aren't usually fatal.

h/t Mellow Jihadi.

Disappearing Diamondback Rattlesnakes In SC

Mostly due to loss of habitat, but active destruction by unreasoning humans takes its toll.

Although I've killed them myself, as a younker in Florida. And I'd like a belt of Diamondback hide, if I could find a snake that long. *grins*

Leave them alone, if at all possible. I won't condemn someone for killing one around a house, but if you see one in the woods, stop and admire it, then let it go about its business, which is rodent control.