Difficult to tell. Couldn’t see the top
of its head to determine if it had the viper wide trianglular head with the pit in it. Basically, it looks like a dark snake with a pattern on its back in a tree at night.
another link to snake info…
– Last Updated: Jun-21-06 12:50 AM EST –
http://southwestpaddler.com/docs/snakebite.html
anyone care to rate it?
last month i put in on knotts island sc) to head toward false cape state park (va). while putting in a woman at the launch asked me if i was paddling alone. i said yes. she told me to watch out for water moccasins as she had seen her first one of the season just that week. (how she connected paddling alone to snakes, i've no clue.)
ok, paddling is rather new to me. add to that i am a born and bred yankee (minnesota), and this southern environment is new to me. was that stamped on my forehead so as to make her give me a crash course in venomous snakes?
she went on to tell me that a) the water moc would have its head straight up and most of its body above water, vs. any other snake just poking its head up, and b) the water moc would not run from me, vs. other snakes ducking for cover.
sure 'nuff, within half an hour i encountered a water moc--about 15 feet away at 4:00; saw it as i was glancing around to get an overview of the environmental configuration while reaching into my pfd for the google earth image. i immediately decided that i didn't need to know where i was just yet and paddled on.
as i paddled away i it get the feeling it was at least comtemplating following me; but after reading this thread it seems more likely it ws just doing the path of least resistance thing.
my usual companion--who was not with me that trip--gave me the link above when i told him the story.
That’s pretty good
I used to have pet Black snakes (5 to 6 feet long)They would love to crawl up with you when your napping because of the warmth. You never can “tame” a snake, but as long as they have food in their belly, they are pretty easy going.
The article is a good reference.
Regardless of what kind of snake bite, get it treated.
Kinda funny to me hearing about snake bites. The Black Snakes are part of the Viper Family. They would hang around muy neck, crawl through my shirt, and just be scary and never bite me - - while I discussed these creatures with Boy Scouts, and the occasional Girl Scout troop.
Couldn’t be …
a water moccasin it wasn’t jumping into your boat, biting your boat or brandishing a switchblade. I’ve heard so many stories about aggressive water moccasins and have never seen it myself after paddling the waters of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina for years, I just don’t believe the hype.
I wonder how many of those guys who noodle for catfish get bit. If somebody was going to get bit by a water moccasin it seems like it’d be those guys sticking their arms in stumps and under banks.
Anyway, it really is too hard to tell from the picture what this, but it could be a Moccasin.
Black snakes,
and I use that name generically, are absolutely NOT a member of the Viperidae. Most of the serpent species referred to as ‘black snakes’ are classified within Colubridae.
Holmes
Shooting the snakes…
Used to paddle a lot in the Birmingham, AL area. A friend of mine in high school actually did shoot what he said was a cottonmouth that dropped off a low branch into the bottom of his aluminum canoe. Shot it with a .410 if memory serves me well.
The cottonmouths were somewhat prolific in the Birmingham area. I’d agree with what others have said - they’re much more aggressive and mean on land than they seem to be in the water. Fortunately we live just a bit too far north for them now - don’t see many at all around here (Chattanooga, TN).
Off Topic…
When I read Krousman’s comment:
“I think someone should make a movie about being miles from shore and having a snake in your cockpit! I’d go see it.”
It reminded me of a movie about snakes that is coming out soon. I still can’t believe Samuel L Jackson is staring in this movie… does he need money that bad?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417148/
Tinkerbell is right…
I’ve been fishing in a motorboat, and had small watersnakes approach our boat a couple of times when we were drifting around. They are curious little snakes, but a swish of a fishing pole or a paddle will send them scurrying. Never had a cottonmouth approach a boat, though, I have had a near miss hiking over a log jam along a remote river.
I would agree that many people mistakenly identify snakes, and that this leads to an uneccessary level of fear over them.
Cotton Mouth Bite
last for a few days, winter last for 6 months.
No thank you
Brian
SoFlo
So you have Pythons also
Im no Herpotologist but that might be your friendly neighborhood Python.
Brian
SoFlo
gave a rattlesnake a ride…
I was paddling about 200 yards offshore on a local reservoir a few weeks ago when I came upon a small (10-12") rattlesnake. It looked a bit lost, so I picked it up on the end of my paddle, placed it on the bow of my kayak and gave it a ride back to shore. We kept an eye on each other the whole way!
Paddleinclay Photo
Thats there is a picture of a Python.
Im no herpotologist but would bet a buck on it.
Brian
forget the snakes, fear the bunnies.
Remember how prez Carter was in a rowboat and a bunny-rabbit jumped into the water and swam to him?
He panicked, insisted that the rabbit was attacking him and tried to beat it off with his paddle.
Of course, this is the same prez who did w/w through the Grand Canyon and had walls put up around his raft so he wouldn’t get wet.
And people wonder why the world laughs at us if we elect the ‘best’ we have to run the country.
Hummm
Bouncing back and forth from a cottonmouth photo to paddleinclays photo and the markings don’t seem to match with a cottonmouth photo.
Maybe if you get 4-5 feet closer next time before you take the photo and we should be able to confirm the snake by the bite marks :0
Brian
I get bit plenty…
when giving nature walks to park guests or leading paddle trips we handle snakes a lot. Every now and then we get tagged.
Never once have I felt the need to go get it checked.
Okay, That is a CottonMouth.
The banding is to distinctive to be mistaken with a Banded Northern Watersnake.
It also seems to taper from its body to is tail rather quickly which results in a stubby looking snake. Just as a personal favor to snake people, please, please, please do not kill them. Not that you would, but I still got to ask.
Andrew
p.s. The only two people I know that have been bitten by a venomous snakes got that way because they thought they had killed them and was wrong…
You may be right - - -
We used the name ‘black Snakes’ in a pretty generic way. Some around here call them Black rat, or just rat snakes. The ones I used to keep were big, and were basically for show. As I recall, they had the shape and eye charactoristics of the vipers
Either way - the biggest problem with younger scouts, and most people in general is getting them to understand that they aren’t so bad, and are important to the wildlife cycles. In Northern Ohio, there are very few dangerous snakes, but majority of folks will kill one if they see one.
Never understood how a little 6" garter snake could put so much fear into people when the bite from a brown recluse spider is far more dangerouse.
About Watersnakes…
– Last Updated: Jun-21-06 8:00 PM EST –
Having lived in Central Florida swamps all my life (52 yrs.worth) I've seen far more aggression from banded water snakes than from cottonmouths. I don't know where some of you are getting advice but here's what I've learned from my experiences:
On cool, windy days I've had moccosins approach my canoe. Not to climb inside but to get to the leeward side so they could get out of the wind. Moccosins CAN swim (and bite) underwater. Moccosins have no choice over whether they can inject venom or not when it bites you. Because of the physics involved in its venom delivery system, if its fangs penetrate into flesh the impact of the head forces the venom out of the sacs (glands located behind and below each eye) and into the flesh of the victim. If it bites you and there's no invenomization then its sacs were empty at that time, probably from feeding less than an hour beforehand. Moccosins will climb into low-hanging branches, leaning tree trunks, and deadfalls to avoid fast-moving flood waters. I've had only one fall into my canoe and that was from bumping into a cabbage palm that was growing horizontally from the creek bank. I used my paddle to scoop and sling it out of the boat(PDQ!) before it had a chance to touch the inside bottom (and my female paddling partner to ask, "What was that?" It was about 4 foot in length and less than 2 feet behind her). In the 17 Runs on the Hillsborough River I've had to lean very low in my canoe to do a "floating limbo" to avoid bumping deadfalls that would have, at times, over half a dozen laying on top just sunning themselves and not a one bothered to even move. I've never had a moccosin follow my canoe but banded watersnakes sure have! Banded watersnakes look a lot like a moccosin and maybe because of this, although non-venomous, they do have an attitude. The only time I've seen moccosins get aggressive is in defense or during mating season. Banded watersnakes, on the other hand, seem aggressive all the time. If you're paddling into any healthy freshwater eco-system in Florida you can't avoid them but if you keep your head and stay aware of your surroundings you may even enjoy watching them sunning themselves as you pass them by. It's how I get along with all living creatures in what's left of the quickly dissappearing Florida wilderness.
yeah - - me too
but I always side with caution when it’s folks that are not sure what’s out there.
Carter
I can’t let that Carter post go unchallenged. To start he didn’t float the Grand hw floated the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. It was the same year I moved there. The Secret Service did have automatic weapons but that was all they did. The outfitter who made the trip was chosen because he had children Amy Carter’s age, who went along. In the town of Salmon, except for a couple of helicopters parked at a motel you couldn’t even tell that Carter was around. The people there didn’t get very excited about it. We were all too busy enjoying ourselves.