Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A friend and I took a trip to the Sandhills in NC back on Thursday Oct 2.
Mid day, we spotted a small snake on the right hand side of the road, I was crusing at about 45mph maybe, and I swerved to miss it.

I didnt swerve hard enough though and just barelyclipped it's head.

I feel SOOOOOOOOO bad about it. This was a lifer for me too!! It was a small guy too, probably an '08.

All in all, the trip showed us 1 small Simus I killed 1 adult Simus freshly hit and one northern Pine freshly hit and finally one VERY destroyed red mole king, probably over 24 hours old.
The only live snakes we saw were 2 juvi coachwhips.
I'm at work now. All three DOR snakes were clean hits, no bloody gut messes except for the mole king. I can put pix up when I get home tonite.
Just........wanted to share I guess. This was my first simus I'd ever seen, I think I havent even seen a CB one with my own eyes yet. Very diappointing.
-----
Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

Oh man...I'm really sorry to hear that. Simus are my favorite of all the hogs, and I too have never seen one in the wild.

I have a story similar except it was totally my fault (at least you saw the snake and tried to swerve)...
when I was out road cruising for snakes a few weeks back, it had been a good night with a live eastern garter (real pretty blue sides), a live eastern ribbon, and my first ever (and live) south florida swamp snake. But on the way back I saw one last snake on the road, pulled off, and started running back with the flashlight pointed down the road. Unfortunately, I had thought that I had pasted by the snake by a greater distance, and as I was running (focused further down the road the road) my friend who was behind me yelled but it was too late. The snake turned out to be another eastern ribbon, which at least isn't as rare as a simus, and I ended up not seeing it beneath me and stepped right on its head.

I have never felt so ashamed about anything else.
I mean here I was looking for snakes (trying to help them get off the road, so they won't get killed), saw the snake and didn't hit it with the car, but then stepped on the poor creature trying to find it.

Anyway, I TOTALLY know how you feel.
I'd still definitely like to see the pics (of the non-mangled ones) as I don't get to see too many field herping pics of hogs.
-----
Take care,

Alex Pepper

CBB '07 1.1 Aspidites ramsayi--Woma Pythons (Don Hamper/Rare Earth Stock)
CBB '08 1.1 Bothrochilus boa--Bismarck Ringed Pythons (Tom Keogan Line High Contrast)
CBB '07 1.0 Heterodon simus--High Red Southern Hognose Snake (Tom Pinson Line Red)
CBB '07 1.1 Pituophis catenifer sayi--Marathon, Texas Out-crossed Stillwater Hypomelanistic Bull Snakes
CBB '08 1.1 Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi--Black Pine Snakes (John Ginter Stock)
CBB '06 & '08 1.1 Eublepharis macularius--Blazing Blizzard & Reverse Stripe Tangerine Albino Leopard Geckos "Blaze" & "Angie"
CBB '02 0.1 Hemitheconyx caudicinctus--Stiped African Fat-tailed Gecko "Smeagol"
CBB '03 0.1 Canis domesticus--Cocker Spaniel "Cupcake"
CBB '99 0.1 Canis domesticus--Yellow Labrador Retriever "Freckles"

Happy Herping!

I can not imagine how it would feel to accidently kill a simus in the road!I really feel for you! Call me a wuss but,I accidently killed a large box turtle a couple of weeks ago and I got a really sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Take care! Jeff

Here's the poor little guy I hit

Here's the northern pine we saw a short time later, freshly hit

The mole king

One of the juvi coachwhips we caught (the glove was for tin flipping, not snakebite prevention hehe) and an adult we rolled a log off.

I didnt manage to take a picture of the adult Simus we found freshly hit
-----
Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

You should probably go a bit slower on the sand roads. Its tricky to stop and try to miss something when the momentum is sliding you around. I've seen a lot of people come down to the sandhills and hit stuff on the sandroads. Also, small simus and easterns can be very hard to see on the sand roads, especially with the shadows of early morning light on the road.

I do go slower on the sand roads. That little simus was on a long stretch of pavement in the noon sun. There was lots of debris on the roads though, lots of pine bark and other crap. 40-45mph has always been a comfortable cruising speed for me, this was just the one time when I was a bit casual on the steering wheel. Lesson learned, yank the wheel harder next time.
-----
Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"