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Alterna Playing dead?

Retnaburner Aug 25, 2007 09:50 AM

One of the Alterna I caught several years back played dead after catching it. I was wondering if anyone has ever had one do this to them? I had not been rough with it and it did not put up to much of a fight it was just curled around my wrist it just suddenly went limp and almost fell to the ground. It was a male from west of Alpine and My hunting buddies thought I had killed it. I brought it back to the Truck and set it on the hood of the truck thinking that I had killed it or something. We messed with it for a good 5 min trying to get it to move but it was just limp and the only life you could see was the tongue flicker once in a while. Finally it gave up playing dead and has never acted that way since. Anyone else have an alterna do this? The picture is of the Playing dead Alterna!

Matt

Replies (7)

Herpo Aug 25, 2007 11:24 AM

I had something similar happen with a female I found coiled on the edge of the Boy Scout Road. It sort of crawled partway off my hand and went limp. However, unlike yours, mine never perked up. It had been run over by some other herpers.
JH

Brad Anderson Aug 25, 2007 01:49 PM

Initials were J. R. better know as sound a Massasauga makes??? That was a nice one. Of course he claims you did it because he was with another person and you were alone. Remember it well.
BA

DannyBoy9 Aug 25, 2007 04:46 PM

Not with alterna but, I've seen this behavior twice with sub-ocs & the "dead" time was as much as four hours. Apparently, Platyrhoden don't have a monopoly on this technique.

DannyBoy9 Aug 25, 2007 04:51 PM

Duh... Heterodon, I mean.

normnun Aug 25, 2007 06:06 PM

I have had about 6 or so play dead on me over the years.The best one was a river road I caught in November years ago that went to Brad A.That night it was perfect and I ran out to the RR and a truck had just staddled it.I thought it had been hit but it was alright.After getting it home laying it out on the floor it looked dead but after about 10 min. it started to crawl away and did this several times.I don't know if it did it after Brad got it from me.

stevenxowens792 Aug 25, 2007 09:16 PM

If that is the case, it wont be "playing" dead for long.

Awesome animal! I give that snake a 9/10. If I wan't so tired, I would prolly give it a 10.

Congrats!

Steven Owens

retnaburner Aug 27, 2007 03:30 PM

Snake hunting is a passion of mine and many others. Some times you just wonder about interesting things that happen to you while out hunting.

Matt Ilseng

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