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Old March 25th, 2014 #201
N.B. Forrest
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Schmuck Schnake.
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Old March 25th, 2014 #202
Alex Linder
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Originally Posted by N.B. Forrest View Post
Schmuck Schnake.
I had to read that story three times and I still wasn't sure it wasn't a spoof.
 
Old March 27th, 2014 #203
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Originally Posted by Karl Radl View Post
That's what I was thinking actually...

How long before a homo gets admitted to the ER with one rammed up their arse: do you think?
LOL! Reminds me...

While working security at a hospital in Connecticut in the '90s, Steve, a buddy of mine, informs me that a man walked into the ER late one night with a "minor problem." Seems as though while fucking himself in the ass with a vibrator, he got overly excited and went a bit too far: he rammed the toy so far up his shit-chute that it slipped completely in; and he couldn't, for the life of himself, get the damn thing out -- and so off to the ER he goes. But how did my buddy, a lowly security guard at a hospital, find out about an episode which one would imagine would be hush hush, be kept confidential, you ask?

Another security guard somehow got hold of the x-rays, and he, ROFL and pissing his pants, showed them around to just about every hospital employee he ran across. Administration got whiff of this breach of policy and canned him; that's how Steve found out about it.

Can you imagine the well-deserved humiliation this perv must've experienced? Just picture:

Perv: "Er, 'scuse me, but bzzzz I have a small bzzzz problem, and um, and I was wondering bzzzz if you could help me..."

ER nurse: "Sir, would you at least shut your cell phone off if you're not going to answer it. Then we'll talk about your ailment."

Shit, I'd have blown my fucking brains out before I walked into an ER and asked for help.
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Old April 10th, 2014 #204
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Deadly African Snake on the Loose, Has SC Community on Lockdown

By UJin Lee
Apr 7, 2014

A highly venomous snake, native to Africa, has been slithering around a South Carolina community, putting residents on edge.

“We walk our dogs every night and I have a flashlight with me everywhere I go, every step I take — it’s scary,” said Aaron Long, resident of the Harbour Pointe apartment complex in Mount Pleasant.

When a pest control company came last week to do a regular checkup on the bait boxes at the complex, the exterminator found snake skins nearby, took a picture, and reported it to the management office.

“The skin was still moist, indicating it was freshly shed,” Jennifer Bailey, an employee at the Harbor Pointe Apartments, told ABC News today.

To identify the snake, the office contacted a snake expert hours later who came in and said that the skin came from a Gaboon viper, an exotic snake not indigenous to the U.S. Another local herpetologist confirmed the identity through a photograph the pest control took, Bailey said.

WCIV snake jtm 140407 16x9 608 Deadly African Snake on the Loose, Has SC Community on Lockdown


The skin of a Gaboon viper, found at Harbour Pointe Apartments in Mount Pleasant, S.C., April 3, 2014.

The Gaboon viper is a species that can grow up to six feet long, experts said. They’re known to have the largest fangs, herpetologist Terry Phillip told ABC News.

While they’re one of the most beautiful snakes in the world, they are highly venomous, he said. Even though the Gaboon viper usually feeds on rodents, when approached, it is defensive by nature like all snakes, he said.

“They have an incredibly loud, defensive hiss — it sounds like someone is letting a tire pressure out of a tire,” Phillip said.

Bites from the viper are extremely serious, he added. The venom could cause life-threatening symptoms; it destroys blood cells, veins and tissues, Phillip said.

A bite from the Gaboon viper can be particularly dangerous because local hospital do not carry the anti-venom, he said.

To make the antidote, venom is milked from a snake and injected into a horse in small doses. Over a period of several months, the horse develops antibodies and resistance against the venom, Phillip said. Afterwards, blood is drawn from the horse and filtered for antibodies, he said. The anti-venom for this specific snake is made in Africa, which makes it hard to obtain.

The best course of action is to leave the snake alone, Phillip said. If you come across any snake, take a few steps back, and call animal control, rather than trying to capture it or tease it. He added that the Gaboon viper will not try to harm humans unless it feels threatened.


A Gaboon viper.

While state laws regarding snake possession differ in every city and state, it is illegal to keep or have any poisonous reptile or any other dangerous or carnivorous wild animal in Mount Pleasant, said Inspector Chip Googe of the Mount Pleasant Police Department.

A fine for possession of such an animal can be as high as $1,092, Googe said.

Warning notices were sent out last Thursday to residents. The flier states that the snake is extremely dangerous and that it could have been a pet that escaped or come on shore from ships at the nearby port. It cautions residents to avoid bushes and be aware of the surroundings when walking outside, according to a Harbour Pointe employee.

“There hasn’t been any kids outside playing since we got the notice,” Long said. “I know there are snakes in our area but not like this one.”

While local herpetologists and police have teamed up with the Edison Island Serpetarium to search for the Gaboon viper around the perimeters, it has not yet been found.

“We have two ponds nearby and it’s moist where we live, so we think the snake will stay in the area because it originally comes from the rainforest,” Bailey told ABC News.

However, employees at the apartment complex said they are expecting another snake expert to come later this week to help with the search. Meanwhile, officers will continue to be on the lookout for the deadly snake, police said.

“We’re all working together to get ahold of it and find it,” Googe said. Yeah, you better hope you find it before you get ahold of it. "Hey, bob, i found it! I've got its teeth trapped with my leg!"

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headline...y-on-lockdown/

John • 2 days ago
So I live .5 miles from the "snake sighting" and word on the street is that this was an April Fools joke. Yes there is a Gaboon Viper in the area but it is safe in its cage. April Fools Mount Pleasant
1 • Reply•Share ›

mistamista J. Mark Lane • 3 days ago
Yep. We never had them growing up, and once you start getting some elevation you're a lot less likely to see one, but turn over a rock near a small pond or a stream and you'll find one. My daughter picked one up, but it apparently didn't feel threatened and never even bit her. I thought it was a King snake, but we put it in a milk jug and took it to animal control. Confirmed: Coral Snake. As an aside, they told m that there are literally only THREE Coral Snake bits per year in the entire US...and that's good because I saw one of them bit a squirrel and he just hung on and ground his teeth into the thing until it fell over dead. No puffing, no flopping around, not even a squeak after the venom hit it. Just a tiny *THUD*.

[this shit above is what makes the internet so great]

[i love how these morons think the snake came over on a ship. these snakes hang out on the forest floor in africa, they're not tricking around the dock, picking up sailors, and then decide just to hop on some boat for the fun. this is either a joke or an escaped pet. now, how someone gets ahold of a gaboon viper, i have no idea, can't imagine it's easy, but i dont see this stowing away on a boat]

[abc has banned me from commenting so i cant rise in defense of the noble viper against the ignoble southron bibltard]

If you're ever in Wilmington, they have an absolutely awesome snake museum there.
• Reply•Share ›

Last edited by Alex Linder; April 10th, 2014 at 06:17 PM.
 
Old April 10th, 2014 #205
N.B. Forrest
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They should be released one at a time in nig 'hoods, or several at a time if all of the same sex. And yes, I know I'm not accounting for parthenogenesis. G-Get off my back....
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Old April 10th, 2014 #206
Alex Linder
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Originally Posted by N.B. Forrest View Post
They should be released one at a time in nig 'hoods, or several at a time if all of the same sex. And yes, I know I'm not accounting for parthenogenesis. G-Get off my back....
I don't think one of these could survive even an S.C. winter; I do wonder if they could survive in the Everglades. That would be more 50-50. I'm pretty sure these vipers are equatorial snakes, they need real heat.
 
Old April 10th, 2014 #207
N.B. Forrest
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Well, their deadly 'hood-amenable equivalent, then.
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Old April 23rd, 2014 #208
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Your Next Nightmare: Venomous Snake Bites People in Their Sleep
By Agata Blaszczak-Boxe, Staff Writer | April 22, 2014


A photo of a mulga snake

Unlike most venomous snakes, which tend to bite people who are either handling them or who surprise them, the large Australian mulga snake has also been found to attack people who are asleep.

In a new study that examined 27 cases of people bitten by the mulga snake, researchers found that seven of the victims were asleep when they were bitten, between midnight and 5 a.m.

Such bites were not common — most of the people in the study who were bitten had intentionally made contact with a snake. For instance, one victim was bitten while playing with a snake in the garden, and another was bitten while feeding a pet snake.

But 10 people who were bitten had encountered a mulga snake unintentionally, and the fact that seven of these victims were bitten while sleeping "is noteworthy since it represents 70 percent of identified cases involving bites without intentional contact, and suggests that bites sustained during sleep may be more common than previously reported," the researchers wrote in their report. [7 Shocking Snake Stories]

The mulga snake is the largest terrestrial venomous snake in Australia. The snake's bites can be fatal; however, the most recent case of a fatal mulga snakebite was reported more than 40 years ago, the researchers wrote.

The majority of the bites in the study occurred between December and March, when the weather in Australia is warmer, the researchers found. Eighty percent of the victims were male.

Snakes don't always inject their venom when they bite, but in the study, 21 patients had symptoms of envenomation, which means they were injected with venom. Bite victims in the study showed bleeding, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea.

"The thing that was surprising about this study was there was a higher-than-expected rate of envenomation," said Dr. Sean Bush, a professor of emergency medicine and a snake venom specialist at East Carolina University, who was not involved in the study. The high envenomation rate may stem from the large size of both the animal and its fangs, Bush said.

The high prevalence of bites inflicted while the people were asleep was also surprising, Bush said, because most snakebites occur when snakes feel threatened and try to defend themselves.

The study authors said it isn't clear why the snakes bit people who were asleep. They speculated that, in one of the cases, "the snake may have been attracted to the victim's body heat," or, in another case, the snake was just initially looking for rodents that might have been attracted by a trash can close to a victim's home.

The study findings were published online on April 13 in the journal Toxicon.

http://www.livescience.com/45012-mul...eep-bites.html
 
Old April 23rd, 2014 #209
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Lake Wylie woman recovering after Copperhead snake bite

Apr 22, 2014
By Ashton Pellom

LAKE WYLIE, SC (WBTV) - Lake Wylie resident Leslie Norris is recovering after being bitten by a copperhead snake.

"It was probably the worst pain I've ever felt in my life," said Norris.

Norris described the moment she was bitten by the copperhead while at a marina on Lake Wylie.

She says she was walking her daughter from their boat dock to the car when the venomous snake struck.

You can still see the fang marks on her foot.

"It was immediate pain. It was like someone poured gasoline on it and set it on fire," she said.

Norris immediately went to the hospital where she received anti-venom, but she admits she feared for the worst.

"There was a time where I thought, wow this could be it," said Norris.

Norris did the right thing by immediately seeking medical attention, but there are a couple of myths that was put to bed by snake expert and herpetologist Chad Griffin.

"Don't cut it open or suck the venom out because now what you've done is taken the venom out of the body part and into your head," said Griffin.

Griffin went on to explain ways to tell venomous snakes apart from others, one of the signs being an hour glass pattern on the snake.

"There's a couple of identifying marks. One being the pattern, always watch the pattern and not the color. For the vipers, they have two dots sitting on the top of their heads," said Griffin.

As for Norris, she hopes others can learn from her experience just in case they ever come across a venomous snake.

"I just think it's real important our community becomes aware of these snakes. They're here," she said.

Norris is expected to make a full recovery.

http://www.wbtv.com/story/25312554/l...ead-snake-bite
 
Old April 26th, 2014 #210
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Linder View Post
Your Next Nightmare: Venomous Snake Bites People in Their Sleep
By Agata Blaszczak-Boxe, Staff Writer | April 22, 2014


A photo of a mulga snake

Unlike most venomous snakes, which tend to bite people who are either handling them or who surprise them, the large Australian mulga snake has also been found to attack people who are asleep.

In a new study that examined 27 cases of people bitten by the mulga snake, researchers found that seven of the victims were asleep when they were bitten, between midnight and 5 a.m.

Such bites were not common — most of the people in the study who were bitten had intentionally made contact with a snake. For instance, one victim was bitten while playing with a snake in the garden, and another was bitten while feeding a pet snake.

But 10 people who were bitten had encountered a mulga snake unintentionally, and the fact that seven of these victims were bitten while sleeping "is noteworthy since it represents 70 percent of identified cases involving bites without intentional contact, and suggests that bites sustained during sleep may be more common than previously reported," the researchers wrote in their report. [7 Shocking Snake Stories]

The mulga snake is the largest terrestrial venomous snake in Australia. The snake's bites can be fatal; however, the most recent case of a fatal mulga snakebite was reported more than 40 years ago, the researchers wrote.

The majority of the bites in the study occurred between December and March, when the weather in Australia is warmer, the researchers found. Eighty percent of the victims were male.

Snakes don't always inject their venom when they bite, but in the study, 21 patients had symptoms of envenomation, which means they were injected with venom. Bite victims in the study showed bleeding, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea.

"The thing that was surprising about this study was there was a higher-than-expected rate of envenomation," said Dr. Sean Bush, a professor of emergency medicine and a snake venom specialist at East Carolina University, who was not involved in the study. The high envenomation rate may stem from the large size of both the animal and its fangs, Bush said.

The high prevalence of bites inflicted while the people were asleep was also surprising, Bush said, because most snakebites occur when snakes feel threatened and try to defend themselves.

The study authors said it isn't clear why the snakes bit people who were asleep. They speculated that, in one of the cases, "the snake may have been attracted to the victim's body heat," or, in another case, the snake was just initially looking for rodents that might have been attracted by a trash can close to a victim's home.

The study findings were published online on April 13 in the journal Toxicon.

http://www.livescience.com/45012-mul...eep-bites.html
What the...?

The writer is overlooking what is to me one very good reason as to why these snakes are biting humans while they're sleeping: they just may be accidentally rolling on top of the slithering fuckers and scaring them. He/she says these snakes may be attracted to the body heat given off by humans. Okay, if that's the case it seems likely that folks are going to make some sort of contact with the reptiles; and if the animal feels threatened suddenly it is going to bite, right? The answer to this discombobulated domescratcher's dilemma is so damn obvious that I'm beginning to wonder if I'm the one who's missing something here.
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Old May 16th, 2014 #211
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Yikes! Woman finds 12-foot snake slithering into bathtub

Dylan Stableford, Yahoo News

May 14, 2014

A 50-year-old Texas woman who says she is "already afraid of everything" got a huge scare recently when she found a 12-foot python in her bathroom.

Veronica Rodriguez of College Station, Texas, told the Eagle newspaper on Tuesday that she was home alone earlier this month when she heard noises coming from the bathroom.

Initially, Rodriguez thought one of her three pet guinea pigs was making the noises. She opened the bathroom door, flipped on the light and saw the African python slithering into her bathtub.

"As soon as I turned on the light, that's when I saw it," Rodriguez said. "It was crawling into my tub."

Rodriguez called her daughter, who called 911.

"When the officer showed up, he came with a brown paper sack," Rodriguez said. "I told him, 'You're going to need a bigger sack than that.'"

Texas Woman Has a Surprise Visitor in BathroomPlay VideoTexas Woman Has a Surprise Visitor in Bathroom
The officer, Tony Gonzales, then called for backup to help remove the unwanted houseguest.

"No one believed me that the snake was that big," Gonzales told the newspaper. "I didn't know what I was going to do with a snake that large."

It took two police officers and an animal control officer to corral the python into a city trash container.

"It was pretty aggressive," Gonzales said. "It definitely didn't want to go into the trash can."

The snake was then transported by animal control to a reptile rescue facility, where it was later reunited with its owner.

Rodriguez believes the snake got in through a back door that she had left open earlier in the day while bathing her guinea pigs. wtf?

The guinea pigs, thankfully, were unharmed.

https://news.yahoo.com/python-bathro...132725962.html
 
Old May 16th, 2014 #212
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Snake, transformer to blame for Roanoke Co. power outages

May 16, 2014

Don’t blame the squirrel this time.

Appalachian Power spokeswoman Teresa Hamilton Hall said it was a five-foot-long black snake that caused roughly 3,900 customers in Roanoke County to lose power this afternoon, not the oft-blamed squirrel that frequently is the source of power disruptions.

Hall said the snake - which reportedly survived - slithered into a substation and tripped a transformer earlier this afternoon.

Hall said electricity was restored around 2:30 p.m.

There was no immediate word on the snake’s condition, Hall said.

The roughly 600 or so customers who remain without power in west Roanoke County because of a separate transformer failure on Thursday should have service restored by 3 p.m., Hall said.

About 2,300 customers were without power late Thursday as a result of the failure, but crews were able to lower that number by transferring about 1,700 customers to other grids, Hall said.

The utility is working to bring in a mobile transformer to install at a nearby distribution station, Hall said. After that, a new, permanent transformer can be installed.

Hall said crews aren’t yet sure if the transformer’s failure was weather-related.
Other areas didn’t appear to be significantly affected by power outages after Thursday’s heavy rains and wind gusts. In Salem, where the city runs its own electric service - spokesman Mike Stevens said there were no reported outages.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/local/sn...7a43b2370.html
 
Old May 16th, 2014 #213
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What's that big snake in the bushes at Onondaga Lake? Ask the Outdoors Guy



Liverpool, N.Y. -- Linda Church, of Marietta, spotted this nearly four-foot long snake recently in the bushes on the shore of Onondaga Lake.

She likes and respects nature and wildlife, she said. She wanted to know what kind of snake it was.

"Given all the emotions so many people have around the topic of snakes (self included), I would not want to scare people so they don't want to let their kids near the lake, of have people prepared to kill them if they see them," she said.

I sent the photo to the state Department of Environmental Conservation's Cortland office. Their opinion?

"It's a (northern) water snake," I was told by the DEC staff. It's one of the most common snakes found along waterways. It's non-venomous.

I did a little research and found these snakes, which can grow up to more than 4 ½ feet long, are often mistaken for other poisonous snakes, such as water moccasins.

Water snakes are dark-colored brown, tan or gray, with a series of square blotches alternating with each other that may merge to form bands. When the adult snakes are dry they may appear to be dark brown or black in color, according to a University of Michigan website.

They're carnivores and scavengers. Water snakes eat amphibians (frogs and tadpoles), fish (dead or alive), crayfish, large insects, other snakes, turtles, birds and small mammals, such as white- footed mice.

Church said she spotted it near the Butterfly Garden of Hope Gazebo.

"I noticed a family with two young boys fishing at the lake edge. I walked around the gazebo," she said. "When I returned to my car, the parents had backed away from the lake, the father had put the boys behind him and all were very focused on a bush.

"I finally realized what they were looking at. They decided they had had enough fishing and left shortly after."

Church said she got close to the snake with her iPod and snapped the picture. "I would guess it was between 3 to 4 feet long, but I decided not to try to get it to stretch out," she said.

That was probably a good thing. Although they're not venomous, water snakes will not hesitate to bite and should always be treated with respect.

Have a question about wildlife, fish, the outdoors in general? Ask me, the Outdoors Guy. Send your questions to [email protected]. If I don't have the answer, I'll find someone who does.

http://www.syracuse.com/outdoors/ind...doors_guy.html

This past Sunday, I met a black water snake that dropped from a tree branch I was clipping at water's edge this weekend. I had tall waders on. I first saw the snake when it was near and above my face. It was dropping vertically toward the opening at the top of my waders.

I screamed like a girl and, startled, fell into the water. My concern as I dropped into the water was that I was falling onto one of his friends -- or that he was going to swim over and finish the job. He had landed very nearby. I knew they were non-venomous and I would just bleed out -- but that was small comfort.

Jesus

goodgodalmighty 3 days ago
So what's it doing in a tree if it's a water snake? and why the heck doesn't Cuomo and his bud"s pass a law TONIGHT that says "all water snakes must stay in the water or face a stiff fine and a $93.00 dollar sur- charge.


jesus ii. some of these people really are "too gay to function"
 
Old May 16th, 2014 #214
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Flower Mound & Lewisville Warn of Snake Season

By Brian Scott | Friday, May 16, 2014

Animal Services say many communities in the area have begun taking calls about snake sightings.

Manager of Lewisville Animal Services, Ethel Strother said it’s important this time of year to be cautious of the animals.

She said the animals are out looking for warmth right now and can be commonly found near water, under mulch or wood piles and in tall grass and bushes.

That includes the venomous copperhead and water moccasin; two of the four venomous snakes Strother said can be found in North Texas.

While Strother said timid and non-venomous breeds are more likely to be found in the area, the copperheads can be very aggressive when people come upon them.

According to experts, venomous snakes will stand out by their triangular heads and small slitted eyes.

However, Animal Services recommends that if you are ever unsure if a snake is venomous, it is best to just treat it like it is and leave the animal alone.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Flo...259461231.html
 
Old May 16th, 2014 #215
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6-foot blue-green snake spotted in Chesapeake

By Veronica Gonzalez
The Virginian-Pilot
© May 14, 2014

A blue-green snake has been spotted in the Indian River area near the Elizabeth River, and Animal Control Officers are searching for the slithery serpent.

Animal Control has been called to the area twice -- first on Monday and then again on Tuesday -- after reports of the 6-foot-long snake surfaced, police said today.

Officers searched the 1600 block of Walnut Ave. on Monday but found nothing. They determined it's not a pet and that it's not posing a threat to residents, police said in a news release.

About 5 p.m. Tuesday, officers went back to the area after another reported sighting -- but still no snake.

Animal Control Officers will continue in their quest to capture the snake this week.

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/05/6foo...ted-chesapeake

First it was blue-green, then spotted.
 
Old May 16th, 2014 #216
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Centipede Bursts Out from Young Snake's Stomach

By Parismita Goswami
May 15, 2014

A recent field study has provided clinical evidence of a young snake and centipede that ate each other to death, when the juvenile viper tried to swallow its meal alive, and the prey split opened through the former's stomach in order to escape.

The snake (Vipera ammodytes) was found dead with the head of the centipede protruding out from the lower abdomen of the snake, in the Snake Island, located in Macedonia's Lake Prespa, South-east Europe. Even though the snake managed to swallow its prey alive, this proved to be fatal to the nose-horned viper.

The unfortunate nose-horned viper was an infant, female snake and was about 2 inches longer and weight lesser than the centipede.

Nose-horned vipers usually feed on small mammals, lizards, other snakes, amphibians and birds and eat centipede too. But it appeared to the researchers that this particular snake miscalculated the strength of its prey.

The centipede (Scolopendra cingulata) was a Megarian banded that ate the snake's entire internal organ leaving only the skin behind. Researchers noted that killing a Megarian banded centipede is extremely tough and it is most likely that the snake consumed it alive.

"In this case we assume the young snake gravely underestimated the size and strength of the centipede, which itself is known as a ferocious predator. We cannot dismiss the possibility that the snake had swallowed the centipede alive, and that, paradoxically, the prey has eaten its way through the snake, almost reaching its freedom." explained the researchers. The prey constituted 84 percent of the snake's trunk length, 112 percent of its body width and 114 percent of its body weight, said the researchers in the journal Ecologica Montenegrina.

The finding was made by Ljiljana Tomovic, a herpetologist and was reportedly published in March in the journal Ecologica Montenegrina.

http://www.ibtimes.co.in/centipede-b...stomach-600339
 
Old May 16th, 2014 #217
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Python on the prom! Storm ‘washes snake down hillside’ into Quarry Bay park

The snake was removed from the park, but not before biting the catcher that had come to subdue it

13 May, 2014

A huge Burmese python caused a commotion yesterday afternoon at the Quarry Bay Promenade, attracting onlookers and biting the snake catcher that had come to subdue it.

The snake, which appeared to be several metres long, was perched on a ledge along the seaside walkway in the Promenade's pet garden and first seen around noon.

North Point police and fire department officials were notified and cordoned the area off “like a crime scene,” said Angie Scott, an animal rights activist who had been walking her dogs nearby.

“They were telling everyone to stay back and keep away because there was a giant snake there,” Scott said. “[The python] was on the other side of the high railing [surrounding the park], and if you looked over the railing and on the ledge the snake was sitting there sunning itself... How could it have ended up in Quarry Bay?”


Blood was noticeable on the snake catcher's left leg after the python bit him.

A local snake catcher shortly arrived and was secured by a fire department harness as he leaned across the walkway ledge and attempted to place the python in a canvas bag.

According to Scott, the snake catcher temporarily lost control of the python, which coiled around his head and lower body and bit the man’s calf.

“There was blood all over the back of his left leg,” Scott said. “The bag wasn’t big enough to hold the snake… He had to call for the firemen to get him a bigger bag, and then he brought the snake onto land and was finally able to [secure] it there.”

A spokesperson for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department told the Post that the captured python was taken to a police station for holding and then transferred to Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, a New Territories wildlife sanctuary.

Kadoorie Farm workers confirmed the arrival of the python and said the snake would undergo a full health check.

North Point police were unavailable for immediate comment.

Burmese pythons, among the largest snakes in the world, are not venomous but lock onto their prey when they bite.

Dave Willot, an experienced Hong Kong snake handler, told the Post that sustaining bites when dealing with Burmese pythons was fairly common.

“Burmese pythons are aggressive; you need to keep them outstretched and can’t let them wrap themselves around you,” Willot said. “In some situations that may be difficult to do, and bites are sometimes [unavoidable].”

Willot added that in the wake of Hong Kong’s recent heavy rainfall, the snake had likely been swept away by mountain floods, finally ending up in Quarry Bay.
The snake was transferred to a wildlife sanctuary in the New Territories.

“Certainly nobody took it as a pet,” Willot said. “Pythons are aggressive snakes… It’s likely been washed down from the hillsides.”

Burmese python sightings are relatively rare in Hong Kong, but attacks on dogs are not unprecedented. Earlier this month a woman in Sai Kung West Country Park stabbed a five-metre python that attacked her two-year-old mongrel. In 2007, another woman rescued her dog from a 4.5 metre python.

Burmese pythons will generally not attack unless provoked. The snakes, regarded as Hong Kong’s biggest natural predators, can grow up to six metres long and are a protected species in the territory.

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/a...uarry-bay-park
 
Old May 20th, 2014 #218
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'Lost' snake species found on Mexican island

Associated Press By MARK STEVENSON


In this undated image released by Mexico's Ecology Institute (INECOL) on Tuesday May 20, 2014, a Clarion nightsnake slithers on the ground in the Revillagigedo Islands, over 400 miles off Mexico's Pacific coast. The first and only spotting of the species was made by American naturalist William Beebe in a visit to Clarion island in 1936. But according to a study published in the PLOS ONE scientific journal, the Clarion nightsnake was found again during an expedition in May 2013 on one of the Revillagigedo Islands.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A species of snake that had been "lost" for almost 80 years has been re-discovered on a remote Mexican island.

According to a study published in the PLOS ONE scientific journal, the Clarion nightsnake was found again on one of the Revillagigedo Islands, more than 400 miles (650 kilometers) off Mexico's Pacific coast.

The original, and until recently the only, spotting of the species was made by American naturalist William Beebe in a 1936 visit to Clarion, one of the four Revillagigedo Islands. He returned with one snake preserved in a glass jar.

Subsequent visits failed to find more nightsnakes, and no further sightings were reported over the years from the island, which is inhabited only by a small detachment of Mexican marines. The existing dead sample was assumed to be a labelling error and the snake was largely struck from taxonomic registries.

But Daniel Mulcahy, a researcher for the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, suspected it might still exist. He and Juan Martinez Gomez of Mexico's Ecology Institute set out to find it.

Martinez Gomez, an expert on the Revillagigedo Islands, noted the islands change a lot from season to season, so they timed the expedition last May to replicate Beebe's steps as they looked for the snake, which blends in with the island's rock formations and is largely active at night. And they used Beebe's original field notes as a guide.

"Basically, following those directions, we essentially put ourselves in his place," Martinez Gomez said.

One of his graduate students, Juan Alberto Cervantes, was the first to spot one of the snakes for the first time since 1936.

The researchers performed DNA analysis to establish the long, dark spotted snake as its own species and see where it had come from. The tests showed it is most closely related to snakes from Mexico's Sonora-Sinaloa coast more than 500 miles (800 kilometers) away. Martinez Gomez said the snake's ancestors may have made the trip from the mainland on a tree trunk felled by a storm and washed out to sea.

The National Museum of Natural History said Mulcahy "uncovered the controversy surrounding the inclusion of this snake in the scientific record, and found that it appears to be the only species ever to be discarded due to a presumed locality error."

Patricia Escalante, a biologist who curates bird collections at Mexico's National Autonomous University and who was not involved in the snake project, said the re-discovery of the Clarion nightsnake was "very interesting" and significant because of the fragility of island ecosystems.

One inhabitant of the Revillagigedo Islands, the Socorro dove, went extinct in its natural habitat sometime in the 1970s. But live specimens had been taken off the islands in the 1920s, and their descendants were recently re-introduced to the islands.

http://news.yahoo.com/lost-snake-spe...190523717.html
 
Old May 21st, 2014 #219
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Face-to-face with his greatest fear: Moment host of River Monsters encountered 200 lbs, 20-foot long Amazon anaconda that had already crushed a man to death


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  • River Monsters host Jeremy Wade came up close and personal to a 200-pound anaconda in the latest edition of his hit television show
  • Revealed meeting an anaconda in its natural habitat is his greatest fear
  • The snake the adventurer encountered is believed to be responsible for the deaths of at least one man in Porto de Moz in the Brazilian rainforest
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Old May 21st, 2014 #220
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Hate to say this but, yesterday I killed a foot-and-a-half long black racer that somehow managed to find its way into my apartment (the first time ever I've had a snake of any kind in any hovel I've either owned or rented). I grabbed a dish towel and was going to wrap it around its head and toss it out the door, but once cornered it was snapping at me like a pit bull; the only thing I could do was step on it with the flip-flops I was wearing, but apparently I stepped a wee bit too hard. When I lifted my foot, though still alive, its head was crushed and bleeding and he was definitely beyond help, so I finished him off with a stomp and out the door he went.

Now if it was a water moccasin, coral snake or pygmie rattler, all three common in the rural Florida county in which I live, hell, I would've whipped out the 12-gauge Mossberg or S&W .357 and had a field day. So maybe it's good thing after all that it was a relatively small and defenseless snake...
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