Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A handler friend of mine just got a BIG black. Anyone know the official (semi-official?) record weight? Thanks.

Bill Huseth
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Venomous snakes---best hobby on earth!
Bill Huseth

I've never even heard anyone talking about Black Mambas in terms of weight, just length... I'd love to hear the stats on your friend's beast though.

The one I care for is 8 1/2-9 feet and getting heavy enough that holding her on long hooks is becoming a challenge, but I'm sure she's nowhere near record range, considerong some of the (very old) pictures I've seen of 11-12 footers.
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

Larry, he said it weighed 10 pounds, was missing part of its tail, and that it was in the 12ft. area. Also said that it bent his hook!?!

Bill
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Venomous snakes---best hobby on earth!
Bill Huseth

Out of curiosity....would working with a huge D.P. like this be significantly more challenging than smaller ones of similar personalities?

Would a bad attitude DP this large be almost prohibitively dangerous? What about compared to other species considered *tough* to handle like O. hannah?

I remember reading an account of someone finding a large D.P. in the wild that was in the process of swallowing a 7ft. forest cobra...pretty interesting.

Senior, while I've never had any hands-on experience with a polylepis, I've watched my mentor handle one many times. The one just prior to the "baby python" was EXTREMELY alert, as I recall.
To me, any size adult poly is "prohibitively dangerous", although I hope to cross that hurdle someday.

Bill H.
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Venomous snakes---best hobby on earth!
Bill Huseth