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Your wild experiences!

Snake Dave

Snake Dave

Schrödinger's cat
Hey everyone

I just thought I'd make this thread to ask you all about your wild experiences with animals! Not just reptiles (although that's a bonus :)), any animal. Be it the mighty Lion or that mischevous possum that keeps rooting through your trash!

I'll start with a few of mine.

The first will be my first true reptile encounter, I was only 8 years old lol. I was in Cyprus visiting my Grandparents (they live there but they're English). I've loved reptiles, especially snakes, since I was about 3 years old. Now before this trip, I had been reading up about the reptiles of Cyprus, so I knew what to look for. On the second day I was there I was exploring their garden. I walked out into the field and found myself staring at an adult Whip snake. Now they're pretty cool snakes, non-agressive and handleable, so I picked him up, handled him for a few, then let him go. :D

The second was when I went to Africa 2 years ago. This trip was incredible, but very scary in places too. I'll tell you of two of my experiences there (there were so many I could state, but I had to pick two lol). On my third day after lunch, I wandered down to ground level (it had to be raised for our protection), and what did I find, a bloody Black Mamba. About 8 feet long too, I **** myself. Thankfully he/she had his/her back turned to me, so I think I went unnoticed. I just backed off slowly and ran after a certain distance. I got back to my room out of breath, I bent double on my knees and looked up, and what did I see? A leopard in the tree above my house... We just looked at eachother for a minute, then he went back to washing himself, so I went inside.

The other African experience was being charged by a group of female elephants thinking we were a threat to their young. We were in a Jeep, but that still remains one of the scariest moments of my life...

So, tell all of your great experiences, no matter how big or small.

All the best

David
 
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Hey Dave, before I got into reptiles I along with many other people did not know much about them, only what other people told me, which was a load of rubbish like them being agreesive and they can kill you etc..
anyways I also visited my grandparents who live in cyprus (there also english) and I was walking home (back to there house) one night and snake jumped out, it was hissing really loud and striking, I being about 10 year old not knowing if this snake was venomous was really scared, I run up close to it because I was scared (for some reason this made me more interested in it LOL) anyways my gran and grandad come out and I ran inside, I have a horrible feeling they killed it, but even so I always seem to feel if they did, it was my fault for being in its space..
 
I once went to the aid of a wild grass snake that was being attacked by some kids throwing rocks at it. The snake had fallen off a 6/7 foot drop in to some bushes below. Luckily it didn't seem to be badly injured, and after a minute it swam off across the river to safety. Gorgeous animal, I was livid that anyone had wanted to hurt it.
 
Plissken said:
I once went to the aid of a wild grass snake that was being attacked by some kids throwing rocks at it. The snake had fallen off a 6/7 foot drop in to some bushes below. Luckily it didn't seem to be badly injured, and after a minute it swam off across the river to safety. Gorgeous animal, I was livid that anyone had wanted to hurt it.
Click to expand...

aw, thats really sad, but has a good ending :p

I have been trying to find some wild reptiles for ages in the UK, just to have a look really, but i have never found any yet, I'm interested to see what slowworms looked like because there supposed to look like snakes but they have eyelids - kooooool!!
 
Sadly I've never seen any native reptiles here in the UK. But I don't live near to a river and I live in the Welsh mountains, not ideal habitats/climate for grass snakes lol.

Good stories guys, keep 'em coming!
 
Pet Corn Snake said:
aw, thats really sad, but has a good ending :p

I have been trying to find some wild reptiles for ages in the UK, just to have a look really, but i have never found any yet, I'm interested to see what slowworms looked like because there supposed to look like snakes but they have eyelids - kooooool!!
Click to expand...

I sometimes have slowworms breeding in my garden. I always handled them when I was a kid, and I think my love of reptiles comes from that. :)

I've also seen two types of wild lizard in my garden. Wild reptiles are out there, just a case of finding them. ;)
 
About 8 years ago I was riding my bike with a few mates coming back from "Kingsbury Water Park" (lots of lakes and things etc.), and spotted a grass snake slithering across the road. And a few months back when I went fishing with my dad another grass snake the came slithering past us into the lake we were fishing at lol.

I used to catch these little black newts when i was younger, thats about it.
 
One of my wild experiences happened when I lived in Florida. I was working on Sanibel Island. It is beautiful there. One day I decided to get lunch and go out and sit by a little lake in this neighborhood.

I sat in the grass. Started enjoying my lunch (Subway Cold Cut Combo! mmm) and the weather.

I noticed what looked like a piece of wood floating in the lake. I thought nothing of it. As I continued to eat, it seemed as if the piece of wood was getting closer to the edge of the lake. I took another bite of my sandwich, but kept an eye on the floating object.

Just as it got to the edge of the lake, about 10-12 feet away from me, it became quite obvious what it was. What i thought was a piece of wood was actually part of a head of a rather large gator! I didn't waste any time. I grabbed my lunch and headed to my truck. Once inside the truck I actually took the time to look. There sitting in the spot where I had been just seconds before, was a 8-10 foot gator.

It was quite an adrenaline rush. I had seen gators all over Florida. But never so close.

I sat in my truck and finished my lunch (and watched the big gator sitting on the bank of the lake) and then went back to work.
 
Sorry, but I had to edit out a word in your original post. Profanity is not allowed here. Please choose your words more carefully for this family-oriented site. Thanks.
 
I'll throw in one not about reptiles :)
At summer camp this year me and my unit (two counselors, my friend Lily, and another girl named Liz, it was a small group!) were reading a picture book on the dock when we noticed some otters climbing on to the other end. We shined the flashlight on them and they went back in to the water, although they left a little "present" for us. It was a fish head. Like a ripped in half, covered in blood, fish head. We were all staring at it and finally decided to poke it with a stick. We did and it started flopping around! After the shock wore off we decided to push it off the dock and that was the end of that.
Earlier that day (it was the first day of camp too!) we watched a little mouse nicknamed 'Ray', short for Rabies, die. All the dying things were apparently fore-shadowing something as Liz got sliced open by oysters, Lily cut off a chunk of her finger with a pocket knife, and I got sent home early with a foot infection. Not to mention we had to cancel our kayaking trip two days in because of weather. Oddly enough, that was still the most fun I've ever had at camp. :shrugs:
 
Roy Munson said:
Sorry, but I had to edit out a word in your original post. Profanity is not allowed here. Please choose your words more carefully for this family-oriented site. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Oh sorry about that Roy, when you get into the swing of things emotion tends to overrule being sensible. I'll be more careful next time.
 
Rich in KY said:
One of my wild experiences happened when I lived in Florida. I was working on Sanibel Island. It is beautiful there. One day I decided to get lunch and go out and sit by a little lake in this neighborhood.

I sat in the grass. Started enjoying my lunch (Subway Cold Cut Combo! mmm) and the weather.

I noticed what looked like a piece of wood floating in the lake. I thought nothing of it. As I continued to eat, it seemed as if the piece of wood was getting closer to the edge of the lake. I took another bite of my sandwich, but kept an eye on the floating object.

Just as it got to the edge of the lake, about 10-12 feet away from me, it became quite obvious what it was. What i thought was a piece of wood was actually part of a head of a rather large gator! I didn't waste any time. I grabbed my lunch and headed to my truck. Once inside the truck I actually took the time to look. There sitting in the spot where I had been just seconds before, was a 8-10 foot gator.

It was quite an adrenaline rush. I had seen gators all over Florida. But never so close.

I sat in my truck and finished my lunch (and watched the big gator sitting on the bank of the lake) and then went back to work.
Click to expand...

Wonderful story there Rich, I enjoyed that.

Thanks mate
 
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