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Posted

Gorgeous snek!  My always frugal father bought a single wide in a wooded trailer park a few miles from campus. (I think he bought it for 5K for my older brother to live in, and when I went to UF, I was the next resident.  After I graduated, he sold it for 5K. )

Anyway, when I exited the trailer to bike to campus I was startled to see a 36 inch coral snake lounging in between the spokes of the wheel of my bike.    I put him in an ice chest until I returned from class. I gave him to a friend who had a python, who traded it to a serpentarium (for venom extraction) for a whole bunch of rodents for his python.

That was as big a coral snake as I’ve ever seen.  Just beautiful. 

Posted (edited)
33 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

are they the same species in florida that we get here?  

 

Professional herpetologists spend their entire careers arguing over questions like this.

I have no idea what the official answer to your question is. I would guess no.

 

edit: google tron say different species. Probably due to Mississippi river separating the two populations. 

 

USA_Coral_Snake_Range.png

Edited by High Plains Drifter
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Posted

There is apparently a bit of a dispute about whether the Texas coral is the same species, but generally the Florida coral snake or eastern coral snake has a range that stops at the Mississippi river, and everything west of there would be the Texas Coral snake.   

i’ve heard that the eastern coral snakes are slightly smaller.    Which makes that 36 inch snek all the more impressive

Posted
On 5/12/2025 at 10:50 PM, NorthLoop said:

I think a coral would be my least amount of fear while seeing a Texas venomous snek. I grew up walking past copperheads in east TX so I'm used to them. They're pretty damn docile but fuck you can never see them. Cottonmouths can suck my dick. Every time I see a bullshit fb video about how they aren't aggressive I just wanna pull those fuckers back to my childhood and teenage years. Yes maybe they were just being curious but they still would've bitten me and they like to get danger close. 

And in the 43 years I've lived in Texas, including spending countless summers on our ranch in Jack County, I have never seen a rattler in the wild. I've heard them a hundred times, but never seen one. Hell we have plenty of posts every year on our neighborhood fb page about them showing up in garages and shit. Still never seen one. 

I'm 45 and can say the same.  I've been hunting, fishing, hiking, playing golf, and pretty much living for the outdoors my entire life.  I grew up in South Texas, I've lived in a very rural area for the last 20+ years, and I've owned a ranch in the Western Hill Country for the last decade.  I've never once come upon a rattlesnake by myself.  I've had employees find them in our warehouse.  I've been hunting with buddies when they've spotted them.  And, I've dispatched a few that others have come upon.  But, I've never happened on one in the wild.  Copperhead, Coral, and Cottonmouth... yes.  All three many times.  But, never a Rattler.  

I figure that means I'll catch one in the calf while dove hunting in the very near future.

Posted
1 hour ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

snake color palette matches the clothing of the course official. Or should I say the clothing of the course official matches the snake. 

 

snake people, what the hell kind of snake is that? Indigo?

Eastern rat snake

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Posted
1 hour ago, High Plains Drifter said:

snake people, what the hell kind of snake is that? Indigo?

 

It looked more ratty to me. My quick-shot cam doesn’t quite capture real color representation off the projector very well. Typically makes it more red heavy than what’s on the screen. 

Was black with some minimal white markings.

It’s in about the last hour/half hour of the early second round ESPN broadcast that can be rewatched now. 

Posted

Been in our house in SW Austin for almost 13 years. On our property I've seen 10-12 rattlers, two corral, one big bull, one coachwhip and a bunch of rat snakes. The rattlers always scare the shit out of me.

Posted
3 hours ago, thunderlounge said:

Now tell it again with a ~2ft copperhead in the kitchen corner, scorpion on the kitchen ceiling, and 3 cats raising hell.

That was not a good morning. 

Gtfoh. My wife would have listed the house for sale before I could get home.

Posted
On 5/12/2025 at 4:09 PM, South Austin said:

I'd probably shit my pants if I saw a coral snek, though I've read that as toxic as their venom is, bites are rare because they are pretty non-aggressive unless you try to handle one.

I've barehanded one. Don't recommend it unless you know what you're doing, they are wormy fast little bastards

On 5/12/2025 at 7:55 PM, thunderlounge said:

And rear fanged, to boot.

nope, front fixed fang elapid

On 5/16/2025 at 12:28 PM, High Plains Drifter said:

 

snake color palette matches the clothing of the course official. Or should I say the clothing of the course official matches the snake. 

 

snake people, what the hell kind of snake is that? Indigo?

eastern rat

On 5/17/2025 at 1:28 PM, HiggyBaby said:

Rat snake? IMG_4980.thumb.jpeg.607cc8803e33267bb45a8f94fe7c9636.jpeg

hard to tell from the pic, not giving me a strong western rat vibe but rather a prairie king or great plains rat or even glossy snake, need to see better pic but I'd damn sure pick it up if I saw it, it's quite the specimen

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Posted
On 5/21/2025 at 6:59 PM, thunderlounge said:

Now tell it again with a ~2ft copperhead in the kitchen corner, scorpion on the kitchen ceiling, and 3 cats raising hell.

That was not a good morning. 

Seventeen years ago, the morning that my wife was to be induced with our first child, she got up to get some water around 3 AM.  I heard her walking back into the bedroom, and she calmly said "there's a snake in our kitchen".  I was still half asleep, so I didn't take her seriously.  She said, "A real, live snake is in our kitchen.  Under the floor mat in front of the sink."  Sure enough, about a 2' half-dead ribbon snake was shoved up under the crinkled floor mat, but still alive enough to be agitated.  Evidently, our cat found it outside, decided it would make a fantastic gift, brought it in through the doggy door and shoved it under the mat for us.  He was sitting proudly nearby, occasionally playing with it and excited that we were there to enjoy his gift.  Not a copperhead, but definitely not what I had on my bingo card the day we were going to have our first child.  

My wife has her flaws like they all do, but she has no issues with critters.

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Posted

Found this drama queen cutting wood at my boss’s new place in Kerrville. He did everything they’re known to do in about 30 seconds. Puff up, flatten out, and finally, play dead.
16900be4b1c805f58409767affeec5d8.jpg
124de02c52f1f5f9cf9f3a09230272a3.jpg

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Posted
2 hours ago, Homesickhorn said:

Found this drama queen cutting wood at my boss’s new place in Kerrville. He did everything they’re known to do in about 30 seconds. Puff up, flatten out, and finally, play dead.
16900be4b1c805f58409767affeec5d8.jpg
124de02c52f1f5f9cf9f3a09230272a3.jpg

Very pretty 

Posted

No pics, but at 8:30pm, we were walking 3 dogs on the Violet Crown trail and I stepped over a baby rattlesnake in the middle of the trail. I didn't notice it until I was mid-step, then about shit myself. Not a single one of the dogs noticed it. I yanked my dog forward and yelled at my girlfriend to stop. She does, then says "I think it's dead" and walks the dogs around it. 10 seconds later it starts crawling across the path. Fuck rattlesnakes.

Posted
50 minutes ago, 4th and 5 said:

Dove hunting South Texas. Two steps directly on the back of a four footer will make you feel alive and light on your feet. 

I was fishing a stock tank in Wichita County, down a few feet from the road on the levee-thing that impounded it.

Looked down at one point and there was what I think was a copperhead, s-coiled (chill, not striking), about a foot away from me.

I think I jumped about four feet vertically back up onto the road in a single bound.

Snek themselves tend not to be that frightening, but with the camouflage and their mode of locomotion, they can sneak up (or you walk up) and surprise your ass in a very startling way.

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Posted
Dove hunting South Texas. Two steps directly on the back of a four footer will make you feel alive and light on your feet. 

Same sport, same venue, crouching down next to a big dead cactus can make you feel bitten.
Important safety tip: Chippewas are only worth a shit if you’re standing up straight.
Posted
15 hours ago, PantsTent said:

I’ve learned a lot about sneks from this thread but still suck at ID. What is this guy that was waiting for me at the back door. 
 

IMG_3031.jpeg

I bit hard to tell and the colors are a little muted, but I'm going with Eastern yellow-bellied racer.

14 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

BIL found this one trying to get in the house. Someone ID?  Spoiler: I think they ended up dispatching it because they couldn’t get it out. 
 

 

IMG_7381.jpeg

Western coachwhip.

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Posted
2 hours ago, Jerry Callo said:

I bit hard to tell and the colors are a little muted, but I'm going with Eastern yellow-bellied racer.

 

It did have a yellow belly and raced away pretty quickly so this checks out.

Posted

That hognose probably ate toad or two . . . which leads me to a story.

In sixth grade, I was pulled out of my first period language arts class by the principal.  My locker was located such that it faced the small sixth grade library and the librarian had alerted the principal about suspicious goings on with my locker.  But lets back up a bit.  The seventh grade science teacher had all kinds of cool stuff in his class, including several reptiles.  One such reptile was an Eastern hognose which loved toads.  About once a week, me and my buddy would bring a few toads to the science teacher before school.  Well, on this particular day, the science teacher was no where to be found and his class was locked.  What else is a sixth grader with a bag of toads supposed to do when the bell rings to start first period but place the bag in his locker. After my reasonable explanation to the principal and the librarian, my bag of toads was confiscated and given to the science teacher once he returned to his class the next period.

This was the same science teacher that we traded a nice Texas alligator lizard for a six foot Western coachwhip.  Can you imagine the uproar today if a teacher gave a sixth grader a six foot snake?  *not a euphemism.

 

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Posted
4 hours ago, Jerry Callo said:

That hognose probably ate toad or two . . . which leads me to a story.

In sixth grade, I was pulled out of my first period language arts class by the principal.  My locker was located such that it faced the small sixth grade library and the librarian had alerted the principal about suspicious goings on with my locker.  But lets back up a bit.  The seventh grade science teacher had all kinds of cool stuff in his class, including several reptiles.  One such reptile was an Eastern hognose which loved toads.  About once a week, me and my buddy would bring a few toads to the science teacher before school.  Well, on this particular day, the science teacher was no where to be found and his class was locked.  What else is a sixth grader with a bag of toads supposed to do when the bell rings to start first period but place the bag in his locker. After my reasonable explanation to the principal and the librarian, my bag of toads was confiscated and given to the science teacher once he returned to his class the next period.

This was the same science teacher that we traded a nice Texas alligator lizard for a six foot Western coachwhip.  Can you imagine the uproar today if a teacher gave a sixth grader a six foot snake?  *not a euphemism.

 

Jerry, this an Eastern or Western? The pics I've seen online make me think Eastern.

Posted

You would think the directional names would be helpful, but its crazy in Central Texas - 

Western Ribbonsnake, Western Ratsnake, Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake, Western Coachwhip

Eastern Hog-nosed, Eastern Yellow-bellied Racer, Eastern Copperhead

Northern Cottonmouth

 

Posted
10 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

You would think the directional names would be helpful, but its crazy in Central Texas - 

Western Ribbonsnake, Western Ratsnake, Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake, Western Coachwhip

Eastern Hog-nosed, Eastern Yellow-bellied Racer, Eastern Copperhead

Northern Cottonmouth

 

It may be the damnedest thing I've ever seen.

Posted
8 minutes ago, miguelito said:

We should just remove the directional part and call it "Texas."

Texas Ribbonsnake, Texas Ratsnake, etc

Like the Texas Indigo snake, Texas Patch-nosed Snake, and Texas Coralsnake.

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