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BAY NEWS 9 (Tampa Bay, Florida) 19 August 03 Authorities say Town N' Country man bitten by black mamba snake did nothing wrong
Laura Ardry lives just a few yards away from a home where 26 venomous snakes were living.
She's glad they've been taken away and hopes the potentially dangerous reptiles never come back to the Countryside Village mobile home park in Hillsborough County again.
"I'm very upset about [the snakes living so close]," Ardry said. "I'm concerned that if the pregnant [black] mamba snake got out, we'd have Mambas in our neighborhood."
The man who had the snakes in his home, Russell Anderson, is licensed to have exotic pets. He was keeping them in his home until a deadly black mamba snake bit the 35-year-old man several times.
Anderson was cleaning out its cage when the attack occurred. The snakes were taken away when Anderson was hospitalized because he was the only one in the mobile home licensed to handle them.
He is still in the hospital and is listed in critical condition.
Lieutenant Dennis Parker with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission talked about Anderson's accident and situation during a news conference on Tuesday.
"There is no requirement as to how many snakes you can have," Parker said.
Parker added that snakes, like the black mamba, are popular items on the trading market in Florida primarily because of the warm weather. He claims Anderson was not doing anything wrong by having them in his home.
"We looked at the facility and he maintains it," Parker said. "He has locked containers [for the snakes] and that's all that's required by law."
The black mamba is one of deadliest reptiles in the world, but that doesn't mean if you're bitten that you will die. Snake experts say out of the 20,000 reported cases of venomous snakebites snake bites a year, only half of those release toxins that could kill.
Still, that doesn't ease the mind of Anderson's neighbors.
"We think we live in a secured community," said a Countryside Village resident named Carol. "I've lived here for 14 years and when you hear things like this, it kind of upsets you."
The incident has upset a lot of residents in the Town 'N Country neighborhood where Anderson lives, so much so that they want to do something about it and fast.

Local woman survives poisonous snakebite

The synopsis of this article list the scientific name for the Black Mamba as Dendroaspis angusticeps.

LOL ! ! !

Cheers,

Derek K.

Dendroaspis polylepis (Black Mamba)

NP.

First off, I really like snakes and have been a forum lurker for 5-6years. Second, I have never kept snakes venemous or otherwise.

1) I would have concerns about people keeping venemous snakes next door to me unless they had BOTH a secure snake room & secure cages. Now, unique to Florida...where homes typically don't have basements I would be concerned that a hurricane could rip his place open and release snakes around the neighborhood.
(Even worse, keeping vens in an apartment is in my mind grossly irresponsible.)

2) What is the potential environmental impact of snakes getting loose? I don't think it's a huge threat...but I'm thinking brown tree snakes in Guam...any educated input would be appreciated.

Please share your thoughts. Thankyou.

>>2) What is the potential environmental impact of snakes getting loose? I don't think it's a huge threat...but I'm thinking brown tree snakes in Guam...any educated input would be appreciated.

Antyhing like this in Florida is very unlikely to be anywhere near as bad as what happened on Guam. Guam was an island ecosystem, and the local fauna had evolved in the absence of snakes, and thus snake predation. These animals were thus entirely unequipped to deal with the sudden appearance of a predator - it just wasn't in their genes to avoid them. There is nothing particularly unique about the brown tree snake, various other species could have had the same effect.

Most warm mainland ecosystems, on the other hand, are full of predators already, includign snakes, and the existing fauna have a number of specialisations which reduce vulnerability to predation (e.g., making nests inaccessible, greater flight response, etc.). If, for instance, the brown tree snake got loose and established in Florida, it would only do what a combination of native snakes are doing already, namely scoffing lizards and birds, and its impact would very probably be vastly less significant than on Guam, or than it would be on Hawaii.

Obviously, there are some exceptions, and some snakes might have a more serious impact. For instance, a colony of black mambas might seriously impact any predator population specialising in chasing down and eating coachwhips. On the plus side, it might also seriously impact any redneck population with a tendency to pour gasoline down gopher tortoise burrows and expect an EDB to make its leisurely way to the surface...

So overall, while introductions of alien species are obviously undesirable, and many will have *some* impact, a Guam-style scenario would be very unlikely in a place like Florida.

Cheers,

Wolfgang
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WW

WW Home

'

;0)

you have stumbled upon the perfect way to deal with the Rattlesnake Roundups. Let's give 'em a challenge. An EDB is no match for a Redneck with a bottle of gas and a garden hose, but a Mamba would be....hmmm....

Now if we can figure out how to get some Dobermans into that French bicycle race, we could actually end up with some entertainment around here...

I will scan the local shelters for dobies. What do we do about shipping?
LMAO!
Kevin

Substitute mambas for the rattlesnakes, add some dobermans, french bicyclists and hundred drunk Spaniards being chased by bulls...

Note: I have nothing against dobermans, the French or Spaniards (drunk or not), it just makes for a great image...
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Larry D. Fishel
Side effects may include paralysis
and death but are generally mild.

The fact that I have to put something here to make the forum accept my post utterly negates the n/p. The fact that I wrote all this instead of writing something pertenant to the topic suggests I need some sleep.