Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Check out this link.. Its sad. Calling a Bull/Gohper snake an Anaconda! Please, call or email this news room. Tell them they need to know their facts before putting out false information!
www.wggb.com/Global/story.asp?S=12971275
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Got Balls?
Josh Molone

I didn't see that someone already posted this link, my apolgies!
But still, we can't little things like this just go un-noticed.
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Got Balls?
Josh Molone

{Detailed News Video at URL below}
WGGB (Springfield, Massachusetts) 20 August 10 The Great Snake Debate (Jim Cline)
Springfield, Mass.: On August 12th, the Springfield police received a call that an anaconda was loose in an apartment building.
Hearing the dispatch, we ran to cover this and when we arrived at East Park, Tom Supinski, a local pest elimination expert, had removed this snake from the premises. He said it was an anaconda, a snake that could grow to 24 feet.
Our story started to make the rounds on the Internet and we have received numerous e-mails telling us that the snake is not an anaconda. It's a bull snake or a gopher snake, of the genus pituophis. It is indigenous to his country and not the Amazon basin. They also do make suitable pets, if you know what you're doing.
On Friday, we visited the Southwick's Zoo in Mendon, Mass., which has a young green anaconda. It does not resemble a bull snake, other than the fact that they are both snakes. According to Tim Cornwall, an education coordinator at the zoo, anacondas are not good pets because they get so large. They are not usually the most docile snake either. They can be aggressive.
It's a snake that can grow to 500 pounds and that can be a dangerous animal. "I would never recommend an individual owning a snake like this," Cornwall says, "They're just way too dangerous. They are too unpredictable."
The Great Snake Debate

That was actually a decent news segment giving a bit of detail on the difference between what looked to be a Bull or Sonoran Gopher and an anaconda. Thanx for posting that.

reako45

Oh, no, I thought I had gopher snakes and bull snakes but it looks like I have six anacondas, if this expert exterminator and the news people can be believed!

One of my anacondas! LMAO!!!!

Just kidding, but that is a beautiful animal you've got there.
I personally don't keep Bulls or Gophers, I keep Ball Pythons, but that is an extraordinary looking snake.
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Got Balls?
Josh Molone

Actually SHE is holding ME in her tremendously powerful deadly grip! Gotta watch out for these anacondas!
Thanks for the compliment! She is my two year old Pacific gopher, Gonzo.

The really SAD thing about this article it that it puts the same old negative spin on snakes and people owning them as pets. Because someones pet, more harmeless than the neighbors cat, got loose. Ignorance is very sad. I encourage everyone to call the news station 413 733-4040 and let them know how you feel.