Snakes

[domromer]

Snakes are a funny thing with me. I think most snakes are bad ass. When I see them I love to check them out and try to take pictures of them. The exception is rattlesnakes. I hate rattlesnakes with an unnatural passion. Living in AZ we have a lot of rattlesnakes, I hike a lot in the desert and pretty much every hike I take I have some sort of shitty rattlesnake experience. Snakes buzzing a foot away from my knee in a wash that my wife just walked through with no problems. So to sum it up I hate rattlesnakes. In fact if it wasn't for bad karma I'd shoot every fucking rattlesnake that I see. Now that being said I've never hurt one and I don't plan on it. But I feel the world would be a better place without them.

[discspeed]

Snakes are a funny thing with me. I think most snakes are bad ass. When I see them I love to check them out and try to take pictures of them. The exception is rattlesnakes. I hate rattlesnakes with an unnatural passion. Living in AZ we have a lot of rattlesnakes, I hike a lot in the desert and pretty much every hike I take I have some sort of shitty rattlesnake experience. Snakes buzzing a foot away from my knee in a wash that my wife just walked through with no problems. So to sum it up I hate rattlesnakes. In fact if it wasn't for bad karma I'd shoot every fucking rattlesnake that I see. Now that being said I've never hurt one and I don't plan on it. But I feel the world would be a better place without them.

Just try and separate from your personal feelings to get some perspective. Poisonous snakes have evolved very successfully over millions of years. Their venom is designed #1 as a means of subduing prey, #2 as means of defense. To many they are beautiful and fascinating. Modern man is a disease of this planet, and poisonous snakes are one of the few things that can still induce fear (one of their greatest pitfalls imo). Poisonous snakes eat rodents, which historically have threatened man in a myriad of ways and caused much more death and destruction than the snakes themselves (plague/other diseases, contamination of food supplies, destruction of property, EATING THE FRUIT FROM MY TREES (personal), etc.

Now lets look at rattlesnakes in particular. I think they are some of the MOST beautiful snakes (look at the Eastern Diamondback and tell me its not beautifully patterned). Unlike cobras, mambas, and many other deadly snakes found across the globe, rattlers have SEVERAL kind adaptations to avoid wasting their precious venom on a non-prey item. First they have heat sensitive pits that basically give them infrared vision. They can sense humans as a large heat source and tend to go the other way as soon as they notice you from a decent distance. They also sense large vibrations which they tend to flee from. If those fail and you get close, they actually rattle and go through a whole string of pre-strike defensive behaviors such as coiling and slowly moving away. It is only when all of these fail that people actually get bitten.

Now there is a mounting body of evidence to suggest that stupid humans are actually affecting the evolution of rattlesnakes. Over thousands of years every other large animal has heeded the rattle as a warning and left the snakes alone, reinforcing and naturally selecting the rattling behavior of rattlesnakes. Loud rattles and loud rattling behavior was successful and the tendencies were passed on. Humans, as the idiots that we are, tend to KILL the rattlesnakes that give us fair warning, and coincidentally leave the more dangerous snakes that lie silent and are not noticed. So over the past couple hundred years of europeans settling this continent we have actually selected the quieter, more dangerous rattlers to survive and pass on their genes. So now rattlers have become more dangerous thanks to our gung-ho, kill happy behavior.

I very much appreciate your refrain from killing rattlers. Hopefully you can come to understand that the world is a BETTER place with them around. If everything that is dangerous to us in the wild is eradicated, there will be no wild places for us to enjoy the beauty and adventure of.

[domromer]

I was kinda being sarcastic about the world being a better place. I just would never like to run into them every time I hike.

[discspeed]

I was kinda being sarcastic about the world being a better place. I just would never like to run into them every time I hike.

I'm actually jealous as I go on hikes just to look for them

[domromer]

Well next time you're in AZ we'll play a round and look for snakes.

[discspeed]

Well next time you're in AZ we'll play a round and look for snakes.

For sure! I've done some hiking around Tucson and I caught a Gila monster, but I didn't see any snakes.

[domromer]

I found the coolest Gila Monster up on the AZ Strip a few weeks ago. I wish I took a picture. The coloring was an amazing pinkish orange.

[niblick83]

You forgot the "Scream like a little girl and run away option." I haven't been surprised badly enough yet to do this because, fortunately for my peace of mind, my home course doesn't have too many snakes but I feel it will happen one of these days. I could manage to deal with a snake if someone is around that knows them but in my own ignorance I don't feel comfortable around them. My policy on snakes is to let them do their thing and I will continue on with my thing. I haven't killed one ever nor do I plan to but it is definitely nice to know that there are people around who will come relocate snakes that take up residence in unwanted areas. I will keep this in mind if I am ever in this situation.

[domromer]

I found the coolest Gila Monster up on the AZ Strip a few weeks ago. I wish I took a picture. The coloring was an amazing pinkish orange.

[Jeronimo]

F%$& Snakes... if they come toward me, they die. Otherwise gtf-away from me you little slimy, slithering bastard.

[Jsw]

Snakes are cool, I like to just check them out for a few minutes - satisfy my curiosity and move on.

Spiders though No thanks.

One time I was coming down the fairway to my lie on 18, I throw my second shot - and when I reached down to pick up my disc and just as I did this huge wolf(i think) spider skirts out onto it my disc - I almost grabbed it

I yanked my hand away and yelped like a little girl.

And the kicker was, while this thing was on my disc - BABY SPIDERS crawled off its' back( i guess the carry their young on their back?? ) and were wandering around on my driver. It was a spider-haters' worst nightmare.

[discspeed]

F%$& Snakes... if they come toward me, they die. Otherwise gtf-away from me you little slimy, slithering bastard.

Closet homosexual...

[discspeed]

Here's my corn snake taking down a very big mouse.

Going...

Going...

Gone.

[discspeed]

Here's my new yellow rat snake taking his first meal and basking in the heat lamp afterwards in a reptilian food coma.

[Jeronimo]

Waste of a mouse and rat.