Most Dangerous?
I've seen what must have been an eastern diamondback rattlesnake out here once before. It was crossing the road in front of me while I was driving. It was squiggled up and even then it covered almost the entire lane. I was able to avoid hitting it and turned around to look for it, but it was already gone in the grass. Even though the grass wasn't tall, there was no sign of it and I figured it would be a bad idea to go walking around in the grass looking for a rattlesnake.
Last week I came across another one, but this time, it was just laying in the road.
It's a first year. It was only about a foot and a half long or so. They say the young ones are more dangerous than the big ones because supposedly they will release all of their venom into you when they bite, whereas the big ones only inject some of their venom. It didn't have any rattles yet, which was a bit of a disappointment. I really want to hear a rattlesnake rattle, I've heard it's a somewhat eerie sound.
I stayed about a foot away from him while he was calm, but after we made him mad I stayed back a little further. I had to keep reminding myself that I was actually in a dangerous situation. It seems more dangerous than my experiences thus far with alligators. When I'm photographing alligators I am aware of my way out, I'm watching them for any signs of being annoyed, and I'm ready to run/jump on my bike, or climb up a tree or something. This time there's really no out.
The tech that I was with has been known to catch rattlesnakes, and has eaten them before too, so he did all the work getting the snake upset and scooting it off the road (at my request, I didn't want the snake to get run over, even though I'm sure he was enjoying the warm concrete).
I hope you guys enjoy snakes as much as I do! I think they're pretty neat animals.
Last week I came across another one, but this time, it was just laying in the road.
It's a first year. It was only about a foot and a half long or so. They say the young ones are more dangerous than the big ones because supposedly they will release all of their venom into you when they bite, whereas the big ones only inject some of their venom. It didn't have any rattles yet, which was a bit of a disappointment. I really want to hear a rattlesnake rattle, I've heard it's a somewhat eerie sound.
I stayed about a foot away from him while he was calm, but after we made him mad I stayed back a little further. I had to keep reminding myself that I was actually in a dangerous situation. It seems more dangerous than my experiences thus far with alligators. When I'm photographing alligators I am aware of my way out, I'm watching them for any signs of being annoyed, and I'm ready to run/jump on my bike, or climb up a tree or something. This time there's really no out.
The tech that I was with has been known to catch rattlesnakes, and has eaten them before too, so he did all the work getting the snake upset and scooting it off the road (at my request, I didn't want the snake to get run over, even though I'm sure he was enjoying the warm concrete).
I hope you guys enjoy snakes as much as I do! I think they're pretty neat animals.