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I'm researching people with amazing animal stories and uniquely animal-oriented lives. Anyone have a story they want to share?
please reply or send me a message!

Go to the venomous snake forums. They should have plenty of interesting stories for you, and probably bite stories.

My eastern king snake was purchased as a hatchling from a small-scale breeder at an equally small reptile expo. The breeder was selling about ten babies for $40 each and one adult female for $60. I handled all the hatchlings, and they were a little flighty but otherwise a joy to handle. I also handled the adult, which was about 5 feet long and as tame as any corn snake. Satisfied that my snake would grow up to be tame like that, I bought a baby female and left.

On the car ride home, I wanted to hold my new pet (I wasn't driving), so I opened up the deli cup. The snake immediately began vibrating its tail (a classic king snake defense) and striking at me. She struck with such force that she propeled herself out of the cup and onto the seat. Fortunately she was very small, so I just picked her up and put her back in the cup, but I had learned some valuable lessons. First, snakes are unpredictable, and small environment / circumstantial changes can change their temperament. I also learned, several bites later, that you want to start taming you snake before it reaches the 3-foot point. I also bought a snake hook, though I usually don't have to use it. She has calmed down significantly in the past year.

Aside from just snakes, we sometimes see snapping turtles crossing the road. We always pull over, but whoever is driving with me has to hold me back from carrying it across to stop drivers from trying to hit it, especially on the freeway.

Most of my snake experiences stem from seeing them in the wild. One of my favorite snakes is the eastern milk snake, which exists but is not common where I live. Twice I have listened to people go off on rants about how they used to catch adders in the woods behind their houses, and I always listened respectfully but quite confused until I learned that they were talking about the milk adder, or milk snake.

When I was a young kid, about 5 years old, my mother held a women's book study at our house. All of the mothers brought their kids and hired a few babysitters to keep us outside. I lifted a wheelbarrow in our vegetable garden and uncovered a very large garter snake. Okay, it was probably only about three feet, but to me it was monstrous. Having seen how Steve Irwin handled taipans and brown snakes, I lifted it by the tail and began carrying it around the yard.

The babysitters, meanwhile, evacuated all of the fifteen or so kids to the front yard. I tried to approach them, and they instructed me sternly to let the snake go. I did, in the garden where I found it, but as it slithered off I couldn't help but grab it one last time. I went for behind the head, so it couldn't bite me.

Well, it obviously could, and did. I have to say that that was the worst snake bit I have ever sustained in my years as a naturalist and herper. Of course it was only a garter snake, but then I', pretty good at not getting bitten by the snakes I handle. And if it's really aggressive, I usually don't handle it at all.

Anyway, the whole ordeal was very dramatic. I don't remember crying, as even at that age I was obsessed with reptiles, but I do recall my mother wrapping my finger up in a bandage and making a frantic call to the local pet store, asking for the reptile department. I knew everyone who worked in the reptile department from spending so much time there just looking at the reptiles, so they mostly just laughed and told my mom to disinfect it and give me a band-aid. I was quite proud. It was my first "real" bite, or at least what I thought was a real bite. Steve Irwin probably would have laughed and shown me a taipan, though.

So there are a few stories. I haven't kept very many snakes, and I haven't traveled very much, so you'll probably find plenty of more interesting stories from more experienced herpers on this site. I hope you like mine, though.

crocacutus