Saved by the Malkoff

[LetThereBeLight!]

You likely would have been okay if you got bit, least venomous out of the pit vipers.

While I am a chance taker, I'm not exactly that type of risk taker!

 

[trailhunter]

While I am a chance taker, I'm not exactly that type of risk taker!

who wouldnt want to get bit?

 

[Lumen83]

As a boy I remember seeing multiple cottonmouths balled up in a Cyprus tree though I have no idea why they would be grouped together like that but it made an impression. My grandfather had no fear of them and liked to fish under trees that had snakes in them based on some belief that the fish were more likely to bite.

There are some non-venomous (not "non-poisonous") snakes that do happen to sun themselves in trees in that area, notably Brown Watersnakes. However, this is very abnormal behavior for cottonmouths. Cottonmouths are almost never observed by field biologists in trees or balled up together. These other non-venomous snakes that do this are easily mistakable for cottonmouths. And there has understandably been a myth that has propagated that cottonmouths are lurking in the trees waiting to fall in your boat and bite everyone aboard. It seems likely that you just have a simple and understandable case of misidentification. No harm, no foul.

 

[Woods Walker]

Never seen one up a tree but that's no proof of anything. In my experience cottonmouths like water with a snow current, channels in the swamps or areas which draws small fish and frogs. They like to rest on fallen logs which when dry they blend into perfectly. I don't think they're as aggressive as myth says aka activly attacking etc etc etc. If so I would have been bitten a few times wading through the Big Cypress. Aw heck here I don't even have shoes on. Just socks.

However there is ZERO question in my mind the threat display is more than a bluff. If pushed they would bite. Sometimes I don't get the same feeling with a Timber. Ok odds are you would get bitten if the situation allowed but they seem calmer. I can't explain it. Could be a water snake thing. Pick up a common watersnake and it goes crazy from both ends.

This rat snake has a good threat display. Even rattled it's tail though watersnakes are probably most miss identified as venomous. They just look nasty.

My advice is don't pull on this tail.

 

[straightShot]

However there is ZERO question in my mind the threat display is more than a bluff. If pushed they would bite. Sometimes I don't get the same feeling with a Timber. Ok odds are you would get bitten if the situation allowed but they seem calmer. I can't explain it. Could be a water snake thing. Pick up a common watersnake and it goes crazy from both ends.

This rat snake has a good threat display. Even rattled it's tail though watersnakes are probably most miss identified as venomous. They just look nasty.

My advice is don't pull on this tail.

If you grab the tail, you'll quickly find the teeth.

 

[JLeephoto]

It seems likely that you just have a simple and understandable case of misidentification. No harm, no foul.

You are probably right especially since as a much older man now I am generally better at identifying poisonous snakes and despite having spent years hunting and fishing the swamps have not seen this behavior since.
Childhood memories set in stone die hard.

 

[thermal guy]

He doesn't look dangerous. What is it, any idea?

LMAO. That's as dangerous as it gets! Coppers are nothing to play with.

 

[bigburly912]

He doesn't look dangerous. What is it, any idea?

That's one of two poisonous snakes you have in your state. If you see one don't pet it. : D

 

[novice]

Lumen83,
Regarding snakes, what is the difference between "non-venomous" and "non-poisonous"?

 

[Lumen83]

Lumen83,
Regarding snakes, what is the difference between "non-venomous" and "non-poisonous"?

There aren't two different types of snakes. Its just that the correct term for snakes is venomous or non-venomous. Venom is a toxin that is created by the animal in glands and then basically injected into its victim. Poison refers to something that the animal produces and usually covers its body, that you come into contact with and it is absorbed in your body or injested. So, some animals like poisonous frogs secrete a poison over their body that you will be affected by if you come into contact with it or ingest it. But, venomous animals like venomous snakes must inject the venom into the body of the victim. You can touch venom from a venomous snake. You can't touch poison from a poison dart frog.

 

[novice]

Thanks for the explanation!

 

[knucklegary]

^^ Venomous is not just limited to reptiles. I knew a poisonous vixen who can make a grown man deathly ill👙

 

[Monocrom]

Just got my first Malkoff MD2 and was using it to take the dog for a walk tonight when I ran across this guy in my driveway.
I know, any light would have probably worked but the quality Malkoff suddenly felt like money well spent.

Glad to hear you and your dog didn't end up in the Emergency Room.

 

[Candlestick]

About 2 years ago I was walking at night, I had just gotten a new peak El Captain ss hi cri and was shining the beam around clifs and admiring the throw (suprisingly good for a warm white single AA flashlight). I stepped right onto the tail end of a very large diamondback, it sprung straight up away from me and I got away quick. Luckily no bite, and funny enough I remembered I had asked a specific prayer just a few hours earlier that I would not get bit, first time ever and not last time I ever prayed to not get bit by a snake, .

 

[JLeephoto]

Just came back because I saw this article. I mentioned I saw multiple cottonmouths together in a tree in my youth. Maybe I misidentified them but here is a picture of what the photog identified as 4 cottonmouths but there seems to be some debate. Cottonmouths or Copperheads?
https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/state/north-carolina/article226528810.html

 

[Lumen83]

Just came back because I saw this article. I mentioned I saw multiple cottonmouths together in a tree in my youth. Maybe I misidentified them but here is a picture of what the photog identified as 4 cottonmouths but there seems to be some debate. Cottonmouths or Copperheads?
https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/state/north-carolina/article226528810.html

Those are copperheads. The article is wrong. There isn't a need for debate. Its not like debating a blurry photo of two similar looking snakes. Those two snakes look completely different and it is a very good picture.

 

[Sos24]

We had a water moccasin that liked to lay out on the bank of a lake in the middle of a neighborhood where I walk my dog daily. He was hard to spot if you weren't looking out for him. Fortunately a couple of weeks ago animal control actually showed up when he was out and caught him.