Importance of snakes to hikers safety

Know the snakes in your area that you will be hiking in. I think it is hilarious to see the looks on people's faces up here in the mountains when I tell them there are no water moccasins here. They swear up and down, and keep bringing the dead water snake carcasses. I haven't seen the "kill a snake" sentiment on this forum nearly as much as I have on others, and I'm glad that you posted this. Its 2:34 am and I'm waiting for two of my snake hunting buddies to roll in after searching for green salamanders a few counties over. We'll be herping tomorrow!
 
rth548 said:
I don't see a need to kill snakes unless they are close to my house and my family. Out in the wild, on the trout streams I frequent, they are at home and I'm the visitor. But at my house, I can't have a poisionous snake messing around where my family or pets may walk across them. I hate to, but my family and pets come first at home.
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This is exactly my attitude.

"The importance of snakes to hiker safety." Thread title is a riot.

Next, we need a thread titled, "The importance of Bear Traps to hiker safety." :p
 
Erasmus said:
This is exactly my attitude.

"The importance of snakes to hiker safety." Thread title is a riot.

Next, we need a thread titled, "The importance of Bear Traps to hiker safety." :p
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Knock the title if you want:D but I thought it would be a good way to get more people to check out the thread and read through the whole OP. With four pages of respectful and productive discussion, I think it was a good choice.:thumbup:
 
My idiot neighbor says he doesn't mind seeing snakes in the woods but not around his house. Our, and his house, are in the woods! :rolleyes:
 
Lycosa said:
My idiot neighbor says he doesn't mind seeing snakes in the woods but not around his house. Our, and his house, are in the woods! :rolleyes:
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LOL. I took a giant pasture that was essentially snake free and converted it back to rain forest.
The wifey doesn't think it was too cool but I can get her a one way plane ticket at any moment.:p
 
This little sucker about took a chunk out of me yesterday. Was in workout mode after starting several hours late, then screwing around for a couple more, and was trying to make up time. He was right on the side of the trail, and I think he took a shot at me as I went by. He did some kind of sudden movement, and then bowed up at me, or I wouldn't have even seen him. I can assure you my pace picked up for a few seconds!

Sorry about the video quality sucking so bad.
I'd never had a copperhead rattle at me before. Uploading it was the first thing I did when I got home:rolleyes:
Never saw one move so fast before, either. I went after him to see if he'd strike at my trekking pole on video, and he took off. I know you can't see it 'cause there's a bush in the way, but when I say "did you see him hop that branch?" he was moving so fast his whole body came off the ground!
[youtube]4_LquI4yw_o[/youtube]

In size and appearance, it was actually much closer to this one that I posted awhile back on the first page of this thread.
[youtube]-zWLgSzp6QE[/youtube]

Watch where you're walking, people...




edit: btw, keep in mind this thread is 3 months old if you're going to start making rebuttals to stuff posted earlier or something like that. I just thought it went better in this thread since there'd already been so many pics and videos posted.
 
I've heard that there is a recessive trait in some rattle snake breeds that causes them to not form a rattle, and that this trait is becoming more common due to a higher survival rate when a snake population lives in close proximity to people. Can anyone verify if this is true?
 
md25v thanks for a great commentary. growing up in west tex we early learned to watch where we put our hands & feet. i guess an early indoctrination made us respect snakes but not fear them. i have friends that are so knee-jerk they kill every snake they see. it's really difficult to convince them that if they spot a snake 1st then all you need to do is advoid to stay safe. more than once i have looked down in the boonies & seen copper heads taking it easy. never had a snake attack me & as you know they really perform a good deed in our environment. it's an uphill battle to train people to leave snakes alone. i really worry more about spiders & hornets.
dennis
 
I always treat snakes the same as I treat all wildlife - unless it poses an immediate threat or I want to eat it, I leave it alone. Even when I'm hiking and run across a rattlesnake coiled up and rattling on the edge of the trail (as happened once this year), I get the snake to move off by nudging it with a long stick. The only time I would automatically kill a rattlesnake is if it is in my yard, but I live in the middle of town.
 
rth548 said:
I don't see a need to kill snakes unless they are close to my house and my family. Out in the wild, on the trout streams I frequent, they are at home and I'm the visitor. But at my house, I can't have a poisionous snake messing around where my family or pets may walk across them. I hate to, but my family and pets come first at home.
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Totally in agreement. Yesterday, I killed the THIRD venomous snake that I have had to kill, INSIDE MY HOUSE. And I don't live in a cabin in the woods, I live in the equivalent of a suburb, here in my country (Panamá) (it's called in Spanish, "una urbanización" -¿neighborhood?-). The problem is that until a couple of years ago, this was cattle raising ground (what we call, a"finca", or cattle ranch). So, any snake is dead if I find it. Sorry, most of the snakes around here are poisonous and anyway I'm not going to stop to see if it's venomous or not.
 
Owen, cool vid, that's a really nice looking copper. I have not seen to many move that fast either. They usually just rely on their camo but since he knew he was busted he just took off.

CoyotePhysics- Thats not exactly it. The study your thinking of is of a population of Western Diamondbacks. The final results of the study showed that the population is losing the behavior or rattling because a snake that rattles is more likely to be killed by people than a snake that stays still. The snakes that do not rattle are more likely to pass on the genes for that behavior, or lack of behavior.

Alvaro- I understand that there are times when the conflict is real. When the snake is in or near your house (especially if there are kids involved) then no one would judge you for killing it. Because of my job, I have the ability to deal with venomous snakes. But at the same time, I would never expect another person to be willing to assume the risk of handling "hots" if they didn't have a good reason.
 
Thanks for the correction MD. I guess that shows how quickly valid information can be twisted into something less than true. The Rattlesnakes in my neck of the woods tend to be Great Basin Rattlesnakes, but I'm not sure how they relate to any other species. In reality most snakes I come across are non-poisonous.
 
Cool thread.
I like snakes. I think they're cool. A copperhead, cottonmouth, or rattler would scare the h*** outta me if I ran across one. But I won't kill any of those unless they are in my yard. Likewise, I won't kill any snake in my yard that isn't poisonous. The way I figured it was is pretty much the way you state, MD. They do us a service. They have a job to do, and if I take them out willy-nilly, no one is going to do that job in their place. It's unfortunate that some can be hazardous to ones health in the wrong situation, but that is the way life works.

Then again, the way I hate ticks and the diseases they can transmit might have something to do with my liking anything that may reduce their population. To the point I'm almost willing to get a few chickens here around my place (I've heard they eat ticks).
 
Md 25v said:
Owen, cool vid, that's a really nice looking copper. I have not seen to many move that fast either. They usually just rely on their camo but since he knew he was busted he just took off.
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Sorry, should have known better...
Did want you to see the vid, though:thumbup:
I put it in a thread I just started with pics from this week, too. Still haven't seen a timber rattler this year, and really thought yesterday would be the day. Then a copperhead plays rattlesnake with me! Thought that was pretty cool, because it wasn't just moving the tail back and forth in dry leaves or something-he was actually rattling:confused:
 
I find a lot of them dead on the road and I skin them, but I also preach the benefit of snakes. My dog is innoculated for rattlesnake venom, 2 shots, for about 85 from the vet, well worth it. I have a few snake skins, once again, DOR's only. People purposely run them over, it makes me sad, but hate to waste a beautiful skin.
 
cj65 said:
I hate to waste a beautiful skin.
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I know what you mean. I have a hat band that is Copperhead skin. I found a gravid (full of babies) female about a minute after it was decapitated out in the State Park. Made for a beautiful band around my Kakadu hat.
 
OwenM said:
Then a copperhead plays rattlesnake with me! Thought that was pretty cool, because it wasn't just moving the tail back and forth in dry leaves or something-he was actually rattling:confused:
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Check this out. This Black Ratsnake rattles in the dry leaves pretty well. It's louder than the camera picked it up.

[youtube]Nm2pMyCUBu0[/youtube]
 
Excellent thread. FWIW, If you do not want to get bit, avoid being a drunk male between the ages of 16 and 29 while handling venomous snakes. If you can do this your chances of getting bit are almost nil. The few people I know that have been bit by rattlers when they were not drunk were stupid. I know 1, one, person that was bit while sober and not stupid (arguably). He was moving a pile of firewood and grabbed a piece that had a baby rattler underneath. It bit him on the tip of the middle finger before he saw the snake.
 
That tidbit about non-rattling behavior in rattlesnakes leading to higher survival rates and this being passed on is interesting. Where I go camping with my wife's family there is a lot of human traffic, and this summer we found a rattlesnake there (western rattler) that would not rattle no matter how much some of the teenagers tormented it with sticks. One of the teenagers there (from a neighboring camp) was trying to catch it for the skin, he said that he had already killed one that morning. That one got away.
 
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