Let's get this going already. Snakes are everywhere in Louisiana, and people love them or hate them, but we all encounter them...even if you're a housewife in a subdivision in Mandeville.

Here's a place to ask questions and tell your snake stories. I'll try to highlight some of the species we have here. Some are rare, some are extremely common. Either way, it's been many years since I last went snake hunting and I'll enjoy reviewing their natural history.

I'll start out by featuring snakes I've caught and kept.

Speckled king snake...

Common name: Speckled kingsnake
Generic name: Lampropeltis getulua holbrooki (Stejneger, 1902)
Adult length: 36 - 48 inches
Complete range: Southwestern Illinois to southern Iowa, south to e. Texas, and east to southwestern Alabama.
The speckled kingsnake is often called the "salt-and-pepper" snake. This snake is easily recognized by the light spots covering a black body. The body is almost always solid black and the spots range from yellow-orange through creamy yellow to ivory white. There are spots on almost every scale. It is not uncommon for the spots to form thin, light crossbars on the dorsal surface, making the snake look somewhat banded.
The semi-banded specimens are the most common pattern form throughout the range of speckled kingsnakes. Areas around Lake Charles, LA, and Alexandria, LA, tend to produce specimens with the least amount of banding. Animals with little or no banding pattern are often refered to as "multipspeckled."
Although most wild caught speckled kingsnakes will calm down in captivity, this subspecies has a reputation for being more aggressive than others. From personal experience, about 40% of our wild caught individuals will try to bite and emit a foul smelling musk that you won't soon forget. The other 60% range in attitude from extremely docile to justwiggly when held. With frequent handling, though, most will calm down and make as fine a "pet" as any other kingsnake. However, captive bred pets are strongly recommended over wild collected ones.
Speckled kingsnakes are well respected by most of the rural folks. Most of them are well aware of their appetite for rodents, although they unknowingly think that they primarily seek out and eat predominately venomous snakes. They DO eat venomous snakes but only as opportunistic feeders. They eat what is available to them, i.e. whatever they come accross. Young feed mainly on lizards and small snakes (such as baby garter and ribbon snakes). Adults feed mainly on rodents and snakes (including various water snake and cottonmouths). Speckled kingsnakes utilize many habitats including farms, open fields, swampy areas, forested areas and in many towns.
There are a few varieties of this snake available from breeders. The albino has been on the market for some time now. It is a very attractive solid white snake with yellow spots. "Lavender Albinos" are also available. As an adult, they are a light purplish-black with light spots and red eyes. This variety originated from a wild caught snake from south Louisiana. Rumors are out there that a white-sided and striped speckled kingsnakes are out there with select breeders now.

http://www.kingsnake.com/louisiana/species_speckled_kingsnake.htm

I think most outdoorsmen have run across the speckled king snake. They really are easy to identify...but not many people get to see them eat other snakes.

This is freaking cool...

Thre's several species and subspecies of king snakes...but the speckled is the one found here in Louisiana. here's a range map:

Make sure you're careful with snakes...Just 'cause it's in the Bible doesn't make it OK !!

'Serpent-Handling' West Virginia Pastor Dies From Snake Bite


A "serpent-handling" West Virginia pastor died after his rattlesnake bit him during a church ritual, just as the man had apparently watched a snake kill his father years before.
Pentecostal pastor Mark Wolford, 44, hosted an outdoor service at the Panther Wildlife Management Area in West Virginia Sunday, which he touted on his Facebook page prior to the event.
"I am looking for a great time this Sunday," Wolford wrote May 22,according to the Washington Post. "It is going to be a homecoming like the old days. Good 'ole raised in the holler or mountain ridge running, Holy Ghost-filled speaking-in-tongues sign believers."
Robin Vanover, Wolford's sister, told the Washington Post that 30 minutes into the outdoor service, Wolford passed around a poisonous timber rattlesnake, which eventually bit him.
"He laid it on the ground," Vanover said in the interview, "and he sat down next to the snake, and it bit him on the thigh."
Vanover said Wolford was then transported to a family member's home in Bluefield about 80 miles away to recover. But as the situation worsened, he was taken to a hospital where he later died.
Jim Shires, owner of the Cravens-Shires Funeral Home in Bluefield, told ABC News that Wolford died Monday. Wolford's church, the Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus in Matoaka, will host a viewing Friday and a funeral service Saturday morning. Wolford will be buried at the Hicks Family Plot in Phelps, Ky.
Officials at the Panther Wildlife Management Area had been unaware of Sunday's event until they were notified by callers after the service.
"We did not know that this event was happening, and if we had known about it or if we had been asked for permission, permission would not have been granted," Hoy Murphy, public information officer for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, told ABC News.
Hoy said West Virginia state park rules prohibit animals other than dogs and cats on the property.
While snake-handling is legal in West Virginia, other Appalachian states, including Kentucky and Tennessee, have banned the practice in public spaces.
Snake-handlers point to scripture as evidence that God calls them to engage in such a practice to show their faith in him. Mark 16: 17-18 reads, "And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
Wolford told the Washington Post magazine in 2011 that he is carrying on the tradition of his ancestors by engaging in snake handling.
"Anybody can do it that believes it," Wolford said. "Jesus said, 'These signs shall follow them which believe.' This is a sign to show people that God has the power."
Wolford said watched his own father die at the age of 39 after a rattlesnake bit him during a similar service.
"He lived 101/2 hours," Wolford told the Washington Post Magazine. "When he got bit, he said he wanted to die in the church. Three hours after he was bitten, his kidneys shut down. After a while, your heart stops. I hated to see him go, but he died for what he believed in.
"I know it's real; it is the power of God," Wolford told the Washington Post Magazine last year. "If I didn't do it, if I'd never gotten back involved, it'd be the same as denying the power and saying it was not real."

http://news.yahoo.com/serpent-handl...nake-bite-173406645--abc-news-topstories.html

The ones found here, if I'm not mistaken are:

Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake
Pygmy rattlesnake
Timber rattlesnake
Eastern Cottonmouth
Copperhead
Coral snake

The first five are from the family Viperidae (vipers) and the coral Snake is from the family Elapidae. I think Red is referring to the Genera.

(I may be wrong about the Pygmy, but the're found very close to here if not here)

But non poisonous snakes are outnumbered 20:1 by the non poisonous ones around here. And poisonous snake bites are very rare...Encountering snakes in the wild is rare to begin with because they're usually escaping us when we're tromping around...chances are (20:1) that it's not a poisonous snake encounter....when it is a poisonous encounter they usually don't bite. That's what the rattles are all about as well as the cottonmouth displaying it's obvious white mouth waving it around. Those are warning displays so you'll retreat....When you do encounter a snake and it happens to be poisonous, and it happens to bite you, it doesn't always inject the poison into you...and even if that happens it isn't always a full load of venom....and EVEN THEN the potency depends on how recent the last time the snake unloaded its venom.

The venom is a complex cocktail of enzymes (mostly proteases) that take a while to be produced. Some of the ingredients come back almost immediately, but it takes about a week for the full venom cocktail to be fully mixed.


I'll continue with posts about the different species starting with the poisonous ones, since we're on the subject.

Pygmy rattlesnake (Sistrus miliaius)



Basically they look like a small rattlesnake. They are usually around 2 feet long in adulthood. (The record wild caught one was 63.8 cm (about two and a half feet.)



I'm aware of two subspecies. The Eastern and Western. The Eastern Pygmy rattlesnake is called Sistrus miliarius barberi

The main clue to identification is their small size and distribution. Are you where they're found?

This is their range....the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains...from South Carolina to Eastern Louisiana. If you're not here, it's probably a young Eastern rattlesnake. I never caught or saw one in Louisiana, Most of the ones I saw were in the panhandle of Florida.

Eastern Pygmy rattlesnake





The western one is called Sistrus miliarius streckeri. I couldn't tell them apart in the field other than by location. This one is more inland and is found in Louisiana and Texas ranging up to the central Mississippi River valley.

Western Pygmy rattlesnake

All rattlesnakes are venomous, and therefore potentially dangerous if approached or handled. Rattlesnakes are not generally aggressive and will most likely flee if given a chance to retreat. Because it is such a small snake, prey includes various insects and arthropods, as well as small mice and lizards. ​

Sistrurus miliarius​

is nocturnal, feeding and moving almost entirely at night, spending the days under logs, rocks, or within piles of leaves. In certain parts of their range, such as areas in Florida, ​

S. miliarius​

can be the most common snake species found.​

http://www.herpsoftexas.org/content/pygmy-rattlesnake

These two are subspecies. They're the same species but look different (a little) and are geographically separated.

So what is a Species?

Two main schools of thought here Typological and Biological:

Typological-basically they look different. Taxonomists (Guys that classify animals and plants) Are into morphometric and meristic differences. These are measurements (morphometric) and and counts...like how many scales are from one point to another. They study snakes and measure and count things along a geographical range....like from east to west or north to south, etc. Then they statistically compare the counts and measurements along the geographical line (cline). If there is a gradual clinal variation they say there are no subspecies. But if they notice a big jump in the counts and measurements at a specific point in the line, all of a sudden, with no intermediate types; they say these are two different sub species. So if it looks really different....it must BE different.


Biological-the idea is if things don't interbreed, they must BE different. To them, a species is a group of snakes that, under natural conditions, won't interbreed because through time, they developed reproductive isolation....even if they're found in the same spot outdoors. For example, One may breed in the day while the other breeds at night. OR one breeds in the spring and one breeds in the fall. OR one breeds in the east and the other breeds in the west.



Most of the time the Biological and the Typological guys agree on their proclamations of what is the same species and what is different. We know this because Molecular biologists look at the genetic variation (DNA tests, like on the Maury Povich show) along those same geographic lines that the other guys examined. If they see a gradual genetic change say from east to west, the animal is said to be the same species....and if there is a sudden genetic change along the line, they say it's a different species. Just like the counts and measures.


If you remember this stuff, you'll be a hit at your wife's high school reunion or that boring office cocktail party. You should hear me talk about reproductive behavior of animals at those parties...after a while all the women want me !!!

Here's a youtube video I found of the pygmy rattler...Pretty informative. The snake in th egarden section of WalMart is kind of creepy !!



A video of a captive pygmy feeding. I used to keep plenty of snakes. When I was a grad assistant at Oklahoma university, I was responsible for about 20 aquaria that we put snakes in. I posted this video to show you that it's difficult sometimes to get these things to eat...even when they're used to captivity. Not all snakes in the wild are out there looking to bite a person.




Next up.....the Eastern Cottonmouth