Quote:
Originally Posted by Twolunger
In my younger days I was field herping on Harsen's Island in Michigan and caught a Black Rat snake that was 8 feet long. It was the largest rat snake that I had ever seen. The locals told me large ones are quite common on the island, which is dominated by swamps. I can't say it was very friendly, hissing and striking, and I soon let him go.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Twolunger
I can't blame the rat snake for being perturbed. He was resting under an overturned fishing boat and I pulled him out into the open by the tail. I didn't realize how large he was or I may have thought better of it.
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When I lived in Maryland, I used to find black rat snakes quite common and found that they rarely resented being handled. But I think a lot depends on how you treat them. Get them afraid of you, and anger will soon follow afterwards.
A couple of black rat snake stories.
Back when I first met Connie's family in Delaware, her mom lived on the edge of farmland with a couple of dilapidated buildings nearby. Those buildings would be loaded with black rat snakes. Connie's mom was deathly afraid of them and would kill them every chance she got. So one day when I was over there, I just picked up a pretty large one that just laid loosely in my arms and walked over to her, showing how if you don't scare or anger them, they are perfectly harmless. I don't think I made much headway, but she did ask me about those smoky looking ones she would see with smoke blue eyes. Inspiration hit me and I told her that those were the ghosts of the black snakes she had killed. I think that got her attention! Not sure how she treated them after that, but I certainly did not hear about her killing any more of them.
On a sadder note, when my parents moved out to Fallston, MD, the house was on a slope that lead down to a stream that could easily be jumped over. This stream fed to a larger stream to the right that was not so easily crossed. On the other side of the small stream, up a rocky hillside, an old hunter's cabin had been built there long ago, and certainly long abandoned. Come to find out that a half a dozen really large black rat snakes lived around there and were often to be seen sunning in the tree next to that cabin. I would often go over there and just put my hands in the lower branches and flutter them like birds in distress in the leaves. Invariably the snakes would come down to investigate. Neither they nor I seemed to tire of this game.
But one day when I went over to the cabin, I was shattered to see carcasses of all the black rat snakes laying at the bottom of that tree. Apparently someone went over there and shot each and every one of them. I sometimes took a .22 pistol over there and shot at water bugs on the larger stream, and I must confess, had I stumbled on whoever shot those snakes while I had that .22, well, I might still be in prison today. I still get angry thinking about it.