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CaneBrake
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by David_Eakin on August 14, 2008
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I was walking after dinner last night with my girlfriend and as we walked up the trail we saw this gorgeous Canebrake stretched out across the trail. I wanted to keep him really bad. My girlfriend wouldn't even let me get very close to get a really good picture. All I had was my camera phone so the pic stinks. He was a gorgeous snake, probably one of the prettiest I've ever seen, the picture doesn't do him justice. I wish they weren't so uncommon. He/she was about 48" and very healthy looking. We were in east Magnolia Texas about 30 miles North of Houston close to a creek bed.
http://www.venomousreptiles.org/libraries/showfilepage/6287?offset=347
I'm also curious. We were fairly close to houses. On one hand I felt like warning the people that lived close to be careful but on the other hand I knew they would find and kill him even if they are protected. I wasn't equiped to catch and move him so we just shooed him into the woods away from houses. What else should/could I do? While this snake was very docile he was also quite large and a bite would have been very serious if not fatal. I would feel terrible if someone got bit but also if the snake got killed. Any Input?
David
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RE: CaneBrake
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by Cro on August 14, 2008
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David, over the years, I have found dozens of Canebrake Rattlesnakes that were living next to barns and sheds that were within a few feet of peoples houses.
We would often ask the folks if we could look for snakes in the pile of boards and tin they had next to their barns or sheds. And they would usually say, "go ahead, but you wont find any snakes there."
And we would turn up a 5 foot Canebrake Rattlesnake that the folks never knew was there. When they learned of the snake, they would always say, "keep looking" and take all you find. And they would allways be incredulous that a large rattlesnake was living that close to their houses.
The point that I am trying to make is that the Canebrake is able to live next to people and never cause a problem, year after year. You do not hear of many Canebrake bites, compared to Diamondback bites, or Copperhead or Cottonmouth, or Pygmy bites, or Coral Snake bites. They are secretive snakes, and prefer to remain hidden, and they will retreat quickly when disturbed.
For that reason, I would not tell the folks near by about your finding the snake. Most likely, it will not harm anyone. If you tell folks about it, they will surely harm it.
Hope this helps.
Best Regards John Z
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RE: CaneBrake
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by agkistrodude on August 14, 2008
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David, beautiful canebrake. My favorite rattlesnake. I agree with Cro, they frequently live undetected for long periods of time close to people. The one in your pic apparently got that big, close to people,for quite awhile undetected.Also, from what I've read, almost all of the canebrakes/timbers that are relocated very far don't survive.Once you remove it , its better off in your collection or find someone else that can provide a good home for it. Maybe some others have more input on that.But I guess a fighting chance at surviving sometimes might be better than certain death.The few that I've saved from being killed went to private collections.(not counting the many I've moved off the road before they they got squished.)Take care, Marty
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RE: CaneBrake
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by FSB on August 14, 2008
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Nice-looking snake, for sure. I especially like the broken bands over the stomach. Has anyone else ever noticed how the patterns on timbers and canebrakes break up, or do something weird, over the stomach area? Don't know what it means, but they do.
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RE: CaneBrake
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by David_Eakin on August 15, 2008
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Thanks for the posts. It was a beautiful snake that I would have added to my collection in a heartbeat but they have "threatened" status in Texas and I just didn't think I could take it. I had no cage built for it or way to get it home anyway. When I first saw it I almost thought it was someones boa that has escaped because of the colors. <sigh> They are very rare in our area so I don't know if I'll ever run across one again but it was an incredible experience to run across him. It's definately one of the most beautiful snakes in Texas. Now if I can just find a nice pigmy, he's coming home with me...
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RE: CaneBrake
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by David_Eakin on August 15, 2008
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BTW
What is it about seeing a snake like this that makes you feel this uncontrollable urge to catch it and take it home? It's almost like a mental illness. I wanted this snake bad, if my girlfriend hadn't been there and I would have had the means I'm not sure I could have controlled myself. Because of all the houses being built I know his days are numbered anyway. He was such a perfect specimen...
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RE: CaneBrake
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by LadyBloodRose on August 15, 2008
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I definately wouldn't tell anyone near by about the snake. Poeple fear what they don't understand by nature an frankly how many non snake people realy know anything about these beautiful snakes?
The common man would immeidtaely think upon hearing the word rattler (or words rattlesnake) - death, bite, kill etc. you get the point....
Some people may just not care long as they don't see it (out of sight is out of mind), Others may take it upon themselves to "protect" the community an do ana ll out "manhunt" which could result in the death of not only that snake but any others in the area possibly venomus an non as not to many people care. IE. a snake is a snake an thus should be killed because it is such.
Maybe you'll see him again on anouther walk ;)
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RE: CaneBrake
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by FSB on August 20, 2008
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David, I know exactly what you mean. When my son was first born, I stopped keeping venomous snakes for a few years, and was living in a place where it was totally impractical to do so anyway, so that's when I got into breeding Dumeril's boas. Also, the area was pretty much lacking in ophiodiversity (one reason I was so glad to finally get away), black rat snakes and copperheads being about all you ever saw, and precious few of those. Then, on a late August visit to our family farm in southern Virginia I woke up at dawn one morning and went outside to look around. I was still kinda groggy, and walked up the driveway behind my parents house where my father had placed a large number of rocks along a steep bank for erosion control. From about 50 feet away I spotted something definitely reptilian protruding from the rocks... a large coil of, what the hell is that, a ball python? (Like I said, I wasn't altogether awake yet). Then I suddenly remembered where I was, and excitedly rushed over to find two gorgeous gravid female timbers coiled up together (they're really indistiguishable from canebrakes there, even though it's in the mountains). I had always suspected that my parents had built their house on a parturition site, which made me all the more determined to set things aright and someday convert the place into a serpentarium! Anyway, I woke up my wife so she could see them, and took a bunch of photos. Then I decided I'd better move them farther up the mountain a ways, since my mother wouldn't like them that close to the house. Oh, how I wanted to take them home with me, but at the time it just wasn't possible. The larger of the two was easily the most handsome TR I'd ever seen on our farm. My young wife really hadn't seen me work with venomous snakes, and she was being rather annoyingly worrisome while I carefuly removed the snakes and placed them in large plastic trash cans. I kept and watched them for a couple of days, then the day before we were to leave, I walked them up the mountain and released them along a stream, spaced about 50 yards apart. The next morning, just before we left, I couldn't resist walking back up there just to look, though I seriously doubted I'd see either one of them again. To my amazement, I found them once again coiled up together at the base of a tree.
I had to spend one more long winter back where I was, but I couldn't get those snakes out my mind. They inspired me, at the first opportunity, to get out of that life and return to my first love, snakes, with an unrepentant vengeance, determined to spend the rest of my days working in their behalf in whatever ways possible. And if I ever get myself involved with another woman, she's just gonna have to be a damn Grace Wiley, that's all.
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