Tell your wild snake rescue stories!

**Pareeeee** · 11-07-13, 07:49 AM

Exactly what the title says. Tell stories of your wild snake rescues!

Here's mine:
When I was a teen, I was asked to look after animals for these people while they were away (long-time friends of the family). One of the duties was looking after the chickens.

Now, to me, their chicken coop was totally awesome. Why? It was packed with garter snakes. Our friends? They didn't like it so much. Most of their family was afraid of snakes and did NOT want them there.

So my dad drives me to their house, and we walk into the chicken coop so I can look for eggs, etc. (My poor dad can't stand snakes, but still appreciates them from a distance.) As soon as I open the door, all you can hear is this sliding/slithering sound. Snakes in the ceiling. Snakes in the walls. Snakes in the floor. Little eyes peeking at you through the rickety ceiling panels. Total. Awesomeness. For me that is. Total nightmare for others.

Anyway, I found a pail, one of the 2' tall ones, and began to remove some of the snakes for them. I filled the pail. Every time I opened the lid to put one in it was like a flood trying to escape the pail. Both my dad and I were in awe of the sheer number of garters. My dad and I couldn't believe the size of one in particular, though, it was approximately 3' long. Largest garter either of us had ever seen, before or since.

Finally, I was able to fasten the lid without squishing anyone's head or tail, and we loaded the bucket into the car. After driving a distance we came to this little spot in the country near a creek and I released them all there.

Our friends were very happy when they came back from vacation and thanked me for removing the snakes.

The best garter snake experience, ever.

Hurrok · 11-07-13, 12:15 PM

Unfortunately I don't have any stories, but that is A LOT of snakes! Garters are so cute and very fast, I've had some experiences with them. (Trying to catch them haha) I think I would be in snake heaven if I was in your position!

SSSSnakes · 11-07-13, 01:14 PM

I live in NY were Exotic snakes can not make it though the winters. This was about 20 years ago. One day I got a call from a man saying he was a friend of a friend and he had a 12 foot snake in his yard. I told him we do have 12 foot snakes in NY. He said he was a carpenter and this snake was 12 feet. I agreed to go and get the snake, but as it was dusk already I would only come if he watched the snake until I got there. As I searched for his house, he never told me that he was building the house and at this time it was only a cleared lot. When I arrived he said that the snake had crawled under a large pine tree. Not knowing what kind of snake I was to encounter I started pulling on the pine branches with my snake stick. All at once this Burmese Python's head came out of the pine needles. It was apparent that this was a very large snake. I told my wife to keep the snake attention as I went into the pine branches to grab the snake. I started pulling the snake out and it turned out to be a 16 foot Burmese Python. The owners wife was scared to death and said that she did not want to live here. I explained to her that this was a pet snake that was let loose and there was no other snakes this large around here. I took the snake home and made it an enclosure really fast. The next morning I was woken up by a phone call from the same guy saying that there was another large snake on the property and the bulldozer operator was afraid of the snake and refuses to get off the bulldozer. I went back and found a 8 foot Boa Constrictor, that was very cold and not moving. Now the owners wife was not believing me that there are no snake this large in NY. After I finally convinced them that these snakes were from a person who abandon them, I took the snake home to check it out. After a good examination I found that both snakes had severe mouth rot and the Burmese had no teeth left in his mouth. Both snakes were very docile and after treating them for their mouth rot, they both became part of our shows and the people loved the story that came with them.

Awaiting Abyss · 11-07-13, 01:29 PM

I used to get black rat snakes in my chicken nests all the time back when I had chickens. My dad built a snake catcher out of a pole with a looped rope through it so we would catch the snakes then put them in a sack and go release them in a safe location down the road from us. Not sure if that would be considered rescuing.. I guess we were rescuing the snakes from the chickens, since they probably would have attacked them.

Another time I was hiking in the mountains (it was in a popular nature park) with my family and we came across a snake in the middle of the path in the middle of eating a toad. We moved him off the path before more people came. I was probably around 10 years old then, but we took lots of pictures of him.

Kera · 11-08-13, 07:43 PM

I wish I saw more snakes in the wild.

only place to see them would be up north at my cabin but I haven't gone since last November, for hunting. D: