Please Do Not Kill The Snake - Page 2

xfade7 · 06-07-04, 09:21 PM

harmless

allamericanPD · 06-07-04, 09:24 PM

red touches yellow kills a fellow red touches black venom lack

M_surinamensis · 06-08-04, 12:10 AM

Really? Totally harmless eh?

In case you missed it, the snake in the photo I posted is a Micrurus surinamensis- amazon giant coral snake, giant aquatic coral snake, amazon aquatic coral snake... It's venomous, gets somewhere between about five and six feet long on average and packs a pretty mean (not the worst but pretty nasty) punch in terms of toxicity and venom yeild. And at six feet it can certainly get it's teeth into you.

Once again... Rhymes are stupid and do NOT work. If you don't know exactly what a snake is, then leave it alone or, if you absolutely have to handle it, treat it as being venomous, agressive and capable of moving quicker than you can.

psilocybe · 06-08-04, 10:59 AM

Seamus,

Although I do agree with you that rhymes are a stupid and childish way of distinguishing hot from not, it DOES work for N. American corals...a person is highly unlikely to encounter M. surinamensis in the wild here in the states. I have heard of aberant patterns, etc. in N.A. corals, but I have yet to see a picture of a N.A. coral that didn't fit in the rhyme...please post a pic if you have one, and I'll be more than happy to retract my statement

Abhishek Prasad

M_surinamensis · 06-08-04, 11:07 AM

You're going to make me go looking for photos, aren't you?

I have personally seen a melanistic eastern coral, jet black and in no way coral-looking... Albinos crop up from time to time...

I did own a thayeri for awhile which, according to the rhymes, was a coral snake and have heard antecdotal accounts of other people having similarly abberent scarlet snakes, eastern milks, variable kings and so on.

I'll poke around for some pictures, no promises though.

psilocybe · 06-08-04, 02:01 PM

LOL, I didn't intend to send you off on a wild goose chase Seamus, I'll take your word for it...I just have not personally seen such specimens. Like I said though, I also do not agree with using a nursery rhyme to make potentially life-threatening decisions (like picking up an unidentified snake), so I'm not really disagreeing with you...on a side note, a melanistic eastern coral, huh? That must have been a sight...I gotta go now, you're making me jealous

AP

Mustangrde1 · 06-08-04, 02:14 PM

I havent seen them myself I would love to ive only seen a couple pictures best way to describe it was a minature Pak Black

M_surinamensis · 06-08-04, 04:30 PM

I can't find any photos online... not easily anyway. I did find refernces to Reptiles magazine and a melanistic texas coral though... Don't get the magazine, can't really say how accurate that may or may not be or which issue you'd have to check.

I know Scott treats that rag like it was the herper's bible though (Joking Scott, calm down) and he or someone else might have an issue number.

psilocybe · 06-08-04, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by M_surinamensis

I know Scott treats that rag like it was the herper's bible though (Joking Scott, calm down) and he or someone else might have an issue number.

A herper's bible, or the latest issue of Hustler? :medmummy: LOL

As for the pictures...
It's okay Seamus, I'll take your word for it...like I said, I'd heard of aberrant specimens as well, but have never seen one...

AP

M_surinamensis · 06-09-04, 05:07 AM

Oh yeah, by no means are abberent animals common (or they wouldn't be abberent) and the rhymes do work on normally patterned animals within the United States (they stop working in Southern Mexico so it's not even safe to say "North America") but because they aren't universal indicators I try to downplay them whenever the subject is raised.

Heck, we've got two people on this thread who would have grabbed that surinamensis barehanded because they believed it was harmless (Which raises an interesting story about Henry Winkler, but it's not my story to tell).

I like to stress "If you don't know exactly what it is, leave it alone."

Or for those of us who feel confident enough to poke 'em anyway, poke them with a hook if the species isn't known, treat them as potentially dangerous until you're positive that is not the case.

M_surinamensis · 06-09-04, 05:09 AM

And Scott... can you open the pages on the latest copy of Reptiles or are they all stuck together?

(I'm going to assume with glue, because kids read this board and I'm getting dangerously close to crossing lines)

psilocybe · 06-09-04, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by M_surinamensis

I like to stress "If you don't know exactly what it is, leave it alone."

I treat every wild snake I come across as venomous until I can identify it...considering the only hots in my range are rattlers, it's not very hard. If it's not a rattler, it's not venomous (or at least medically signifigant). Unfortunately, there are no corals where I live (S.E. New Mexico).

herpetological · 06-09-04, 08:25 PM

Seamus, I might be able to help....I'll dig up some pics of an Eastern Coral with no red bands...Collected in Fellsmere in 1992 and a Eastern that had no yellow bands for the first third collected in Homestead in 1998. I also have pics of 3 scarlet kings that I hatched in 1989 with less than 4 red bands. Also a Scarlet king with no ventral pattern(YES I KNOW...NOT A SCARLET SNAKE!! SCALE COUNTS ETC...) Collected in Frostproof in 1994. In the U. Fl. collection now. I may still have some pics of spixi somewhere. I recieved two that were over 5 ft. in the late 90's.

Mustangrde1 · 06-10-04, 08:49 AM

Um dont get Reptiles Mag myself. Just preffer to actually read the scientific papers and journals and old field notes. and bug the hell out of a gentleman who has been know to jump in a few canals and swamps and play bat the 747 blood suckers in S FL.