snakes
A couple of years ago I had a rattle snake swim towards my kayak while boating in ht Francis Walter Lakein NE Pa.
Once I realized what it was I set the worlds record for the 100 yd.kayak sprint.
black snake story.
I’m probably being vague just calling it a black snake, but I think we get the picture.
On the property where I live there is a peninsula type piece of land that extends out into a pond. At the end the is a place where people can sit and enjoy whatever it is they enjoy. One day there was a rather large black snake enjoying whatever it is he enjoys. I walk out to chase him off and he, of course, raises up like he wants to fight. I give him his space and wait for him to calm down. Eventually I get bored of this and get a long stick and pick him up and throw him into the pond. I’m astonished when he starts swimming back at me standing on the bank. Mind you he has unlimited other options to for an escape route. We repeat this dance about three more times. Finally I pick up a hand full of rocks and repeatedly and strategically throw them to lead him down the peninsula and up the bank into the woods behind me.
I would rather be surrounded by a fictional pack of pit vipers from Indiana Jones than one is those spiteful black snakes.
Ryan L.
Mr no shoulders
A long time ago someone posted a story here about fishing with their father, a boat, a snake (Mr No Shoulders), and a gun. It was the funniest story I have read in my entire life. I was laughing so hard the tears were flowing down my cheeks.
Probably an easy explaination
– Last Updated: May-19-12 9:53 AM EST –
My guess is that it was a species of snake who's natural behavior is to avoid swimming when practical. If that were the case and you tossed him out there, his instinct would tell him to swim straight toward shore. I bet the behavior of that snake was no different than that of a moth circling an electric light or a pigeon mistaking the reflection of the sky in a glass window for a clear path through the wall.
How about this as an example to illustrate this idea. As a kid I often would catch leopard frogs. In most environments, their instinct is to leap for the water and hide there. However, I once tried to feed some little bass in an ancient mill pond by tossing out some frogs. I tossed some frogs out about 25 feet (one at a time), and they would speed across the water straight toward shore, in the process making a bee-line for that strange giant creature that had just sent them flying through the air. You'd never seen a frog swim as fast as they did, and though a bass would sometimes come tearing over for a meal, none ever arrived before the frog had escaped. One frog got tossed out a few times in a row, and like your snake, all he had to do was swim some other direction. Were those frogs aggressively charging me, or did they have built-in behavior that protected them from predatory fish?
plausible
Except toward me was not the fast way to the bank. Also their behavior on land doesn’t jive with that either in my experience. With most animals the reaction to an approaching human or danger is to move away. This is true in my experience with the following animals; bears, bobcats, boar, copperheads, rattlesnakes, sheep, cattle, llamas, turkey, deer, all species of lizard, birds, etc., etc. The only animal that has ever moved towards me as I approach it is the common three to five foot black snake. I realize they are not cold blooded killers and there behavior usually invokes laughter for me, but I’m just saying, they can give you the felling that they are chasing you. Most will only move toward me until they get to a certain distance, then they stop and raise up into a defensive position. I’m always suprised how even on a sunny day when they have plenty of energy how slowly they will finally move away.
Ryan L.
like I said before…
I didnt ask him what his first name was, but his last name was “snake”. We all have fears, and I’m a grown man…I just am not comfortable with snakes. I know they are out there, I have been a hunter and fisherman for most of my life, and I know Im going to have encounters with them if I keep doing both. But still…If I can see them and can stay away from them Im ok. If one is coming toward me, crawling or swimming…my mind immediately tells me it’s in attack mode… and I either switch to defense or sissy!
Snake Facts
While I applaud pilotwingz’s desire to help I feel that I must correct a few of his comments. ALL water snakes are moccasins, lowland moccasins. The copperhead is a highland moccasin. There is but ONE poisonous water snake in the USA and that is the Cottomouth Water Moccasin found primarily in the South Eastern States. Common water snakes DON"T have rear fangs. In fact, they have NO FANGS at all but rows of many sharp curved teeth used to hold their prey. As pilotwingz pointed out, snakes fear you as much as you do them and would rather not have an encounter with you. The more you learn about these facinating critters the less fearful you’ll become
You are in a whole lot more danger
from motorized craft than you will ever be from a snake. I abhor spiders, but when I’m in their home I respect their territory.
Get a grip, it’s just a snake
As was mentioned previously, most are completely harmless and want even less to do with you than you do with them. Snakes don’t chase down people and attack them, so you have nothing to worry about in your kayak. As you said, you’re an adult, so its time to get over this silly fear.
Try learning something about the snakes in your area and in particular how to identify any that may be dangerous. That should put your mind at ease, so you can appreciate snakes for the amazing creatures that they are.
Sea snakes
Freya Hoffmeier was leery about paddling at night in the northern waters during her circumnavigation of Australia as she was afraid she might lift a seasnake aboard. She saw a lot of them.
I wasn’t going to weigh in since…
this subject has been beaten to death on P-net, but since you mentioned my experience with these beautiful creatures figured I might as well.
First, I don’t care what anyone says about snakes, I only know from a lot of experience with them, that they are not aggressive, and that includes the cotton mouths and other poisonous ones.
They just want to be left alone like all other forms of wild life. Every time I hear someone say a cotton mouth was on a over hanging branch and was just waiting to drop into their canoe, or came swimming after them, it is only because they are looking at the canoe as if it is another floating log offering a free ride from point A to point B.
I am not sure if the newer people have seen our video that nanci took of the six foot long Eastern diamond back rattle snake that is on u-tube and was used on the Animal planet “Venom one” series.
It was swimming eight miles out in the Gulf off the Florida Keys, and we paddled with it for about twenty minutes. I tried several times to get it to strike at the kayak, and all it would do was stop swimming and threaten to each time I bumped it.
If it could have talked, I am sure it would have said, “will you stop bugging me”
Take a look: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtSCBvekjaE
Jack L
I know enough about snakes
and electricity to leave both alone. Electricity is a wonderful invention that, in it’s element, has made our lives so much more enjoyable and comfortable. But, taken out of it’s element, can be fatal. Snakes, in my opinion, are neither enjoyable or comfortable, but, taken out of its element, can cause fatal results. While I enjoyed the thread, I don’t feel that I need to handle or embrace them in order to coexist with them. Just my humble opinion.
Generally harmless, except…
One spring I was canoeing through an area with lots of grass and a little open water. There was a cottonmouth (believe me, Southern outdoorsmen know a cottonmouth from a common water snake or blacksnake) that was climbing a pole on which there was a wood duck nesting box. I didn’t like the idea, so went over and flicked him off with the paddle. He apparently didn’t like my idea because he started swimming for my canoe, no doubt aggression on his mind. I used the paddle and flung him away about 10 yards or so again. He didn’t like that even more. I did it once more, meanwhile unholstering the 357 with snake loads in the first 2 cylinders that I always carry when swamp canoeing. He decided to swim away, I decided that was a good move on his part and didn’t shoot him.
The funniest snake thing I’ve witnessed was when a friend of mine was flycasting and hooked a small sunfish. Almost immediately, a banded water snake rushed out of the grass and grabbed it. He played that snake for about 10 minutes before getting it close enough to cut the leader. I was laughing so hard I though I was going to asphyxiate!
I never said you had to handle them…
– Last Updated: May-21-12 6:39 AM EST –
...but frankly if you did, you'd probably realize that there's no point in being afraid of snakes. Once you can identify any potentially dangerous species in your area (if there even are any), you'll know if/when you need to be concerned. Having respect for wildlife is one thing, fearing it is quite another.
That Was My Dad
We were fishing in a Jon boat on victory Pond at Fort Benning. A small man made pond. About 100 yards across.
A Cottonmouth entered the water from the opposite shore and swam right at us.
My dad said snakes do not attck people, ever. There is nothing in these woods that does not fear humans.
It kept swimming, and he said it must not know there are people in the boat so he slapped the oar on the water. It kept coming.
It got close enough to hit with an oar, so he smacked it a couple times, but it kept coming up.
So he whipped out his .45 and shot three times. You really do not know how imprtessive this is unless you have tried to shoot a snake with a pistol
I have no idea what was in that snake’s mind, and really do not think it was attacking the boat, but my father was a man that would only go so far to prove a point…
Some of them are aggressive
I’ve seen snakes in the water once in a while. In all but one case they swam away when I got close. The one exception actually began swimming faster and TOWARD ME when I got close. I let him reach the kayak but moved away when he tried to slither up onto the back deck. Didn’t strike me as normal behavior. However, it looked like a baby rattler, and at least one species (or subspecies) of rattler is known to be aggressive.
You were right to be wary.
I too…
am glad to see some accurate info and mature attitudes about snakes. I’ve encountered plenty of them, including the three poisonous pit vipers (never a coral snake). I’ve been close enough to copperheads several times that if they had been inclined to bite me I would have been bit. I’ve had cottonmouths swim toward me when I was in both a canoe and a boat. In no case were any of them “attacking” me or “chasing” me. What you have to realize is that snakes have evolved over many millions of years, and if they expended energy and aggression attacking creatures too big to swallow, they would have died out long, long ago. As others have pointed out, they don’t have a lot of brains, and the pit vipers don’t really have a lot of fear of other critters, so you’ll have them trying to climb up onto your boat to get out of the water, or swimming toward you because that’s the direction they want to go.
To be afraid of, or even wary of, a black (rat) snake for any reason whatsoever makes no sense. I’ve been bitten by them more than once (because I insisted upon playing with them) and I’d rather get bitten by one than snagged on a blackberry bramble…the bramble will draw more blood. Black rat snakes are COMPLETELY harmless, as are all the other snakes in North America except the pit vipers and coral snake.
However, I also know a number of people who have true snake phobias. No amount of factual information will lessen their unreasonable fear of snakes one iota. I took one of them float fishing one time, and we saw about ten times as many snakes as I’d ever seen before on that stretch of river…because all he did all day was look for them and freak out when he saw one.
I don’t care whether people have snake phobias as long as they run from snakes. When it turns to snake hatred and they kill every one they encounter, I get very upset because that is just plain stupid and the height of environmental irresponsibility.
The area of water we were in
was about 75 to 100 yards wide at the area we were fishing. It was a lagoon so to speak on the edge of the creek. I was about 25 to 30 yards from the shore on my right, the snake came from my left. I have no idea where he came from or where he was headed. When my partner saw him, he was between the two kayaks, closer to and headed toward mine. Had he not been watching me crank in the fish I had online, he possibly wouldn’t have seen the snake swimming either. I shudder to think what woulda happened had that gentleman slithered up from behind me and crawled under my legs as I was sitting there fishing. I think it would have looked sorta like a souped up version of Peter walking on the water. I was told by a passing boater as we were paddling in that there was a water moccasin about 50 yards ahead of us swimming across the creek, but we didn’t see him. If I don’t see them, I can get along just swell with them. If I see them, I’m gonna try real hard to stay out of his way.
I dont kill everyone I see
but I do try to remain out of their path. If,however, it is in my house, outbuildings, etc. then yes, I’m gonna try to kill it. If its out in the creek swimming along and he bypasses my kayak, him and I will get along just fine. If he tries to comandere my kayak…he just might be sucseeful!
I learned many years ago that you don’t force someone into a situation that they are afraid of, regardless to how you feel about it, because they will hurt you and not even think about it. I got a freind who was closterphobic to go under a house with me to do some work. I seriously began to wonder if I was going to live to get back out from under that house. I never asked him to go back under a house again. With that said…if you happen to be standing in my way when a snake crawls up on my kayak with me, I may run over you before I even consider the fact that you are standing there.
I’m with you
I’ve never killed a snake. However, when I lived back east, a copperhead struck my shoe while I was running on a Par Course trail. He barely missed my ankle. The reason I know it was a copperhead is because the SMACK was hard enough I stopped to see what had hit me. The snake was getting ready to bite again and I got a good look at it…from several steps away. I looked it up that night to ID it.
Given that I didn’t step on it but merely ran nearby, if I saw a copperhead on my turf now, yes, I would kill it. Rattlers I’ve encountered several times on foot and mtn bike, and all of them buzzed before I got too close. Fair warning.
Some animals just have itchy trigger fingers. Those are the ones I’d consider killing if they were around my home.