A beautiful snake

[IvW]

Thank you @IvW, I didn’t know that on the Rinkhals, hadn’t seen any up our way but ankle deep in Snouted Cobras !

It was however a large snake for a juvenile as you can see from my size 10.5 boot ?

They grow to more than 2.5m in length and also get quite thick. Highly venomous with neurotoxic venom. Luckily they are not an agressive snake

 

[casey]

@casey - and do they also “taste like chicken”?

Ha Ha, I,ve never eaten a fresh one. I've had it canned only.

 

[Hunt anything]

When my dad was stationed at the old federal fish hatchery in Marion Alabama he killed a timber rattler. Being a low level biologist at the time and money was tight so my mom friend him up. Evidently I liked it so much that she had to keep it on top of the refrigerator, she caught my scrawny butt up on top of the fridge eating the rest. She really tanned my hide and I’ve been scared to eat snake ever since. PTSD I guess.

 

[casey]

If you get medical attention quickly you are not likely to die, but not everyone gets to a hospital in time and it can lead to various issues up to and including death. Of course, some people are more sensitive to the toxin than others and are more likely to die. There are also different species of rattle snakes, and I have read that the Mojave rattle snake is the one most likely to kill a human.

The anti-venom price will probably kill you before the bite will. There was a youngster bit near here a couple of years ago. The hospital bill was incredible, over 125,000 just for anti-venom. That was for a Timber rattler bite. Cro Fab is the name of it. I've been told by a couple of biologists that it only cost a few dollars to make.

 

[Fatback]

Here’s a timber rattler I walked up on as I was headed to a deer stand. They are quite common in our part of the world. We have these, eastern diamondbacks, cottonmouths, copperheads, pygmy rattlers and coral snakes. Don’t see as many diamondbacks as we used to. Definetly have to pay attention to where your hands and feet.