My First Rattle Snake

[JackG]

Hi, just joined. I've been hiking the Pines for many years, yesterday my dog and I came across our first rattle snake, definitely made it the most exciting hike ever. My dog was on point, about 10 yds in front of me when I heard the rattle, it's an unmistakable sound. It was basking on the trail and not happy about my dog getting near. It was aggressive, moving toward the dog repeatedly and rattling like crazy. Luckily the dog kept backing up and I got her away to a safe distance. It was big, about 5 feet and remained coiled until we left.

I won't say exactly where because of the poachers and snake haters, but it was in the Batsto area. I hike this trail often and don't plan on stopping, but will be a little more wary and put my dog on leash where i saw it. Hope you like the pic, I was about 30 feet away.

 

[ecampbell]

That rattle is amazingly loud.

 

[kingofthepines]

that is amazing for a pine snake

 

[Teegate]

Yes, it is a pine snake and not a rattler. They mimic rattlers by moving their tail to make you think it is a rattler.

 

[RednekF350]

Welcome to the site Jack G.
If I heard it rattle it would have been enough to convince me ! From my limited knowledge though, it did look like a pine snake.

While I don't consider myself a snake hater, I would say I am a strong disliker.

 

[manumuskin]

I was thinking okay He took a pic of a Pine Snake to build us up to the Rattler I thinks Pines are the bomb as well so don't be depressed.I"ve been running the Barrens since the 70's and have only seen one live rattler myself and one DOR. You stay in the woods long enough you'll see one.

 

[jokerman]

They get huge too. I saw one that was like 5 feet long between Batsto and Washington

 

[smoke_jumper]

I was thinking the same thing. A snake that size would have a large rattle. A loud hissing sound would sound a lot like a rattle. I'm sure over years of evolution Pine snakes use that confusion to their advantage. If it looks like a rattle snake, acts like a rattlesnake and sounds like one then most predators will treat it like one

 

[manumuskin]

But the first couple of hundred thousand years must have been a lot of dead pine snakes since Rattlers are supposedly more highly evolved then non venomous species and so wouldn't have appeared till after the Non Venomous species so there would have been no real rattlers around to mimic. I guess they could have learned it later but how with no ears to hear the rattle???