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Courtesy of that ubiquitous burster of Internet myths Snopes, here are a few famous, infamous, fraudulent, unbelievable (and a few that are true) snake-related e-mail hoaxes. Here are two pics of a large and extremely toothy python that, depending on what version you received, got fried while slithering under an electric fence somewhere in Australia, Illinois, Angola or South Africa. Snopes Link.
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Rattlesnakes hold special loathing for us Americans, and the myth of the giant rattler just won’t die. Here’s a manly man holding an unfortunately dead speciment of what is one of the most beautiful and endangered rattlesnake species on the continent, the timber rattler. Snopes Link.
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Here’s yet another rattler e-mail, an alleged 50 (or 114) pound monster “timber rattler” caught in West Virginia. No it’s not a timber rattler, it’s a western diamondback, and those guys in the background just scream “Texan” don’t they? Snopes Link.
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There are tons of Internet e-mails concerning deadly “balls” of venemous snakes that mean the end of (usually) an unfortunate water skier or small child. Here’s one such ball of snakes allegedly found by crews in Florida. Rattlesnakes do use common dens to hibernate, but you’d have to be pretty damn stupid, clumsy or drunk to fall into one. Unfortunately that describes many Steve Irwin wannabes to a tee. Snopes Link.
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Here are some pictures allegedly showing a python that has killed and swallowed (insert name, nationality and occupation here, they’re legion…). All it really shows is how poorly some people are with Photoshop. Snopes Link.
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Here’s another one of those by-now ubiquitous “Florida python-eats-gator” pics. In light of the very real and very large pythons that have been caught in Florida recently, who knows? Snopes Link.
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Here’s a very cool, very real photograph combined with a very false caption. It purports to show a monster-sized python pulling a cow out of the water. In reality, the “cow” is a wallaby and the snake, while large, won’t be threatening any large cities. Snopes Link.
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Here’s one most of us received that, surprisingly, turned out to be real. I actually owned a ball python once, decided it was a pretty boring snake and ended up trading it to a kid down the street for a cherry Shimano Bantam baitcasting reel. I still have the reel, but like the one in the pic the snake’s long gone. One of the best trades I ever made. Snopes Link.
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I really like most snakes. I really dislike most computers. Even Snopes doesn’t know if this story is real, but if it is I can commiserate with the snake on this one, even if it did probably scare the computer tech out of his Dilbert shorts. I have nightmares of being trapped inside a giant, evil computer and not being able to find my way out. Poor, reptillian bastard. Snopes Link.
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True Story: My wife and I were in a furniture store in Amarillo, Texas one day when someone yelled “Snake!” and the entire store erupted in pandemonium. As we dodged dozens of hereford-sized soccer moms thundering toward the exit my wife grabbed a shrieking store clerk and said “my husband’s a snake guy, he’ll catch it for you!” Thanks, hon. Fearing some exotic spitting death-adder had stowed away in the crate, I very slowly crept up and peered inside to find…a garter snake. I picked up the little guy and announced to the now-empty store “It’s OK, just a garter snake. See?” I felt like Bill Murray’s character in Caddyshack when he ate the Baby Ruth. The horrified customers gave me a wide berth as I walked outside and let the snake go in the empty lot next to the store. I can’t be certain from the pics, but I think the “baby copperheads” “hiding in the potted plant” in these photographs are in fact, garter snakes. At any rate, it’s a good example of A. urban legend and B. most people’s utter stupidity. Snope Link.

Courtesy of that ubiquitous burster of Internet myths Snopes, here are a few more famous, infamous, fraudulent, unbelievable (and a few that are true) snake-related e-mail hoaxes. – Chad Love