Reptile & Amphibian Forums

...is going to be on Animal Planet again tonight at 9:00 Eastern Time. Apparently he's off in search of a big Lancehead of some sort (maybe even Lachesis?) for tonight's episode....I didn't get a real good look at the snake. The previews would lead one to believe that he gets tagged by it. Should be good comedy. One of his tag lines goes something like "One scratch from a fang would probably kill you." Then they show the snake striking at him, blank out the video just as he says "Oh, no!" in a rather worried-sounding voice..and close the commercial. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.

I've figured it out. This is not a serious program. It's a comedy, a parody of the other shows. He is to Herpetologists what Barney Fife is to Deputy Sheriffs.
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hi:

Saw the trailer too. Looks like B. asper or atrox.
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Al

You can take the animal out of the jungle but you can never take the jungle out of the animal.

Yeah, I saw it was some sort of Lancehead, but I wasn't paying that much attention when they showed the snake...
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Did you catch the part where he "went over the falls?" Very poor acting, with the camera crew set up below to capture the spontaneous moment. Then he emerges all wet, in a red shirt, complaining he had no food, water or supplies, (ignoring the seven man camera crew with him), only to walk away with a new blue shirt, pressed and fresh. How does he do it?

SNAKEMASTER!!!!!! Able to stop a speeding Box Turtle with his bare hands! Able to leap over a tall Sand Boa in a single bound!
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Like in a comic strip?

Lost track...last commercial I saw him going up on a Bushmaster....Did they air that one?

I'm soooo excited?

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

Well, in last night's episode, they showed him jump into a river and wrestle a large, aggressive, and obviously very dangerous specimen of Drymarchon melanurus into submission. Then he was nearly killed by a vicious Clelia clelia...barely escaped death on that one. Then he captured a fairly large and healthy-looking B. schlegelli using only tweezers, then immediately rode his canoe over a waterfall for what looked to me like about a 60-foot drop.

The premise of the show was that he was following the Rio Claro into the interior of Costa Rica in search of large specimens of B. asper. The only problem was that he took the wrong river. I guess his superpowers don't include sense of direction and ability to reckon location. I'm also assuming that none of the crew that was with him knew where they were either. Apparently GPS doesn't work in Costa Rica.

Anyway, he did finally find a very large and beautiful Lancehead and then proceeded to stress the animal as much as possible in the time allotted. It is my guess (only a guess, mind you) that is was pretty easy to find that snake because they kept an eye on it after they released it from the bag they transported it in. Of course, everyone carries a snake milking flask with a latex membrane already installed when they go afield (you never know when an urgent need to milk a snake afield is going to arise), so SNAKEMASTER!!!! quickly and deftly grabbed his out of his bag and milked that evil serpent into submission. The only thing that puzzles me is why doesn't he have a utility belt with his tools (tongs, tweezers, milking flask) attached so he had ready access? Most Superheroes would have that worked out by now.

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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

From what I saw of the previews, tomorrow he'll be in a snakes den-- a very tight fit-- considering the tunnel had to fit the Snakemasterblaster, his camera crew, the special lighting and all the venomids he had crawling over his leg. The tunnel had to be no more than 30 feet in diameter at its largest opening. I wonder if he'll survive?

...as I watched hte episode, and he mentioned Rio Claro, there are half a dozen Rio Claro's down there, and most Costa Rica topo maps haven't been updated since the 60's....so he very well may have been on a "A" Rio Claro, but not the one he intended......just like Bill Murray in "GroundHog Day" ('I'm not THEE god, I'm A god"

GPS does in fact, work pretty well even in the deep interior of the Osa Peninsula.

If anyone read the credits at the end, it acknowledged Bill Lamar, Alejandro and Quetzal Dwyer. Quetzal most likely loaned them snakes, and they all may have accompanied the crew on the shoot. I was told by some 'little birdies" that while filming Bill actually slipped and fell in a stream, while holding a large Cribo, and it ended up biting him. I hope it wasn't while they were filming this show.

Yeah, I know that GPS works in Costa Rica. It works everywhere I've been, thus far (I haven't been to the center of the earth yet...maybe I'll try that)....I was just trying to make a (albeit convoluted )point that there is no reason they shouldn't have known where they were. That they were "lost" was just more B.S. to make the show seem more exciting. If Bill Lamar was with them, there's no way they were lost.
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

...it's highly unlikely they were with Lamar.

It is easy to know roughly your location, but yet still not know specifically which way to go, simply due to all the little valleys and dense vegetation.

For them to be that confused, though, is just moronic. I think we all should just write Animal Planet, and tell them how silly it looks, but I would gather AP is more concerned with wowing the average viewer, who really doesn't know better and was probably mesmerized by the show than we, who know otherwise.

Tonight I saw an episode of Rob Bredl's series where he was on his first trip to South Florida "finding" snakes and comparing them to Australian snakes that occupy the same niche. In one trip (bearing in mind he had never hunted snakes in Florida before) in what was apparently the summertime, he found:

a.) A Coral Snake (relatively common)

b.) A Scarlet Kingsnake (common)

c.) An Eastern Diamondback (common)

d.) A Mole Kingsnake (yeah, right...not easy to find)

e.) TWO Eastern Indigos (gimme a break...in the middle of the summer in the same trip?)

f.) A Florida Pine Snake (ok..I could believe that)

g.) A Cottonmouth (if you can't find one of those in Florida, find another hobby)

h.) Two Gopher Tortoises (OK..I can believe that, too)

i.) A Copperhead (he must have changed locations)

j.) An enormous Canebrake Rattlesnake (again, he must have changed locations)

k.) A Florida Kingsnake (I can believe that one, too)

l.) A Ringneck Snake (No problem believing that one either)

m.) A Yellow Rat Snake (believable)

n.) A Water Snake (believable)

0.) A Snapping Turtle (yeah, OK)

p.) a couple of Alligators (no problem there)

q.) A Pygmy Rattlesnake (no problem there, either)

r.) A Coachwhip (the calmest "wild" Coachwhip I've ever seen in my life)

Individually, most of these are not a problem to believe, but when you add them up it's quite a catch for one trip. Most of them were big, fat, clean, healthy specimens...no scars. And most of them were right on top of the ground where he happened to be walking through the woods...I didn't see him ripping trees or logs apart or turning things over...just strolling along picking up snakes. The man is either the best snake-hunter in the free world, or most (if not all) of those were planted captives.
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hello all.....

It's a bit perplexing to me that so much time is spent hacking away on these television programs. Do you guys really think Austin Stevens was actually lost in CR? Navigating the Osa Peninsula is kind of like finding your way out of a wet paper bag. Furthermore, do you think that he really believes that B. asper is "elusive?" Of course not! These shows are written for John Q Public, not herpers and the end product is really no reflection on Stevens, Corwin, O'Shea, etc. These guys are essentially puppets that do what the production team asks of them. The production team needs to sensationalize and over-dramatize to please Bubba sitting at home with his six pack and watching AP.

Believe it or not, Austin Stevens actually knows a thing or two about herps, but you would never know it from watching the program as he is following a script and working under very staged conditions. Why?......he gets paid fairly well to do it. Although concerning, the misinformation and exaggerations won't stop because that's what sells. If this stuff really bothers you, do what I do............don't watch it and spend time thinking of more constructive ways to educate the public on herpetology.

Ciao,
MJR

Ragging on these guys in here..something to have a little fun with.
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

np

who's show I actually usually enjoy watching, last nights show had some innaccuracies...I can't quite remember them all, but the most striking was when he was talking about kingsnakes being cannibals, and noted how a few cannibalistic snakes (he named the king cobra, king brown, and kingsnake), when his voiceover was talking about the king cobra, it had footage of an albino N. kaouthia! I didn't get the best look at it because I was just getting back in front of the tv from the kitchen, but the head scalation didn't look like O. hannah, and to my knowledge there aren't very many if any albino kings around...it could have been another species of Naja, but my quick glance said kaouthia.

Yeah, he also got the little "nursery rhyme" about "red touch yellow" backwards. He was holding a Scarlet Kingsnake and a Coral Snake and comparing the two...then he said "If I had gone by that little saying I'd be dead now."
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Oh...and when he called it the "Alligator snapping TORTOISE"...LOL. Bredl's a good guy though, i enjoy his show more than most of the other guys (Corwin is cool, as is Oshea).

Yeah, that was another error..."Snapping Tortoise"..sounds like a rabid Sulcata.

He does seem to be more knowledgeable in general than some of the others, but one thing that drives me CRAZY is walking around in these places looking for venomous snakes BAREFOOTED. What's with these Aussies? No boot or shoes, Irwin doesn't use any of the proper tools...is it a "Macho" thing?

I do like Jeff Corwin...he's one of the worst I've ever seen at catching snakes, but other than that he's pretty good. O'Shea is probably the best of that bunch, but his show isn't as popular. Why? Because he doesn't dramatize everything so much..he just pretty much sticks to the facts and presents the material. I did see him get stuck by a Stilleto once...that wasn't cool. He knew that was a tricky snake to catch by hand and he did it anyway.....
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

you really cannot compare him with anyone esle. I think he is about perfect at his job. Very few mistakes and almost no sensationalism. Unlike Austin Stevens looking for the most dangerous snake in north america..the western diamond back. Granted it is no hit I would volunteer to take...I can pick out a few others that I would use a bigger hook for. I also think it is sad that the show aimed for kids has more facts and less BS drama than the one that airs primetime evenings. Sad but fortunate maybe the next generation will grow up knowing facts and not generating a greater fear of snakes.

No error at all, as all turtles are referred to as "tortoises" in Australia.

Chris

Ahhh...yes...but that doesn't mean it's not an error.
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

even his accent is phony.

Just when I was evolving this sense of Hero worship (lol).

Actually I just got through watching an episode of SNAKE WRANGLERS on the Nat. Geo Channel where they were "proving" eyelash vipers hunt durring the day (DUH). Still great footage of a variety of the little buggers...But No Austin (sob).

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

I saw that one, they claimed that there was nothing in the literature about that. Has that been written before? Just because some keepers know it doesnt mean that it has been published, right? Not trying to be mean, just my thoughts and curious about the question.

"Austin Stevens once spent 107 days--and nights--living in a tank with 36 of Africa's most venomous and lethal snakes. On Day 96 he was bitten by a cobra. He was treated in the tank and remained there until day 107-- when he set a world record.

So now you know what kind of a guy the South African-born Stevens is-- the kind of guy who will do just about anything involving snakes and other members of the reptile family."

this is from the website http://www.thecolumnists.com/plesh/plesh37.html

some people will do anything for attention, good or bad, i think he should be charged with animal abuse, poor snakes, had to spend 107 days all crouded with other snakes, and even worse HIM!

Actually, I think he said "one scratch from a fang probably wouldnt kill you" but I could be wrong, thats just what I thought he said.