Posted on 11/20/2014 9:48:01 PM PST by Paul R.
Snakes are not the stupid, pea-brained creatures they’re made out to be.
Finding food is an intensive, expensive proposition for them.
All the effort to *try* to catch food costs them in reserved energy, even those that are primarily ambush predators.
That is also why most of the myths surrounding them are just that, myths.
Snakes don’t have endless resources to waste on anything but hunting to survive.
“Chasing people” is counter to their entire being.
It would expend energy that they would really seek to conserve.
[unless it’s a Mamba] :D
It is entirely likely that some can learn, by association, that guys fishing means an easy meal.
Imagine all the lovely smells of bloodied nightcrawlers permeating the water, for instance.
I like empiric evidence and will offer some, from my own observations.
My snakes “know” me, both as the source of their food and as someone they trust to not harm them.
Very simple associations.
However, Pinky, the traveling boa, has gone far beyond such basic things.
In the summer, if I walk by his house wearing my usual slop-around-house clothes, he will acknowledge me but calmly so.
If I walk by his house wearing my ‘biker clothes’, he gets very excited and active, going to great extremes to make me notice him and he starts pushing his snout at the places on his door where the latches are, obviously “asking” to come out.
Why?
He has learned by association [just like dogs and other “evolved” animals do] that the biker clothes means I *might* be taking him with me.
He actually loves being out with people.
If I am taking him, I open his door and lay his backpack down and he instantly crawls inside and curls up, waiting for me to zip it closed and sling him on my back.
For the rest of the day, this repeats.
We stop, he crawls out.
When I’m ready to leave one place to go to another, he dutifully goes back into his pack.
He has learned something, remembers what he’s learned and associates and anticipates certain visual cues with that knowledge.
Catfish, being what they are [hillbilly sharks] for all I know, would be intrigued by vinegar.
They are a weird animals.
My dad stocked the pond above my house with them and they ate every living thing they could reach until there was nothing left but them.
I really miss all the ducks, frogs, salamanders, newts and turtles that *used* to be there.
:-\
Snakes can eat things bigger than you think.
Should’ve just given him the Bluegill.
:)
You do realize that you are more likely to die from rat borne diseases than a snake bite right? Just sayin’.
As for Timber rattlers, I’ve had people tell me they’re copperheads. I’ve had people tell me that black rat snakes, corn snakes, milk snakes, and a plethora of other species of harmless snake are copperheads. Heck, my mother thinks one of our ball pythons is a copperhead.
99% of the people in the US have no clue about snake species in the US. To many of them, any snake in the water is a water moccasin. Any snake on land is a copperhead.
I’ve sat next to a timber rattler while hunting in the early fall. It approached me, curled up next to my leg and warmed up for about 15 minutes before moving on. I wasn’t a threat to it, it wasn’t a threat to me.
Yes, snakes are curious. Very, very, very rarely are they ever aggressive. They will defend themselves but the DO NOT want to bite you unless you give them no choice. They will only bite if you give them reason to fear for their lives. I’m sorry but all the stories of water moccasins and copperheads chasing people is pure bunk. Would you go chasing a full grown kodiak bear and expect it to run away? No, and a snake isn’t going to do that to us because to them, we are the horrible scary monsters... and they have more to fear from us than we do from them. And they’re right about that.
Learn about snakes, not through BS Discovery channel crap or the news media, learn from the people that actually know these animals and interact with them every single day. Once you do that, you’ll understand, there is really little to nothing to fear from these animals if you respect them and know what they are and why they do what they do. Living in blind ignorance does nothing but harm the snakes and yourself.
This is awful.
Heh - I like that term about catfish: Hillbilly sharks. I wish I lived near your Dad’s pond - I’d have been happy to help keep the catfish population down to a reasonable level. :-)
A couple years ago there was a drought and they all died.
Dad passed and somebody else owns it now so I have no idea if the other critters have returned, in their absence.
Hope so.
It was once a beautiful bog, full of myriad species.
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