Reptile & Amphibian Forums

After reading the long thread on Stevens (below), I decided to watch him last night. He was in Costa Rica in search of a lancehead. After days of travel through the jungle, and encounters with a few other snakes along the way, he came across one.

My questions are: do you think the snake was "planted" and do you think he was a venomoid? He milked the snake almost immediately upon capture and a large amount of yellow fluid entered the vial. It certainly appeared that the snake had his venom, but then again, a lot can be done with photography.

What say ye all?

I think it would be way too much trouble to fake a milking out in the feild. I didnt see the show, although I wanted to. Had to work. Yuk.
I'd like to say more, but since I didnt see it, I'd just be talking out of my butt.

Tom

I saw the end of the show. I think the snake might have been planted but I do believe the venom was real. Several things really annoyed me about it though. He really manhandled the snake, for no good reason. Also, he gives you this big speech about how he doesn't want to get bitten, then after he milks the snake and shows us the venom, he practically sticks his hand in the snakes mouth.

I agree, I think he is to rough with all th eanimals he touches. He's a bigger boob than Brady Barr !!!!

I take that back.....He is both. Im not sure if you saw the part where he and his canoe went down a waterfall and they tried to make it look like they caught it on camera....It was such crap it was painful to watch. Shortly after that, he "found" some rearfang snake which he then practically juggled, while saying how dangerous it was to mammals. Had the snake been aggressive AT ALL it would have had about 20 opportunities to bite Austin. His "snake handling" skills are a JOKE. I have no idea how he avoided being bitten by the fer de lance.....That thing was fast as lightning with about a 4ft strike. Even if that snake was planted it was hot as hot can be. I would be VERY suprised if this joker is not killed by a snake while making one of his shows. The man has the brainpower of a small rock.

I say medium sized rock, not a small rock.

In the close ups that B.asper had nose rub. but there were so many things wrong with that show that I dont even feel like typing them all. Lachesis would most likely be considered "king" of the pitvipers" its just he wasnt herper enough to find one, so he took the next best thing and a much more common species. We currently maintain 5 aspers, including one huge female over 8' and I'd say it was damn near a miracle that he didnt get tagged. They are not a species to play around with.( Although a scratch from one wont kill you as he stated) If you want real solid info on aspers heres a link to an article that my wife wrote on them.

http://www.venomousreptiles.org/articles/133

Shawn

... (I caught the guy last night on a Letterman re-run). I could actually take or leave the guy, he didn't wow me, nor was I put off by him.

BUT, I would say there's a good chance that the snake WAS NOT planted. It's typical to find one good sized asper ever few days down there, with many smaller ones being more commonly found.

Since I didn't see the show, I'll take Shawn's word for it, if he said it had a nose rub, it was most likely a captive snake. I have a 7' female that experienced a nose rub, and now will not shed properly, which means I have to remove her eyecaps every 2-3 sheds.

If he was hunting bushmasters, he'd still be down there hiking.....they are the holy grail of snakes.