ID this snake?

[Jack]

I wonder if it's not related to primordial memories (or "collective consciousness" in Jung's terms) of the Garden of Eden.

I mean, it's basically just a turtle without a shell or legs who eats rats. I never met a person who's afraid of turtles.

Nice looking snake.

Eden? Ya... I'm sure that is it.

Oh, and here is a turtle to fear.

It's so beautiful! What I meant was that people generally don't have a phobia of all turtles because a few of them are dangerous. The same isn't true for snakes. All snakes are hated deeply by a great number of people, even though most of them are harmless.

[Redwolf]

I was out walking Wiley a few weeks ago, and came across someone walking a huge red doberman. The dog caught sight of us and immediately started cowering behind his person. The person apologized by saying "I'm sorry...he's afraid of dogs"!

Redwolf

P.S. btw, for those who may not know, Wiley is a miniature poodle!

[Jack]

I was out walking Wiley a few weeks ago, and came across someone walking a huge red doberman. The dog caught sight of us and immediately started cowering behind his person. The person apologized by saying "I'm sorry...he's afraid of dogs"!

Redwolf

P.S. btw, for those who may not know, Wiley is a miniature poodle!

LOL! Dogs are said to be so intelligent, but sometimes you know they act just so stupid!

[Aanvil]

Turtles don't have hypodermic fangs.

Most people would rather be wrong than dead.

I'm not sure if a fear of snakes is actually instinctual.

I don't believe it is in humans. That is purely a guess. I haven't looked at any research.

I know that dogs require training to avoid them.

My boss just lost a beautiful samoyed to a diamond back last month.

Quite sad really. He roamed the office and was quite fun to have around.

[CountryKitty]

I'm not sure about the instinctual part as I'm completely unafraid of snakes (used to catch them bare-handed as a child...well, as an adult too, LOL.) But I have to wonder if at some level it isn't inherited....

(OK, now we get into the nature-nurture debate.....)

My MIL is absolutely terrified of snakes, and my husband jumps half out of his skin if he stumbles across one unexpectedly. MIL was working full time and DH was working nights/sleeping days from the time our son was brought home from the hospital to the time he was in school, and I know that at no point did they run across a snake in the boy's presence in all that time. AND YET, when DS was 2 he spied a large rubber snake at the store--and loudly warned me "Momma, a 'nake, a 'NAKE--IS GONNA GET 'OO!!! ('it's going to get you!!!'). Even after I showed him it was just a toy, he was unnerved by it and told me "Wet's get outta hewe!" (let's get out of here!').

It was such a sudden and definite reaction to a specific object that I had to wonder about inherited fears after that.

[djm]

I seem to come across spotted turtles mostly. I came across one in the middle of the road once. Good Samaritan, I jumped out of the car and went to lift him off the road before someone killed him. This is where I learned of turtles' amazing ability to pee in any direction (I jumped in time, but got quite a shock that, even contracted into its' shell, it could aim 90° at me and make a good effort).



djm

[chas]

Nice looking snake.

Eden? Ya... I'm sure that is it.

Oh, and here is a turtle to fear.

Holy sh*t! When I was a kid, a friend of mine found a snapping turtle in his back yard (nothing like this one). This one probably couldn't have taken off more than 2 or 3 fingers at a time. His father got rid of the thing by putting a 1" galvanized iron pipe in front of its mouth. It bit, at which point his father just lifted it and carried it back out into the swamp. It was the most bizarre thing, seeing a turtle hanging horizontally by its mouth from a piece of pipe.

My mother in law had a creek with ducks in it. At one point a snapping turtle decided it wanted to live in the creek for a couple of days. It snapped off all of the ducks' feet. They all survived the feet being snapped off, but couldn't swim worth a damn after that, and couldn't walk at all.

[izzarina]

Sorry for disagreeing izzarina...

It's fine...just don't expect me to ever speak to you again!!



My thinking it might be a copperhead was based purely on it's colouring. The first picture didn't show the head very well, but I admit that I didn't look at it as well as I should have. My 14 year old son happened in as I was responding and told me flat out that it wasn't a copperhead because it didn't look like a venomous snake at all, and instinctively I knew it really wasn't, I just hate snakes in a big way and think that every one I see in my yard (or apparently on the internet ) must be venomous. When you said Cornsnake, that actually made much more sense to me.

So you weren't really being a know-it-all...I was just just being an Ophidiophobian

[WyoBadger]

Dale, you sound just like my wife! Only person I've ever seen that hates snakes worse than my dad. My dad, who will stop the truck and back up on the highway to run over a snake he missed on the first pass.

I personally have nothing against snakes. We get garter snakes in Lake Wilson all the time. Bull snakes are pretty cool. I don't even mind rattle snakes, as long as they aren't close.

Rattlesnake, by the way, is delicious. Tastes almost nothing like chicken.

Tom

[Walden]

Rattlesnake, by the way, is delicious. Tastes almost nothing like chicken.

I concur with the latter statement, while disagreeing with the former.

[Jack]

I seem to come across spotted turtles mostly. I came across one in the middle of the road once. Good Samaritan, I jumped out of the car and went to lift him off the road before someone killed him. This is where I learned of turtles' amazing ability to pee in any direction (I jumped in time, but got quite a shock that, even contracted into its' shell, it could aim 90° at me and make a good effort).



djm

I also tried to be such a Good Samaritan once...it was my first week in college, over two years ago now. I was walking around town, just to see where I was, and I saw a box turtle sunning itself at the edge of the highway.

"It's gonna get run over." I thought to myself. I decided to move it.

I looked down below the hill and saw a creek. I thought that would be a perfect place to put it. So I picked the turtle up and walked down to the creek. Once I got there I realized I couldn't down get to the water because of all the bushes and weeds.

So, naturally, I threw the turtle in the water.

Except...(and this is where you can call me evil and a horrible person) instead of the water, the turtle hit a big flat rock and went "splat" and blood and guts went everywhere over the big rock and the turtle waved its hands and feet as it laid there upside down with its guts falling out.

I still shiver to think about it.

*stands up* "Hi, my name is Cranberry and I'm a turtle murderer."

[gonzo914]

I still shiver to think about it.

I would hope so. Indeed, I would hope that this is the last thing you think about before you drift off to sleep every night and the first thing that pops into your mind when you awake. I can think of absolutely no rationalization for flinging any animal, turtle or otherwise, through the air like that unless the intent is patently to kill the animal in question. There is no justification for this action because there is no way it could have had a positive outcome for the turtle.

Your other pet deaths could have been attributed to negligence or even inexperience (although this act has me wondering about the degree of intent involved in even those), but this kind of animal abuse is pathological and indicative of either a total disregard for life or some sort of perverse cry for attention, either of which would merit counselling, if not eventual incarceration.

[Joseph E. Smith]

That's a fine looking Alligator Snapper. Common in the southern swamps. It can and will remove a limb should the opportunity present itself.

I agree with Cran regarding the statement that most people have a deep fear of snakes, venomous and non venomous. Snakes, like all living beings on this planet, are designed to do what they do and be what they are. Contrary to popular belief, the snakes that pack a toxic punch do not go out of their way to chomp on things. If anything, these animals do their level best to avoid confrontations that may leave them dead or injured. But, as with all life, they will do their level best to protect themselves when they feel threatened, and in the case of venom bearing life, that means they will bite, sting or what have you to preserve their lives.

The # 1 cause of snake bite cases with humans usually centers around the example of humans messing around with what they shouldn't, or humans not taking into consideration that they may be invading the hiding place or habitat of these critters... and that includes allowing their pets to roam unsupervised. I have treated a number of dogs who were victims of snake bites. In each case, the dog was running around free in an environment known to be snake country.

Basically, these situations are the direct result of human error, not becuase some snakes (or other animals) are venomous.

[Jack]

1). None of my pets have recently died.

1b). The turtle was not my pet.

2). I was throwing it in the water, so that it could swim away (turtles swim), except that I missed by a few feet and it hit a rock instead.

[djm]

Do turtles have souls?

djm