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What is your favorite child hood herping memory
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by H20mocasin on September 14, 2005
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Mine is this, I am leisurely strolling along Vero Beach looking at brown and green anoles scatter across the skinniest shrubbery known to man. I was bending down to get a closer look at these lizards when i turn my head to the left a little bit and notice a large snake head less than 15 feet from my left knee. Fortunatley, at the age of 13, I wasn't nervous, and definatley pointed out a pale white form of probably a 5 foot Southern Pine Snake.
This also happend to be my spring break and was staying at the adjacent holiday inn, but i was teased by my uncle ever since that the snake sensed my body heat...stupid old person joke. It was actually that moment where i turned my reptile fascination from gators to snakes...and only 50 yards from the salty atlantic.
Now tell me yours!
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by KINGRIUS on September 15, 2005
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I was 10 years old in my backyard in Florida raking leaves and uncovered a 10" ringneck. It's shiny black skin fascinated me and I collected it and put it in a little aquarium and it ate a baby toad for me. From then on its been snakes on the brain. They're awesome.
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by roadkruzer on September 15, 2005
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I was 7 years old and lifted an old piece of tin in my backyard and saw a snake. I had no Idea what kind it was but knew I wanted it. I grabbed the snake by the tail just as it was trying to escape into a hole. I put it in a bucket. My dad wasn't home so I showed it to an adult neighbor who said that it was not venomous. I then proceeded to hold it when it began to strike and bite me repeatedly. I was bitten 9 times on the hands and arms. Ecstatic that I just had been bitten by my very own snake, I ran inside to the kitchen where my mom was cooking dinner. Standing behind her with snake in hand and arms slightly bleeding I yelled, "Mom guess what. I just got bit by a snake 9 times." Well I guess you can imagine what my mother did. I was able to eventually disuade her from rushing me to the emergency room and she even let me keep the snake. Looking back, it was an eastern garter snake. Amazingly, I even have a picture of me holding the snake the day I caught it which is now hanging in my snake room. From there my passion grew and grew which has led me to doing community education to promote understanding & tolerance for snakes. You can see my web-site at SnakesAreUs.com
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by Buzztail1 on September 15, 2005
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I lived in Iceland for 3 years.
No snakes there but plenty of time to study and memorize every snake book I could get my hands on and they had a great library.
We finally moved to Virginia (when I was 14 or 15) and one sunny summer day I saw a beautiful little banded snake swimming around and diving in a clear water pond.
After watching it for several minutes I was pretty sure that it was a nonvenomous water snake but I hadn't seen one since I was 10 or 11.
I reached in and grabbed it and it promptly bit me several times. I walked home holding my prize and put it in a large jar before tearing into my trusty Peterson Field Guide for proof of identification. As I was turning pages, my mom walked by and asked what was wrong. I replied that I had just been bitten by a snake. Surprisingly, she calmly asked if it was poisonous. (No-one was very concerned about the whole poisonous vs venomous back in the early 70s) I told her that I didn't think so but that I was checking. My mom was so cool! She just said "Okay, let me know when you find out." And she walked away! She was much more confident in all the studying that I had done than I was at the time. It turned out to be a water snake and my snake catching career was back on track after my hiatus to Iceland.
Just a little follow-up information:
My dad never liked snakes and still has to struggle to be able to talk with me about them. My mom supported my studies and interests. Unfortunately she passed away earlier this year. Thanks for letting me share this wonderful memory of her.
Karl H. Betz
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by surucucu on September 15, 2005
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My father was raised in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains by his grandmother who never went past the fourth grade. He didn’t have running water or electricity in his log home. As a child he was taught that there is nothing more evil than a snake. My father was taught to be afraid of snakes. He grew up, went to college, and had children of his own. One day when I was six years old, my father accompanied me to the closest stream to catch minnows and crayfish. What we found was a water snake. It scared me do death. I started to cry and ran up his leg for protection. My father doesn’t like to touch a picture of a snake, but with in a week he brought me home a baby milk snake so that I would learn about snakes and not have an irrational fear of them like he does. I loved that little snake. The first thing I “learned” was that snakes liked warm places, so I carried it around in my mouth. I don’t think my father thought I would take it so far. I am very appreciative to have such a smart and caring father. He still hates snakes, but I can get him to come herping with me. Chris
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by Snake18 on September 15, 2005
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I was 13...
I was in vacation with my mom and grandmother in a turist resort by the black sea in Romania. There, I saw my first snake in the wild, in a lake close to my hotel. I loved snakes, and caught other herps, but never thought of catching my own snakes till then. So I got an older guy to go looking for snakes with me. He caught a dice snake(Natrix tessellata) in another lake and gave it to me.
After about half an hour I was walking around my hotel, and the lake, and playing with my dice snake. I gave it to somebody else to hold it for a little while and continued walking around the lake, when I saw a "huge" snake dragging it`s self across a piece of semi-submirged concrete in the water. I tailed it and brought it to the road. Everybody around there aplouded me. I had caught my self a 4ft. grass snake(Natrix natrix). It was hissing, and lauching it`s head at me(without biting). Of course, I din`t know it wouldn`t bite so I just tried to stay clear of the head. I later realised that both snakes wouldn`t bite so I careleasly played with them till dusk. Befor going to my hotel room I released both of them. It was an awesome experience for me at that age, and it was the experience I needed to make me want to get seriously envolved in herpetology.
Best regards, Alex S.
P.S.: great topic !
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by thenewdisciple on September 15, 2005
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my favorite would have to be a general memory of my childhood in cleveland ohio. across the street from my house was 2 big ponds owned by a doctor. in these ponds were massive bullfrogs. my dad would take us out at night with a big fish net and catch the frogs. we would force feed them meatballs and get them big as possible, come early fall there was a frog jumping competition a county over. the winner got a paid trip to do the valley city frog jump in california. the best i ever did was 2nd place, but still a great memory. i have my dad to thank for getting me into animals.
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by H20mocasin on September 15, 2005
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hey i liked that last one! im waiting for the big guys to respond to this posting...im enjoying these stories very much. peace...out!
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by Cro on September 15, 2005
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I can remember going to Silver Springs, Florida to Ross Allen`s Reptile Institue. I was about 6 or 7 at the time, and got to see Ross and his reptile show. I remember Ross worked with diamondback rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, coral snakes, and yellow rat snakes, and he milked the diamondback. That was the first time I had ever heard the buzz of a rattlesnake rattle, and I remember how loud it sounded. His assistant was a very young Andy Kakoulis. After the show, he took a huge indigo snake and draped it over my neck and sholders. I still have an old black and white photo of me and that indigo snake. Best Regards JohnZ
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by GREGLONGHURST on September 16, 2005
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also got the chance to meet Ross Allen at his Reptile Institute. I am still impressed by the fact that he spent as much time as he did talking to a very interested, but still young fourteen year old kid. We talked for a good half hour, & I'm sure he had better things to do with his time.
As far as herping, I used to hunt Krome Avenue west of Miami with a couple of buddies in about 1959. The water snakes were huge.
The following are from my young adulthood:
The first couple of edb's I found are still etched in my memory bank. There was also the cottonmouth I caught one night that was so big that I thought it was two, one laying on top of the other. I put the tongs on it & lifted gently so as to not frighten the second one. There was no second one..it was 2" shy of five feet. The bag I had already had 3 cottonmouths in it, so I hand carried the big fella a half mile up to the park & put it in the pit.
~~Greg~~
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