Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

Unfortunately I was not able to take a picture, but here's what I saw: while biking on a trail (near a creek - it will dry up in the summer)I saw the tail of "something", and I'm assuming it's a snake, but it could even be something else.
It was moving in a pretty straight line, it was about 3 feet long, and about 3 inches wide. The color was somewhat uniform, greenish (made me think of steamed zucchini!).
The unusual thing was the tail: fat and chunky all the way to the end, but the tip (maybe 1 inch?)was pointing up. I've tried too look at all the reptile pics I could find but none has a tail like this one!
Thank you!

How good of a look did you get at the tip? There are a couple of possibilities I can think of.

Sometimes a snake will lose the end of it's tail in an accident or attack and it may heal up with a kink in it.

Also, rattlesnakes often crawl with their tail tips pointing up, so their rattles are not dragging on the ground getting damaged or making noise to give them away. The rattles sometimes get broken off, but they will still crawl with the tail tip raised.

Another possibility, but I don't think so from your description, is that a snake that is getting ready to defecate (or just finished) will crawl with it's tail raised in the air from the vent back. That would be maybe 4-6 inches of tail on the size of snake you're talking about though.
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

Interesting, thanks for the suggestions - I'm pretty sure it wasn't the second option, due to the length of the tip.
At first I excluded it was a rattlesnake because it seemed to chunky to be one, and I thought the rattle would have been easier to distinguish.
I didn't get all that close, so even though the rattle appeared to be the same texture of the rest of the body, maybe it wasn't, and maybe it had lost it.
By looking at this picture http://i1.treknature.com/photos/7561/diamondback-rattlesnake.jpg
that is exactly how it was pointing the tip, although the body looked allot chunkier.

Perhaps it was gravid? A well fed (or gravid) rattlesnake would be one of the chunkiest snakes you're likely to run into in the U.S.

I can't think of another animal here whose tail would fit that description. You wouldn't likely mistake an alligator's tail for a snake, and the color is wrong for a cougar.

Anaconda? I doubt it.
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

Please describe the way this object moved away from the trail.
Straight line-as if dragged, or serpentine, o some other way?
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Jack Jeansonne

It moved away straight line, as it dragged.

If the object moved straight off, and was, as you say, three inches wide all the way to a one inch tip and a uniform greenish color, it was not a snake, nor any local animal I've ever heard of.
It sounds like someone or something was dragging a piece of plastic or metal off the trail.
Did you rush up and have a look immediately or did you keep your distance?
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Jack Jeansonne

It was moving in a pretty straight line, it was about 3 feet long, and about 3 inches wide.

Three inches wide??? Are you sure about that? Three inches wide would be a VERY stout snake. Then only thing that would seem to match that color pattern might be a racer, although they aren't very common in Central Texas Of course, that depends on what you mean by Central Texas since Central Texas is bigger than most other states.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Location was Austin, but outside of the city.
It was really fat, that's why I even thought it might have been the tail of something other than a snake, but I can't seem to find anything that could match it.

np
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Archie Bottoms

sounds like an otter to me