This was really helpful. I saw a banded water snake at little devils the other day. He was definitely checking me out. And he was definitely not a water moccasin. So now I know the difference. And knowing is half the battle!Originally Posted by L.A.
That is always a good time to have a spare buddy or two around.
David
We saw a gorgeous Eastern Diamondback on the trail at Peacock a few weeks ago, a little over 4 feet long. He'd apparently eaten recently and was sunning while digesting, all stretched out along a sunny spot on the trail. He gave us this look like "are you really gonna make me move?" So we, being the completely harmonious team we are, decided we were done walking that section
The only snake I've come across that was definitely aggressive was a tiny pygmy rattler. Pulled him up with a clump of weeds and immediately tossed him back down. He was 10 inches of pure pissed off machismo. He wouldn't "shoo" or quit striking at us, so we had to send him off to his next life.
I
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Having grown is South GA. on the border of the Coolawahee swamp, I can tell you that Moccasins are aggressive, I don't care what any website says. For aggressive, but harmless a Black Racer beats most any snake
The most ruthless and determined snake that I have ever run across was a black racer. The little bas**rd bit me 3 times before I get get my hand away from him and 2 more times as I tried to catch him for relocation. When I put my boot next to him, he would just strike it over and over again. I finally put my welding gloves on and got him moved out of my shop and into some tall grass.
I witnessed a water moccassin chase my Grandfather and myself out of a pond and about 35 foot into the pasture one day. We were riding a horse (and herding cattle) if that makes any difference.
Growing up in Kansas had one very nasty snake to deal with. It was a common diamondback rattlesnake with one difference. Sometimes when the snakes would get very old, there rattles would fall off. This was commonly referred to as the "old dog" state. For some reason these snakes would no longer try to avoid confrontation but rather just stand there ground and strike at anything that moved. Having no rattles to warn an intruder with made them very dangerous for us farm/ranch hands.
Snakes are awesome creatures that many times are given a bad rap. Almost any snake will do its very best to get away from you rather than bite you. But they are just like divers - most of them are ok, but there is always going to be that one as**ole to deal with. The trick is knowing which is which.
Snakes are cool just like bats and both always get an undeservingly bad rep (bats being evil creatures, getting caught in your hair etc...) , in all but two exceptions, snakes will always try and avoid you and flee, just try and avoid fast movement if you see one and stay still, nothing will happen.
The two exception being the king Cobra and the Black Mamba two snakes you will never see in Florida.
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My only question is can snakes bite through the tough exterior of a dry suit? I know last year we has snake sightings at Roubidoux and Cannonball (Missouri caves), and the reports were they seem to be getting use to the human activity around the water. Not sure if that is a good thing or not.
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If they could get there darned fangs through my leather boots, I don't think a drysuit has a chance in stopping them.
Agreed, when I worked for the FL park system, every snake in the park was a moccasin.
It's bad luck to be superstitious.
I guess what I'm asking is are there any other cave entrances that are as "developed" as Little River?
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