Reptile & Amphibian Forums

of course snakes arnt really mean. but what would you people say is the most agressive snake and most likly to strike at people. anaconda maybe? racers? ive heard of some pissed off cobras too.

If you mean the most defensive, I suspect it would be something like one of the Asian Ptyas species or possibly a Radiated Ratsnake. They put on quite a show! Radiateds would win just on the incredible display they put on when pissed!

A wild caught White-lipped Python can be a barrel of laughs as well!
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

I'll add (from my own experience)...

Wagners Viper` the champion of upsidedown striking).

Atheris sq. (the only snake ever to chase me accross a table. Think slinky with fangs.)

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

i deff have to throw in my vote for the wild caught white lips...i had a 5ft wild caught and it was by far the most aggresive snake ive owned....my carpet learned that it doesnt make sense to strike the glass....my white lip didnt care what was in its way...it was tryin to tag u
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0.0.1 Borneo Blood Python--(lucifer)
0.0.1 IJ Carpet Python--(spike)
0.0.1 Colombian Boa--(vlad the impailer)
0.0.1 Ball Python--(Ghengiz Khan)
0.0.1 Aru Green Tree Python--(hannibal)
0.0.1 Biak Green Tree Python
0.0.1 rose hair tarantula
0.1.0 2 year old boxer--(Diamond)

I believe you could amend Psuestes to the list as well...

Best regards,

Jeff
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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

well of course a venomous is going to strike...its in their nature. as far as non hots, i would have to say an emerald tree boa.
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1.1.0 Colombian Redtail Boas (normals)
2.1.0 Sumatran Blood Pythons (normals)
1.0 Black Blood Python (normal)
1.0 Dumeril's Boa (normal)
0.1 Coastal Carpet Python (normal)
0.1 Jungle Carpet Python (normal)
0.1 Surinam Redtail Boa (normal)

Uh, I have kept many venemous species and some of the most docile snakes I have are in that group. My Sidewinder is passive, My Waglers the same, as can be said for my eyelash vipers and sheildnose cobra.

On the other hand, someone mentioned Chrondos. My Biaks are as tame as any kingsnake.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

well i gues it s what you see/do/know. yes i know people that say that hots are tame little things. those are probably cbb's. im talking WC here. In the wild, which snake is more apt to strike at you? or even in captivity, which snake is more likely to strike at you even though you couldve sworn it was puppy dog tame? a friend of mine knows a guy with an ETB who's had it for years ...recently took a chunk out of his face. Just because you have a snake that wont bite you doesnt mean that you can just stick your hand into any snake tank in the world and not get bit. thats arrogant presumption.
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1.1.0 Colombian Redtail Boas (normals)
2.1.0 Sumatran Blood Pythons (normals)
1.0 Black Blood Python (normal)
1.0 Dumeril's Boa (normal)
0.1 Coastal Carpet Python (normal)
0.1 Jungle Carpet Python (normal)
0.1 Surinam Redtail Boa (normal)

Ok...in all fairness using your criteria. I have lived in S. Florida for over 40 years. In that time I have run accross dozens of wild Eastern Diamondback Rattlers. Defensive, yes. But they do not strike unless you are way too close. Moccasins? very docile. I have placed my hook in their mouth and they didn't strike-unless you put flesh too close.

Now Pygmy rattlers are much more inclined to bite first, but the snake most likely to bite out there is the common Penninsula water snake. It is because of these snakes snappyness and mis-identification that so many people think Mocs are aggressive.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

A lady here in the Baton Rouge area called the local city nature park and said her son had caught a little snake in the yard and was playing with it. She had called around to some pet stores and thought that it might be a boa constrictor. She was wondering whether she could bring it to the park for identification.

By the time she got it to the park, she decided that she didn't want to take it home. She even left the aquarium at the park thinking that if he didn't have an empty aquarium, her son wouldn't be so likely to bring snakes home.

When the park people started looking at the snake, they found that it was a copperhead. It was about two to two and a half feet long. This kid had picked it up, brought it inside, put it in the aquarium, and gotten it out to play with it several times. It had never been the least bit aggressive towards him.

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

I haven't worked with enough individuals of most species to what say which SPECIES is worst, but I'll tell you about the nastiest (in one way or another) individual snakes I've encountered.

As a kid I had an eastern milk snake that was generally OK with being handled, but would occasionally, without warning, turn and attack my finger and make a concerted effort to swallow it while I was trying to get him off.

As a teenager I had an amazon tree boa (at least I think so, the pet shop had no clue and I didn't have much of one at the time) that would do the exact same thing (except with my arm).

Then a few years ago I started working with hots.

For a while we had a death adder that would actually leave the floor striking repeatedly in my direction (and he often ended up on the floor because he didn't much like being on a hook).

We have a bush viper that once you've had him out, cleaned the cage and put him back suddenly starts doing an immitation of a paddle-ball game, striking out as far as he can reach with just the tip of his tail to bring him back to the branch and do it again.

We had a couple of wild caught black mambas that would not, under any cicumstances, go into a holding container and would occasionally charge you and then turn at the last instant and make a break for the least convenient place in the room.

The master so far though is a forest cobra I've been working with for about 3 years, and he hasn't settled down at all in that time. He will often rush out of the cage as soon as you open it, sometimes trying to get behind the cage, sometimes coming straight at you. It's more or less impossible to keep him on hooks and if you try, he will either climb the hook or use it as a platform to literally leap in your direction (this is always straight towards you). The only way to have anything like control over him is to hook-and-tail him in which case he alternates between striking up at your hand, striking towards your body and trying to climb his own body so you can't shake him loose. It's rare that I can move him 3 feet from the cage to a holding container without having to drop him at least once.

I pretty much only keep fast and aggressive snakes. I find them much more interesting for whatever reason.

I agree with the other Chris H who said a White Lipped Python. I have had a few wild caughts and they just bite at everything.

Ironically, the meanest snake I ever kept was a specimen of a species that I consider to be among the tamest - a Florida Kingsnake. I have kept several of those and one particular female was just nasty. It was very strange.

The species in my profile are also pretty aggressive.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

back to the import days of the absolutely most bittenous and aggressive non-venomous snake and hands down try those imported baby retics. I remember either Bob Clark or his friend getting bit with some of our imports and the baby retic held on to the his lip while he ran around the room and all we could do was to laugh at the circumstances. I believe this was when Bob and friend were in their teens.
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

a black momba hands down!they have bin said to chase people down.

For North American non venomous I just can't think of anything meaner or for that matter faster to bite then the common black racer.

I caught one quite a bit over 5 feet as a kid in florida and got bit quite a few times in the process.

I don't have much experience with snakes around the world (at least wild caught) and none with venomous from anywhere but locally. I find most rattlers, copperheads and cottonmouths to be much easier to get along with then the common black racer.

Perhaps that is just my experience but every damn one I have ever encountered in the wild was more then ready to bite the s--t out of anything that moved,

Jack