Reptile & Amphibian Forums

When field herping, where was the strangest location you've found a herp? For me, I was visiting a summer camp in NW Wisconsin, when I found a male platirhinos climbing a pastic rack set out on the nature center's patio. Another incident, while camping in the apostle islands, was a juvinile sirtalis that showed up inside the bear box (a bear proof box to store your food in). For you garter fans, the Apostle Islands in Wisconsin is the place for you!

Ok....The middle of a large housing project in south Florida. The area had been completely bulldozed for about a quarter mile in all directions and a new asphault road had just been layed. Three feet from the road there was a cardboard box that had been flattened.

Under the box was a 2.5' Red Rat and a 4' Yellow Rat...both in perfect shape. this was at about 11:00 AM.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

I found a Pygmy Rattlesnake under my cooler next to my tent once while herping in Appalachicola, Florida.

I found a Southern Copperhead on a railroad track in Mobile County Alabama while I was herping. It's the only Copperhead I've seen from Mobile County in many years of herping there.

I found a Black Pine Snake in my back yard when I lived in Mobile County (Schillinger Road/Cottage Hill Rd area). It was on a Sunday and I had been herping all day the day before and drew a blank. Then I walked out in my back yard and caught a Black Pine.

I found a Gray Rat Snake under my ATV in South Georgia yesterday. I had parked it there about an hour before while I was out turning over logs and pieces of tin and plywood. Walked back up to my ATV and there he was, just laying there. I actually had a pretty good weekend this time. Between road cruising and turning stuff over, I found:

(Alive)
2 Canebrake Rattlesnakes (one of which I collected)
1 male Eastern Kingsnake
1 male Gray Ratsnake
1 Ribbon Snake
1 Tantilla
Several water snakes
1 Juvenile Cottonmouth
2 Alligators
1 Juvenile Common Snapping Turtle
2 Box Turtles

(DOR)
1 Canebrake Rattlesnake
1 Eastern Kingsnake
1 Gray Ratsnake
1 Box Turtle

My favorite happened at a city park on the far west side of Houston. We were walking past the women's restroom when a group of ladies and girls came running out screaming. I went in and discovered that the source of the commotion was an adult garter snake. He didn't bite me when I removed him, but needless to say I stank for the rest of the day!

My favorite happened at a city park on the far west side of Houston. We were walking past the women's restroom when a group of ladies and girls came running out screaming. I went in and discovered that the source of the commotion was an adult garter snake. He didn't bite me when I removed him, but needless to say I stank for the rest of the day!

My favorite happened at a city park on the far west side of Houston. We were walking past the women's restroom when a group of ladies and girls came running out screaming. I went in and discovered that the source of the commotion was an adult garter snake. He didn't bite me when I removed him, but needless to say I stank for the rest of the day!

My favorite was out herp hunting one day in South Florida, and I laid my bag down to run thru the woods to look for any movement. I came back to the van to get my bag, and sitting right next to it was a 4' yellow rat checking out the bag.
I picked him up and he curled around my arm, and just sat there, so I decided to leave him there, when I turned around from where I just ran thru, there were two more crawling away...
I released them all that day, but checked them out and pulled off a few ticks...
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Coastal Carpet Python 0.1 (Lillith)
Albino Burm 0.1 (Kimba)
Columbian RedTail 0.1 (Squishy)
Kenyan Sand Boa 1.0 (Shai'hulud)
Common Snapping Turtle 0.1 (Sherman) (RIP Abrahms)
RES 1.0 (speedy)

My story is this.......

It was 1:15 am and I had been jamming at my rehearsal room that night on the drums. The building where I practice is a very large building where a ton of local bands rent out rooms to practice. I locked my jam room door and walked down the hall past the Asteroids arcade game and the pay phone. All of a sudden I see something move on the floor in a flash and the first thing I did was fall to the floor and start grabbing. That was smart! LOL! I then saw what was a baby TX rat, must have been weeks old at the most. I grabbed him, he bit and musked, as I yelled, " What the heck are YOU doing in here?"

There are freeways near the building and no forests. I do know of a creek area though so maybe he was from that area. How he got in that building and lasted without getting killed by one of the tenants in the 100 or so rooms is beyond me.

I then took him home, kept him for the week, and he ate some pinks, letting him go in a nature center nearby.

Billy

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Genesis 1:1

On the first day of school last august, as I was greeting parents and children, I happened to glance over to the art easel in my classroom and thought, 'What is that glob of goo on the top of it?'. The "goo" turned out to be a gray tree frog, warming himself in the morning sun. This would not be so odd except that these frogs are not native to our area, and how it got into the school remains a mystery. So, the kids had their first herping experience, and "Froggle" is still happily living in the vivarium we created for him.

a western ribbon snake crossing from Memorial City Mall (a large Houston mall) that was gravid and gave birth the night after I caught it and a 5 ft Texas Rat that was crossing Memorial Drive (busy Houston street) from a Randalls Flagship grocery store. Never expected to see either of them.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: thekingofproduct
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

"A yellow ribbon instead of a swastika. Nothin' proper about ya propaganda. Fools follow rules when the set commands ya. Said it was blue when ya blood was red. That's how ya got a bullet blasted through ya head"- Rage Against the Machine

OK...one more...

I was at my mother's house cleaning out one of her bedrooms (in Prep for her moving.

I opened a large steel cabinet and was immediatly struck at by a seven foot Yellow Ratsnake.

There was a small hole rusted through the back of the cabinet, but how did the snake get into a concrete block house?

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Not while herping, but one of the most "unusual" locations I was called to remove a snake (animal control)was in one of the busiest traffic areas of the city. A large chain restaurant right off I-5 in San Clemente.

Part of what makes this one unusual also that it is the largest Western Diamondback I encountered in my time there. The snake was found sleeping lengthwise in very tight quarters between an old 8 foot grill and the wall by an employee. It was right around 6 foot and apparantly well fed. Besides my very first rattlesnake call that was the one time I was truly intimidated. It had broken rattles, but the 8-9 it did have were pretty large and very noisy and echoed in that little room!