re: The Herpetology Photo Thread (Reptiles & Amphibians)

Snapped with my cell phone from my truck yesterday. Ended up getting out and helping him across so he wouldn't get run over. He was about 5-1/2 ft long, maybe a little more. One of the largest rat snakes I've come across.




This one was last week at a customers house. He met his demise unfortunately. He was about 3-1/2 long.



I didn't think about it at the time, but also killed a timber rattler about 18" in a customers garage last week as well. I feel like the snake whisperer this year. Caught two other rat snakes at my dad's place too.

Nice fat leopard frog chillin in my foutian...I see him here in the mornings quite frequently.





Then for the first time I spotted a brown anole. Kinda torn on this one. My last house I had in Nola my nephue caught one and I let him let it go at my house (didn't know it was that invasive). That single lizard bust have been a gravid female because over the next few years there population exploded. It was kinda cool to see something different at the time, they would be all over my deck. But reading up on them and seeing the trend my green anoles were less abundant in the area taking to higher ground. I like them...just hope I have enough room for them to live together....they have no choice it seems.

cool little tree frog

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I hate seeing beautiful snakes killed for no reason. A family member posted this one on facebook...

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What was the caption, or whatever, accompanying the picture?

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What was the caption, or whatever, accompanying the picture

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Caption was "Welcome to east Texas, two snakes in one day! One's poisonous and one isn't can you tell which is which? Me either that's why their dead"

The other snake was a moccasin with it's head chopped off.

That pisses me off. Makes no sense.

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"Welcome to east Texas, two snakes in one day! One's poisonous and one isn't can you tell which is which? Me either that's why their dead"

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Sounds about what I expected. Poor Mud Snake.

Use a stick.

I've always believed in the law of averages when handling poisonous snakes. Don't pick them up! I usually have my snake hook or fingers in my truck to coax the snake into an empty garbage can. Rake-a-snake into a garbage can is another method I have successfully used.

Yeah, I've done the "Rama of the Jungle" thing and milked a few cottonmouths but that was a long time ago. The diamondback above was guided into the can with my always available grabber finger stick.

One day, many years ago, I was driving across Eglin AFB reservation north of Destin. It was hot as hell and I pulled over to check out a large road kill diamondback. I cut off the rattle and jumped back into the air-conditioned car. In about two more miles I encountered another diamond back road kill. I was in my wife's little station wagon and there was zero traffic so I just backed up a opened the door without even getting out of the car to view the snake in the middle of the road. Then I got this bright idea. The snake was dead and in rather good condition. I'm gonna skin this rattler. I reached down from the drivers seat and grabbed the snake by the tail and flipped it over onto the passenger's seat floorboard. I continued on my drive home, enjoying the AC on that little car and wondering why on a hot day like this I find two diamondback road kills. It's been about 6 or 7 miles that I have traveled and I look down at the snake and notice that the snake in not is the same configuration it was when I threw it onto the floorboard. The the damn thing starts vibrating it's tail. Not enough to make a rattling sound, but it was trying to rattle and moving around ever so slightly. I think it was about this time I had to make a slight correction using the steering wheel because I almost ran off the road. I didn't panic, and decided that I needed to concentrate on driving because I was on a road with a little more traffic. It turned out that the snake was indeed dead and it was just those reptilian nerves moving.

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I would have needed new drawers.

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Fa real I thought he was going to say he looked at the floor board and the snake was not there anymore