I’ve never been bitten by a venomous snake, though I’ve had a few close calls with cottonmouths and rattlesnakes. I’ve been bitten by plenty of nonvenomous snakes, both captive and wild. Been musked even more, which is the worst.
Venomous snake found lurking in family's Christmas tree By Lianne Kolirin, CNN Updated 10:46 AM ET, Tue December 14, 2021 Family finds deadly snake in Christmas tree (CNN)There's usually a sense of excitement about what lies beneath the Christmas tree, but for one festive family the biggest surprise was lurking in the branches up above. Rob and Marcela Wild wasted no time in calling in a professional after they discovered one of Africa's most venomous snakes hiding between the tinsel and baubles at their home in South Africa on Friday. Having decorated the tree just hours earlier, they spotted their cats staring at its branches. Rob Wild, a British stock market trader who moved with his Costa Rican wife to South Africa 18 years ago, told CNN on Tuesday: "The cats were peering into the tree and my wife said 'there's probably a mouse in there somewhere.'" They soon discovered a rather different animal staring back, however -- a boomslang. "I didn't know what it was at the time but then I Googled what snakes are in our area and it came up immediately as a boomslang. I thought 'holy Moses, this is the king of all poisonous snakes,'" the 55-year-old said. The boomslang is known as a shy species, but it is one of the most venomous in Africa. The animal's venom causes hemorrhages and can be fatal to humans in small amounts. The Wild family discovered the deadly serpent at their home in the Western Cape. Snake catcher Gerrie Heyns confirmed the animal's identity when he arrived at the family's property in Robertson, the Western Cape, soon afterwards. The snake was female and between 1.3 meters (4.3 feet) and 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) long, Heyns told CNN on Tuesday. He said he instructed the family to stay away from the tree, but to "keep their eyes on the snake" until his arrival. "The snake stayed in the tree for two hours until I got there," Heyns said. He used "snake tongs" to place it on the floor, where it was "easier to handle," he added. "Once I had it under control the family came right up to see the snake. It didn't try to bite or be defensive because I gave it no reason to. A scary moment turned into an exciting moment for the children," Heyns said. Snake catcher Gerrie Heyns recovered the animal from the family's tree. He then held it behind the neck and placed it in a "snake tube." As it was getting dark, Heyns took the reptile home where he temporarily housed it in a snake enclosure before releasing it back into the wild on Sunday. Heyns said the snake would have likely entered the property in search of food, water and shelter. "Probably when it saw the first movement it tried to escape into the nearest hiding place which was the tree," he said. Heyns, who has removed hundreds of snakes from South African homes, said that bites from a boomslang are rare. Heyns said that in his eight years as a professional catcher, he has only been bitten once -- and that was because he hadn't realized the animal had been shot and was acting defensively. "They (snakes) are very reluctant to bite but have just been demonized so much," he added.
This isn’t snake related, but I view this thread as the ask Owsley questions thread. The Ohio Division of Wildlife just announced that a survey they did this Fall found long head darters in a stream near Stratton Ohio along the Ohio River. The species has been extinct in Ohio since 1939. The state tried reintroducing the species from Northern PA tributaries of the Allegheny River in 2018, but they did that several hundred miles away in central Ohio. There should not be any way these fish could migrate that far downstream down the Waldhoning and Muskingum and then up the Ohio, right? There is no way these migrated down the Ohio from the northern tributaries of the Allegheny, right?
Man found dead in Maryland home surrounded by more than 100 snakes By Stephen Smith Spoiler January 20, 2022 / 9:31 PM / CBS News A man was found dead in his Maryland home Wednesday evening surrounded by more than 100 snakes — and some of them were venomous, investigators said Thursday. The Charles County Sheriff's Department said authorities responded to the home in Pomfret after receiving a call from a neighbor who said he went to check on the resident and found him unconscious on the floor. EMS personnel arrived and found a 49-year-old man dead on the floor, officials said. Also inside the house, more than 100 "venomous and non-venomous snakes of different varieties were discovered in tanks situated on racks," officials said. Jennifer Harris, a spokesperson for Charles County Animal Control, told WRC-TV the breeds included pythons, rattlesnakes, cobras and black mambas. told CBS affiliate WUSA-TV the team "tagged and bagged" at least 125 snakes. Harris said the man, who officials have not identified, apparently lived alone and his neighbors were unaware he had snakes in his home. It's illegal to possess venomous snakes in Maryland. "I do want to assure the community, [and] anybody living in this neighborhood, we have not seen that any of the snakes were not properly secured or could have escaped," she told WUSA. "I know people were worried that there could be some danger to people living nearby, but at this point, we have not uncovered or determined that any of the snakes actually were not secured after this gentleman's death." Harris also said this was the biggest collection of snakes the county's animal control chief, Ed Tucker, had ever encountered in his more than 30 years of experience. Animal control called for assistance from other reptile experts in Virginia and North Carolina and they were continuing to bag snakes on Thursday. They said the largest snake found in the house was a 14-foot Burmese python. Charles County Sheriff's detectives are conducting an investigation into the man's death. There were no obvious signs of foul play, and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore will conduct an autopsy, the sheriff's department said.
what do you feed that many snakes without drawing attention? I assume a python of that size is probably eating rabbits or whole chickens, and the smaller ones a metric fuck ton of mice.
Doubt there’s any restrictions on buying dead rabbits/mice a few YouTube channels I follow have close to that many snakes, almost all venomous
saw the local news story on this last night and apparently this dude had basically no furniture in house (for safety reasons) and meticulously kept the snakes caged/racked. No signs of trauma they said. Dude had mambas, cobras, rattlesnakes (all illegally kept as it’s against Maryland law)
Dudes who keep venomous snakes in residential neighborhoods without failsafe backup plans and notification procedures can all get fucked.
Thought the same. Dude's supposed to be a world-renowned snake handler but he hardly looked like it there.
Dude still captured the snake after getting bitten. Incredible. Still alive according to some news story allegedly posted an hour ago.
Since this is kinda the wildlife thread, they finally got the tire off him at least 6 years later. Weird how I used to enjoy swamp people and now find it disgusting and this stuff awesome, owsley would be proud.
He described surviving as his “second birth.” Apparently he’s had more than 300 venomous snakebites. https://www.onmanorama.com/news/kerala/2022/02/07/vava-suresh-discharged-from-hospital.amp.html
Dude’s hand is a little (a lot) too close to that friendly cottonmouth’s cottonmouth for my personal liking.
That’s me. Needed to move it out of the area before the surveyors behind us caught up and turned it into a dead snake. I have a lot of experience handling venomous snakes, but without a hook on me you gotta make do with what you’ve got. It was very chill the entire time and once it realized it wasn’t in danger was happy to let me relocate it out of the ROW.
Wasn’t criticizing - just saying I would’ve been on the other side of town before it got that close to me. I’ll leave that to you experts.
Had a snake swim towards me in a lake when I was like 12, have nightmares about it still to this day.
Hungry. That’s a 10-12 foot king going for a 6+ foot oriental rat snake which is a formidable specimen in its own right but no match for the king.
This Mudpuppy was caught and released in a tributary of the Muskingum River in Eastern Ohio last weekend. Ohio DNR is trying to verify if it is a record for length. The person who caught it didn’t weigh it.