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Large Snakes

A

Anonymous

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The other day I saw a snake?Well thats not unusual,snakes are a common place item here,we cope with red belly blacks,taipans,western browns,bandi/bandis,black snakes and the usual tree snakes.I walk around with a length of chain attached to a wooden handle mainly for the taipans as they are so aggressive(here have this to play with).Getting back to the story this black snake 12 feet long (thats nearly 2 of me)as wide as the calf of my leg was lying near the back fence,talk about doing a Harold Holt (bolt).This is the biggest black snake Ive ever seen.My neighbour across the road has trouble with scrub pythons some as long as 30 feet attacking his chooks.Whats the biggest snake any one else has seen?????
 
I've not seen large snakes but I once saw a grasshopper bigger than my foot in France (alp d'huez area). Bloody frightening when you nearly stand on it.........
 
I cuddled a boa constrictor. Then it started trying to cuddle me, so I let it go pretty quickly!

Wasn't very big, but it was strong, and it had some massive mates with it. This was on a nature reserve up a tributary of the Amazon river.:)
 
wildman said:
The other day I saw a snake?Well thats not unusual,snakes are a common place item here,we cope with red belly blacks,taipans,western browns,bandi/bandis,black snakes and the usual tree snakes.I walk around with a length of chain attached to a wooden handle mainly for the taipans as they are so aggressive(here have this to play with).Getting back to the story this black snake 12 feet long (thats nearly 2 of me)as wide as the calf of my leg was lying near the back fence,talk about doing a Harold Holt (bolt).This is the biggest black snake Ive ever seen.My neighbour across the road has trouble with scrub pythons some as long as 30 feet attacking his chooks.Whats the biggest snake any one else has seen?????
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You do have interesting wild life in your garden mate, and here was me worrying about slugs.
 
Grass snake

Seems a bit pathetic really but when Iwas a kid I saw a grass snake at least four and a half foot long,(was longer than me at the time,not far off now!) all the natural history books said the maximum length for grass snakes in England is three foot. Have never seen one anywhere near as big again.
 
I handled a 15 foot python which is a foot and a half short of being three times my length. She was honest to god the most beautiful thing i have ever seen in my life.
 
I did a Steve Irwin (crocodile hunter) one day with a garter snake in my garden, it was about 2 foot long and i know they arent poisonous but it was scarey anyways, i let him go after about 3 seconds.
 
My Record

Not very exciting but my dad found an adder in the summer of 87 that was 6 foot 2 inches. We contacted an old record book ( not guiness) and they woere going to include us in their next edition. THen some bugger in somerset found one 6 foot 5 inches and our 15 minites of fame were over. We have many pictures of the snake (dead) with me lying next to it. It was slightly longer than me. The snakes thrived where I used to live (near Machen Mountain) due to the Shelter the mountain offered. The snake was a nine year old female we fond in the road. The body was not badly damaged. A specilist at our nearest pet store examined it any found that it had been living in a nearby milking parlour, and as the mice were full of calcium from milk, the snake had absorbed it when it had eaten the mice. This accounted for it;s size. I
 
tang-malow said:
I did a Steve Irwin (crocodile hunter) one day with a garter snake in my garden, it was about 2 foot long and i know they arent poisonous but it was scarey anyways, i let him go after about 3 seconds.
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Excuse my lack of knowledge, but how does one do a Steve Irwin (I've never watched him)?
 
Biggest snake I've ever seen: an albino anaconda in a travelling exhibit. It was almost flat from being so inactive. Sad.

Best snake story: stepped over a copperhead while hoeing corn. My grandfather killed it afterwards; I never even seen it until he pointed it out to me.

Second best story: timber rattlers used to sun themselves on our back porch, and our cats would kill them Rikki-tikki-tavi style. It was a blast to watch, I'm telling you! :) Cats are psychos, but seeing that, you have to admire them.
 
TorgosPizza said:
timber rattlers used to sun themselves on our back porch, and our cats would kill them Rikki-tikki-tavi style. .
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Rikki tikki whatti style?:confused:
 
Glensheen'sGirl said:
Excuse my lack of knowledge, but how does one do a Steve Irwin (I've never watched him)?
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Sort of grab the snake behind the head and wrangle it into a bag fo release away from habitation. A lot less exciting than Mr Irwins crocadillian exploits, but worthy of note :) Most snakes are quite approachable, as long as you don't upset them... lot like people really, except cobras, who in my experience, were born bad tempered

Great Steve Irwin moment - 'If this fella bites me, i'll be dead in four minutes, and I've been bitten twice before so the anti-toxin won't work, so I gotta be EXTRA CAREFUL!' all while the snake was striking at his head and missing by an inch or so...

8¬)
 
"Phew! Woo! I'm sweating bullets here... You're a little beauty, aren't you? Ooh, aren't you naughty? Woo! That was a close one..." - Steve Irwin, in just about every episode.
I love that guy! Not watchng Crocodile Hunter five times every morning is the only thing I really miss about not having cable anymore. :( I love his wife too, and I love the dog that just sits in the stern of the boat looking benign while he's diving off on top of crocodiles. Just to bring this thread back to a bit of cryptozoology, I believe he also discovered a new kind of turtle.
 
Slytherin, i believe it was a sea turtle that he discovered, he had a show on about it a while back. Steve is highly underrated for his conservation efforts that he always has and still does. Actually hes bringing out a new film this summer, watch out for it guys. Oh and his wifes name is Terry, shes nice and is actually American. I thought she was an aussy cos she has a kinda strange accent, its probably a result of living in Australia and being married to Steve.

My favourite Steve Irwin moment was when he was bitten on the hand by an aligator after petting it on the nose, he turns to the camera after it lets go and says "did you see that? amazing! it tried to rip me arm off" his hand was split wide open and required stitches but still he has no ill feelings towards the gator or what about the time he was out in the outback and spotted a small snake on the road that he didnt recognise then picks it up and starts playing with it, the snake takes a big bite out his hand and then he lets it go and gets out a big book on snakes to try and look it up to make sure it isnt poisonous, all the time hes giggling and saying how great the snake was lol, hes crazy

Also harlequin, i never grabbed the snake behind the neck. I think you can damage a snakes spine easily doing this and Steve recomended that you dont do that incase you hurt the snake. I held on to the snakes tail and let if go forward a wee bit then pulled it towards me gently, its almost as if the snake doesnt know your there and is wondering why its wriggling so fast and getting nowhere. I let it go pretty quickly tho as its still scarey even tho you know it isnt venomous, plus i didnt wanna hurt the wee guy.

Almost forgot, you guys like the new avatar :D
 
Re: My Record

The Thing said:
Not very exciting but my dad found an adder in the summer of 87 that was 6 foot 2 inches.
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Have you got any more details on this, or any scans of the photos? Are you sure it was an adder? Adders are rarely more than about 18 inches long. I've heard of grass snakes reaching over 6 feet (and have seen some over four feet), so this sounds much more likely.
 
tang-malow said:
Almost forgot, you guys like the new avatar :D
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Who is it? Is it this Steve Irwin chap? One of the pictures looks a bit like Alan Titchmarsh, but that could be my eyesight going.
 
I think they're all Steve Irwin, except the crocodile, who I think is called Agro... do I win a prize for that?

8¬)
 
A fourteen-foot snake lives in my house! He's a Burmese python, he's six years old, I rescued him from an abusive home, his name is Con, and he's the sweetest snake in the world! He weighs 70 pounds and eats a large rabbit every three weeks. He lives in what used to be a walk-in closet until I re-did to be a snake enclosure. As you can tell, I love reptiles, especially snakes. The largest I ever saw was a reticulated python at the Philadelphia zoo that was 22 feet long. Oh yes, they also had a King Cobra that was 10 feet- very scary, that one, and thick as a man's arm.

Oh dear...Steve Irwin. I respect this man so much for his conservation efforts, and for his dedication, but he does strike me as a bit unstable. And he handles highly venomous snakes rather freely, I might add. It's very true that grasping a smaller snake around the neck can injure it- all snakes actually have very delicate bones, and their spines are quite fragile. Proper handling of a venomous snake is with a snake stick, but Steve-o just grabs them by the tail! We'll read about his untimely end one day, you mark me. :blah: He's just too reckless.
 
Random Irwen fact... He's a founder member of the Austrailian Vertical Mountain Rescue Team...so if the reptiles don't get him the drop surely will...

But he does make the planet that much more entertaining

8¬)
 
Yes hes a good guy, he works in a zoo in sydney i think. Next time i visit Australia im going to pop in and see if i can shake his hand, hopefully the prediction of him getting a nasty bite and dying doesnt come true. The world can do with a few more people like Steve, even tho he is crazy his heart is in the right place
 
Arkansas legend

It is alleged that a 30-ft long snake is terrorising the folk in the river bottoms of Arkansas. The huge snake, is living off chickens etc owned by the locals.
 
Steve Irwin Urban legends! Kind of.

Rumours abound that Steve Irwin is actually dead after a run in with a croc/poisinous spider/angry old lady with a handbag.

Last time I visited their site http://www.crocodilehunter.com there was this big disclaimer from Terri on the home page, saying Steve isn't dead, would everybody please stop emailing me? It's not there now, but check out the first question in the FAQ.

Also this: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa022801b.htm

And this: http://www.jeffmajor.com/croc/watch.html


Well, you get the picture
:D
 
thats halarious!

now they have a Steve watch to track his every movement, im sure steve and terri have had a few laughs with this. I doubt there would be a conspiracy about steve dying after all hes not the pope or anything.. or is he? :rolleyes:
 
Yes, I agree, Steve's a great guy, and the world would be a better place if there were more like him. Did you know there's now a Crocodile Hunter Drinking Game? It's somewhere on the internet, I forget where I saw it, but you watch the show and take x number of drinks everytime Steve says something like "Crikey!", or "What a little beauty!" BTW, Steve & Terri run Australia Zoo in QLD, don't they?

Speaking of giant snake legends....here in PA, for the past 100 years there's been a legend of a 40-foot snake on the Appalachian Trail. It supposedly hibernates over the winter in abandoned coal mines. Local folklore about PA's most famous venomous snake, the timber rattler, is pretty abundant:

They can only die at sunset
If you kill one, its mate will come looking for you
They can turn themselves into sticks, to be picked up by unwary travellers, whom they then bite
They are brought out of hibernation by the first thunderstorm of the season
Local Indian tribes called rattlers "Grandfather", would not harm them, and left offering of tobacco for them, believing the snakes could bring rain
They hatch ther young in their stomachs

None of these legends are true, of course, nor is the old "Fang In The Boot" urban legend.
 
milo said:
Speaking of giant snake legends....here in PA, for the past 100 years there's been a legend of a 40-foot snake on the Appalachian Trail.

They can turn themselves into sticks, to be picked up by unwary travellers, whom they then bite

None of these legends are true, of course, nor is the old "Fang In The Boot" urban legend.
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milo, before you mentioned that the legend was false i would of had problems believing it, why would an unwary traveller pick up a 40 foot stick? :D
 
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