Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I really do think the mods in kingsnake really should post a picture of a dekay's with the caption "this is a dekay's not a garter" on the (What Kind) forum page. I have just been utterly shocked at how many people post pictures of the dekay's thinking it's a garter snake. Does anyone else not roll your eyes every time you open a post titled "what kind of garter is this" to find another Dekay's?

Or when its a texas rat and not a copperhead.......
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Dustin Smith

I considered adding that as well. But not only is the texas rat mistaken for the copperhead but pretty much every non venomous snake out there. Banded watersnakes, gray rats, black rats, cornsnakes, eastern milksnake. I even had a guy one day bring me a smooth earth snake thinking it was a copperhead.

I've gotten texas brown snakes that have been called copperheads and garter snakes as well, why are people so oblivious? I don't care for spiders but I know which ones are harmless and which ones are not!
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Dustin Smith

That's the point I try to make at presentations I speak. With the very few dangerous animals where people live in the united states the responsible. As well as easy to just learn the venomous and poisonous plants and animals in their area. Note I said venomous not dangerous because if they would just educate themselves they'd realize they are not dangerous if they were just left alone. These poor snakes and spiders are the most misunderstood due to ignorance animals on the planet.

People have to want to learn the difference, most of the general population thinks all snakes are bad and should be dead, " the only good snake is a dead snake" that mentality is not only ignorant but every animal in the food chain plays an important part in the ecosystem. If Satan had come to Eve as a cottontail, would everyone kill them too? Snakes have been doomed from the beginning, what a shame......
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Dustin Smith

What a shame Satan wouldn't have approached eve as an ignorant human. Maybe then people would make the effort to educate themselves about the things they least understand. Nobody has any right to harbor "hate" toward something they know nothing about. Makes me question the species I am a member of. I would like to contact Wolfgang Wuster to get him to separate Homo sapiens into separate subspecies according to intelligence. And I mean intelligence due to ignorance not ability.

I've seen DeKays misidentified as:
Copperhead
Cottonmouth
Pygmy Rattlesnake
Australian Brown Snake
Any number of rat snakes

So, garter seems like a pretty good guess by comparison...
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

I definately agree. I guess it's a much better misidentification compared to the alternatives. But it is sooooooooo common it drives me crazy. AN AUSTRALIAN BROWN??? You seriously have to be kidding?

That one was sort of a different problem. A few years ago someone in Australia was bitten by a Brown Snake and a reporter doing a story for the paper's web site apparently did a google image search for "brown snake" and posted the first picture he found along with the article...
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

If you go back through the archives of this forum or read any other forums where "what kind of snake is this" comes up, Storeria is probably the most commonly seen "question" snake.

That is likely due to the fact that they are common snakes in a large part of the US where a lot of people live. They are also one of the most likely snakes to be found in a backyard.

Starting in a few months, we will see a rash of baby "obsoleta" type ratsnakes posted here and a few baby Nerodia. People ask about the common snakes they find.

I guess if you get tired of saying "Storeria dekayi - Brownsnake - harmless", you should probably not follow this forum.

Chris
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

You bring up some great points. And I really don't get tired of telling them. I just wait for someone else to tell them lol. In all seriousness though, if they'd just check several prior posts they'd likely find a picture of the snake they're trying to I.D. I've followed the garter and ribbon snake forums and it's surprising how many people actually post a picture of "the new garter snake morph" they found. Just to find out it's simply a dekay's. If someone actually knows enough about snakes to claim to found a "new morph" wouldn't ya think they could actually identify a dekay's. I'm not ranting, just was bored and wanted to start a discussion. It really don't bother me when people think the dekay's is a garter. It does however get under my skin immediately when pictures of mutilated harmless snakes are posted.

I hate seeing ANY mutilated snake posted. The opposite of a harmless snake would be a harmful one and truth be told, there are no harmful snakes. There are venomous snakes and nonvenomous snakes but neither one is "harmful". They all deserve to live and are valuable to the ecosystem. I guess the only "harmful" snake would be a burmese python in the everglades. lol
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Dustin Smith

I couldn't agree with you more. That's why I said it gets under my skin when I see a harmless snake slaughtered. I never said nor never would say a harmful snake exists. I have always argued the same side of this debate. If you browse my other forum posts you'd see I've said the same thing before. If people would leave the venomous snakes alone they are perfectly harmless. A good example is why the majority by far of bites are on arms and hands, and men not women. Men could learn a lesson from women. Leave the things alone that you are afraid of or don't understand. For some reason they find it macho to slaughter a helpless little snake. And anyone that feels a venomous snake isn't helpless should try to fight a knight on horseback coming at you wielding a lance with a hypodermic needle. BTW I also agree about the Burms in the everglades.

I think we all groan seeing a post asking about the identity of a chopped up harmless snake.

But we have to be careful not to let that feeling express itself in the form of anger towards the person asking the question. We see that a lot here - a person posts a photo of a mutilated snake and they get barraged by abuse from respondants.

If the person who posted the question was one of those "the only good snake is a dead snake" rednecks, they wouldn't post here to find out what kind it was because they don't care. "Any snake is bad, so who care's what kind of bad snake it is?"

The people who post here are people who honestly want to be able to tell dangerous snakes from harmless snakes specifically so they don't have to mutilate the harmless ones in the future. Unfortunately, some of our responses here make them view us as a rather judgemental group. That's a pity. They ask for help, we should provide help. We shouldn't discourage them with abuse.

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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Thank you for pointing that out. I really do like to think of myself as a fairly intelligent liberal person but you just made me feel like I should be sitting in the corner with a dunce cap on. I truly have never thought about this or considered this. You couldn't be more correct. They must care or they wouldn't be wanting to I.D. The animal. Which I personally disagree with the thought that its ok to kill a venomous snake but at least the person looking for help is willing to listen and giving you the oppertunity to explain the facts why not to kill them either. I actually give live presentations and displays and have had to deal with this same problem in person and still never dawned on me before. Thanks again for pointing this out because it really has enfuriated me to see those pictures. I think from now on I'll keep my opinions in check a little better.