Reptile & Amphibian Forums

As many of you know, I'm a newspaper editor in South Georgia. We have two papers in our town. Our paper is a daily; the other comes out twice a week. This morning, on the front page of the other paper, was the well traveled photo of the guy holding the big dead western diamondback. The caption read that the snake was nine feet long and was found behind the Wal-Mart in Tifton, a town about 50 miles from us. They ran the same photo inside the paper a second time. Why in the world do papers do that kind of stuff? The snake is obviously not nine feet, it's not an EDB (which I wouldn't really expect them to know), and, maybe more importantly from a journalistic standpoint, why do you print those email forwards on the front page of the paper? That's just plain stupid, not to mention bad journalism. That kind of crap makes all of us look bad.

RP

You should definately run an article on newspapers that don't check their fact. Maybe a separate one on well known internet hoaxes.

Robert: The bogus story of the water skier falling into the nest of cottonmouths has run in newspapers in every state within the cottonmouth's range and a handful of states where it does not.

Guys like you who do a good job & check the facts before going to press are probably in the minority. We appreciate it.

~~Greg~~

This last weekend I had a lady (usually it is onlder men who already know everything who give me these "facts" tell me about three snake she was finding regularly near her home. Two were venomous but ALL three had a range far from her home.

It just so happened at this earth day expo I had with me the range maps by county of the venomous snakes in the state and snakes which were often misidentified as them. I kindly showed these to the lady and showed how far her county was from their range. I also explained the snakes which were often misidentified as the snakes she spoke of which were quite abbundant in her county and all surrounding counties.

She said "No, it was these snakes...we had someone identify them. They must have been someones pets they released."

Maybe the newpaper told her what they were

Here's a conversation I have fairly regularly in the snake room:

Gomer: "I was out fishin' the other day and this cottonmouth came chasin' after me."

Me: "Did it look like this?" (shows picture)

Gomer: "Yeah, that's the sucker."

Me: "That's a harmless banded watersnake."

Gomer: "No, this was a cottonmouth."

Me: (to myself) "Doh!"

Yop! Cottonmouths are just SO aggressive. I've only caught about three hundred or so..don't flame me I quit years ago, & those were all for a zoological institution..and the next one that chases me will be the first one.

I did have one advance toward me, but I stood still, & it crawled between my legs & kept going. I just happened to be on the line between where it started from & where it was going.

After observing them in a pit situation, I got to the point where I could have several cottonmouths take smelt out of my hand. It seems that in a pit, they calm down after a few weeks. Not sure why, as this is not true in a cage set-up, but it certainly was in the large pit I worked with them in.

They absolutely have one of the worst reputations of any snake, & it is not, in my opinion, deserved.

~~Greg~~

People are bonded by their fears as much as by their curiosity. The papers capitalise on both. They know the right headline-correct-or not-will sell papers or attract viewers.

Our local channel 10 last night announced Liz Taylor was near death. A few minutes later they had to admit they got it from an unconfirmed National Enquirer story. But hey, people will keep watching to see if its true.

People all love their "near death" snake stories. It gives them something to share as they sip their coffee with friends and try to feel important. Other people listen to them and they are briefly the center of attention. That is why they don't want to hear it, when you point out that the dangerous viper was actually a corn snake.

They would rather site their "so called expert" than acknowledge the truth. After that, it is all about ego.

And yeah, Greg of all the Moc's I have run into in the wild I have yet to see an aggressive one. My brother right now is claiming that he took photos of nests of Moc's and of a "migration." Also how one jumped into the air to strike at him. I can't wait to see the pics.

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

I'd love a copy of those pics too...

Maybe the motive was to, oh I don't know, perhaps SELL MORE PAPERS. That seems to be a common theme in journalism. Kudos to your honesty and I second the idea of running an expose on internet hoaxes.

In the May 2006 issue of Outdoor Life(a mag that SHOULD know better) there is an article about somebody who catches snapping turtles. The author mentions being in the guy's house and seeing the skin from an 11 foot diamondback. Hmmmmm, why are none of these giants alive? If the skin was legitimate it would be worth MUCH more still attached to the snake(at least to us). Could a 6-7 foot skin be stretched that far without being obvious or would it be more likely to be several attached skins?

Don't know the capacity of a stretched skin of a skinned snake but on stuffing ( mounting ) a snake from a taxidermist it can be done. Our first pet store was in a outside mall and we had a hunting/boot store two doors down and they had two western diamond backs mounted stretched to the limit to the measurement of over 8 foot close to nine. This was a window display promoting what else > Nacona Boots !
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......