My wife and I were looking for another place to walk and visited the Red Bank Battlefield today. On our walk we ran into a Black Rat Snake.
Red Bank Battlefield Black Rat Snake
- Thread starter Teegate
- Start date
I had a big one like that stretched across one of my little trails yesterday, it's a dead end and there was no way around. I tossed a little stick but it played dead the way I often see them do. Poked it with a small branch and still got no response, so I got a bigger stick and picked it up. Didn't like that at all, coiled up and acted like it was going to attack the stick, whipping its tail around and pretending to be a rattlesnake.
Moved it off the trail and it slinked away. Geez, it would have been a lot easier if it just left the first time I poked it instead of playing dead.
Moved it off the trail and it slinked away. Geez, it would have been a lot easier if it just left the first time I poked it instead of playing dead.
I think the one we saw, and maybe the same with your snake, was watching birds in a large tree nearby. So when we encountered it the snake did not want to move. After we left it about 200 feet away we encountered two elderly ladies and told them about it. They continued on and would have reached it in a minute. Later, we saw them again and they said it was gone. This was a wide open area and they should have saw it unless it had climbed the tree and they did not know to look up.
Somebody really needs lawn care. Either turn it into a meadow, or make it like a lawn.
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Rats often freeze and I suppose hope you don't notice them.They are not a very fast snake like a racer and more at home in the trees then on the ground but if provoked will bit usually once.racers will bite repeatedly but will take off at high speed so you have to be really fast to get yourself bitten.I"m just not that fast anymore but I still try.I had a big one like that stretched across one of my little trails yesterday, it's a dead end and there was no way around. I tossed a little stick but it played dead the way I often see them do. Poked it with a small branch and still got no response, so I got a bigger stick and picked it up. Didn't like that at all, coiled up and acted like it was going to attack the stick, whipping its tail around and pretending to be a rattlesnake.
Moved it off the trail and it slinked away. Geez, it would have been a lot easier if it just left the first time I poked it instead of playing dead.