road kill with a difference. what is it?

[maingate]

I always looked out for snakes while working in West Africa. Fascinating creatures.

As was said previously, their instinct is to get away from you, the Black Mamba being the exception as they can be very aggressive. I have seen one chase a man for a long distance at a surprising speed. If you are not fit, it will catch you. They are usually between 8 and 12 feet long (but do grow much bigger) and they hold about a third of their body upright so their fangs could be at the height of your navel.

During the cold nights of the dry season, snakes curl up on the dirt roads (which have absorbed the daytime heat) and can be easily seen. Africans hate snakes and will kill any one they come across. In the case of pythons, they kill them to eat. I have seen the night shift workers come back with a huge one that had been run over (deliberately) so that they could have food to eat. Angola has some of the richest agricultural land in the world but most of the Angolans were starving.

 

[sean rua]

I have eaten snake in Singapore and it was alright, imo.
In SE Asia the smallest snakes are said to be the most dangerous.

In the Middle East, a guy came running out of the sea ( I think they used to go in there for a pee) carrying a snake no more than eighteen inches long. It was dead, of course; people there kill anything and everything.

Anyway, somebody said that a dead snake can still inflict a poisonous bite. The guy, however, was parading the thing above his head like he'd just won the cup at Wembley or something.
I heard next day that he had become very ill and had to be flown to Abu Dhabi for hospital treatment.

In Australia, I thought I'd better do the St John's course on first aid. The teacher was an old bushman. He told us not to mess about: if bitten by a snake or spider, amputate the part at once!!

A bit harsh, but this was the sixties.
Not sure if I'd have the heart to go through with it, but that's what the old bush people reckoned to do.

So far I've been lucky.
There ain't usually any reason to kill a snake in UK, but if you do and you've been bitten, you're supposed to take the snake with you, so that the right "anti-venine" can be administered.
Not to the snake, but to you!

Snakes ain't slimy, in my experience. I went to the snake temple in Pinang and had a photo with three of them all twisted around me.
Mind you, they are all drugged up there. I wouldn't fancy grappling with any bggrs that dropped out of a tree in the jungle.

Because they're slim, they can slide under doors. One day in Malaya we heard the dog barking like mad out back. When we went to see what was up, there was a cobra sitting up with the head all wide and making that rattling noise.
This woman seized the long-handled shovel and flattened the poor thing with one almighty slap to the head.
Silly really, because they reckon these can spit eight foot or more.

You are suppose to keep your distance and the thing will eventually slide off. Snakes don't like anybody looking at them.

sean rua.

 

[Tco]

The advice always given by "experts" is that snakes, generally will not attack you unless seriously provoked. But being trodden on by accident could always be regarded as provocation!:danger:

 

[vindiboy]

That's a very silly point of view. While the adder is capable of giving a venomous bite, our other "snakes" e.g. grass snake and slow worm (not actually a snake, but a legless lizard) are harmless to us humans.

Most people think of snakes as slimy things, but if you handle one, you'll find they feel more like velvet. Generally, fear of animals comes about through ignorance.:idea-007:[/QUOTE Silly it might be, but it is still my opinion, my Grandson has a Ball Python which is about 2 metres long and I do handle that at times but I still don't like the dam things.

 

[Admin]

Well you think you have seen most things, but yesterday I found this little fella at the side of the road .....thankfully in a state of decease...

I am pretty sure it isn't one of our native adders or grass snakes, I think it possibly escaped from somewhere and met its demise..

Old saying a snake is a steak, but I can't identify it so it looks like a new watchstrap...well it would if I owned a watch ..

Any herpatologists out there ? That can give a positive Id?

Channa

I showed the picture to my friend today, he owns Birmingham Reptile Centre and is a snake expert. He said straight away that it was a cold dead male grass snake. I asked how hw knew it was cold and dead and he said the way its mouth is open shows it is dead.