Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My son found this 4' beauty while mowing a neighbor's lawn. He pulled it out of a shrub and cornered it. It put on a big show as a bluff, but didn't actually attempt to bite me. It even calmed right down after 5 minutes of handling. Great snake!

Oh, almost forgot, it's a black rat snake.

Thanks,
Ed

looking good nice find!!
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-Stephen-

0.1 soon to be wifey (Babe)
1.0 rotwiler/chow (Boomer)
1.0 norm corn (Jake)
1.0 col redtail boa (Switch, formally known as Dixie)
0.1 ball python (Bella)
1.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boa (Torpaz & Saphira)

That's cool, in just the last couple of weeks I've helped two snakes finish getting accros the road w/out getting run over. Both Gopher snakes, one was a pretty good size adult. Funny thing is both were going home from work and my work is maybe 4 miles from home. Both are on the outskirts of San Jose, bordered by undeveloped foothills.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Good job Dave saving those snakes. I hate seeing flattened dead/dying snakes on the roads.

Sunday (the day after we found the rat snake) was wild. I starting laying sod at about 10:00 AM, in the rain. After laying a few pieces and quickly getting coated with mud, my son (the same one who found the rat snake) comes running out of the house, screaming for me. "Dad, Mom needs you to go to the clinic, there's a snake in the office." (The receptionist called my wife, who is out of town, and told her to call me.) Great. So I jump in the truck with some gloves and a large cooler in which to put the snake, looking (and probably smelling) like a barnyard pig, and start driving to the urgent care. Within a few minutes the sky opens up, and it's pouring out. I then see something ahead of me on the road, and it's a box turtle. So I skid to a stop, get the turtle off the road and put him in the back of my truck. Then I continue on to the clinic. When I got there, the staff was in a panic. I didn't really want to make a scene in from of waiting patients, so as inconspicuously as I could being covered in mud and funk, I walked in and asked the receptionist, "Where is it." I was thinking it would be outside, but she said it was in one of the back rooms. That seemed kind of odd. So I walk back to the room, and the PA and receptionist are near hysterical. I see nothing. "Where is it?", I said. They said, right there. I still see nothing. I asked again, "Where?" One of them says, "Right there, next to that piece of lint." Finally, I see it. It's a ground skink, half the girth of my pinky and not much longer than it. It blended in well with the dark floor. It was so small I had a hard time even grabbing it off the floor. Great. So I throw this miniscule skink in a 25 qt. cooler so I can show my son what the "emergency" was all about. On the way home, I see a snapping turtle crossing the road. So I skid to a stop again, and throw it in the back of the truck. So I get home, and I have two turtles and a microscopic skink in a big cooler, all in the back of my truck. What a wild 1/2 hour that was!

Here is the dangerous "snake" that was in the office...

The snapping turtle...

Box turtle...

Good thing you came tothe rescue, no telling how many patients and medical staff that sink could have taken out had you not been there to safely remove that dangerous creature.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

LOL! All that fuss over such a tiny harmless animal. Glad they called you to rescue it rather than stomp on it!
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Aubrey Ross

©
www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

I was a bit annoyed, but on the bright side, there could have been two crushed turtles on the roads if they didn't freak out over the killer skink.

>>LOL! All that fuss over such a tiny harmless animal. Glad they called you to rescue it rather than stomp on it!
>>-----
>>Aubrey Ross
>>
>>©
>>www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

Wow! Nice find!
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Aubrey Ross

©
www.SlipstreamSerpents.com