Reptile & Amphibian Forums

One time, I was just outside of Toledo, OH, looking for the large, local water snakes near a pond on a stormy day. I had my snake tongs with me. An old couple came down the trail. They were the only other ones there. "Are those snake tongs?" asked the man. I was surprised that he knew what they were, and figured that maybe he had once seen them being used on Animal Planet or something. "Yes," I responded. I talked to them awhie, to learn that their son was a herpetologist, who had once worked in Guam for awhile to help controll the brown tree snake population. I couldn't stop thinking about how odd it was that I happened to run into these people at that exact time, in that exact place. It wasn't like I was in Okeetee or anything.
Several months later, I was eating at a local cafe', in my hometown of Buffalo, NY. I heard some older people a few booths down talking about snakes. They kept on saying something about a Lake Erie water snake. After I finished my meal, I decided to join in on the conversation. It turned out that they had recently found an endangered Lake Erie water snake in their backyard. "We live in Ohio," the man explained. His wife then told me that their son was a herpetologist, who had worked in Guam for awhile, to help control the brown tree snake population. This sounded very familiar...
It wasn't until after they left, that I realized that I had stumbled across the same people, miles from where I had run into them before. It all seemed to bizarre, but it is indeed true. It is an interesting little story that I will never forget.
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DAVE

1.0 Western green toad
1.1 green treefrogs
1.0 Florida blue garter snake
1.1 Oriental fire-bellied toads
1.0 American bullfrog
0.1 Spanish ribbed newt
0.0.1 Eastern ribbon snake
1.1 red-cheeked mud turtles
0.1 Dubia day gecko
1.0 Sonoran gopher snake
0.1 rough green snakes
1.1 giant African black millipedes
1.0 Okeetee corn snake
0.1 Albino African clawed frog
1.0 Kenyan sand boa
0.0.1 Argentine flame-bellied toadlet
0.0.1 African bullfrog
1.0 yellow * Everglades rat snake intergrade
1.1 Western hognose snakes
1.2 fire salamanders
1.1 scarlet kingsnakes
0.0.1 Argentine horned frog
1.1 Southern ringneck snakes
0.0.2 Western hooknose snakes
0.0.1 Florida brown snake
0.1 Northern brown snake
COMING SOON: Western worm snakes, Midwestern worm snakes and West/ Midwest intergrades, more Brahminy blind snakes!

When my dad was little, he lived in a small, rural Ohio town. Every summer, a carnival came to town. One summer, the carnival brought with it a new attraction- "The Snake Pit." After my dad payed a quarter, he stepped in to see two snakes- a large green Anaconda, and an Afrcan rock python. The Anaconda was dead. My dad was very young, and did not know much about preserving herps at that time, but he asked the man runing the show if he could take home the anaconda to preserve it.
My dad called up his friend, who came with his bicycle. They first put the giant Anaconda in a large cardboard box, and then balanced it across the bicycle baskets. Much like an episode of "Leave It To Beaver," he first made sure that his parents were not home. Of course, back in those days, two little kids could go into a drugstore and buy as many jars of formaldehyde as they wanted, so they did just that, and put the jars inside the house.
My dad's next door neighbor, an old trapper, came to see what the boys were doing, and explained to them that they first needed to salt the skin. That's when he got his mom's good salt shakers, and covered the snake in salt. He realized that this wasn't going to work, so he decided to just preserve the head. He got an axe and tried to chop the head off a few times, but it just kept bouncing off of the grass, so they dragged the snake out front, facing the street, to chop the head off on the sidewalk. That was perhaps the only traffic jam in that small town ever. Drivers did not know that the giant Anaconda was dead.
Of course, my dad's dad then came home, used some colorful language, and ordered my dad to burry the snake immediately. My dad explained to him that he wanted to preserve the head, so his father was very nice about that, and showed him how to do it, and that was the end of that.
Several days later, the friend returned to find the rock python dad. He brought it home to his house, but with different plans. He wanted the skin. He decided that he should dry the skin, by leaving the snake out in the sun, but he did not want his parents to know about it. He stretched the snake out on the roof of his house. Eventually, the house started to smell bad. Upon realizing that the stench came from the window, his father opened it to find himself face to face with a giant, dead African rock python o his roof, rotting and covered in flies.
Ah, such wonderful anecdotes!
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DAVE

1.0 Western green toad
1.1 green treefrogs
1.0 Florida blue garter snake
1.1 Oriental fire-bellied toads
1.0 American bullfrog
0.1 Spanish ribbed newt
0.0.1 Eastern ribbon snake
1.1 red-cheeked mud turtles
0.1 Dubia day gecko
1.0 Sonoran gopher snake
0.1 rough green snakes
1.1 giant African black millipedes
1.0 Okeetee corn snake
0.1 Albino African clawed frog
1.0 Kenyan sand boa
0.0.1 Argentine flame-bellied toadlet
0.0.1 African bullfrog
1.0 yellow * Everglades rat snake intergrade
1.1 Western hognose snakes
1.2 fire salamanders
1.1 scarlet kingsnakes
0.0.1 Argentine horned frog
1.1 Southern ringneck snakes
0.0.2 Western hooknose snakes
0.0.1 Florida brown snake
0.1 Northern brown snake
COMING SOON: Western worm snakes, Midwestern worm snakes and West/ Midwest intergrades, more Brahminy blind snakes!