Thread: Some Local Wildlife

Originally Posted by Stubear

they're not actually that big. Maybe 3" across I would say. But man it was aggressive, banging its fangs against the glass tank and rearing up on its legs.

Only in Oz would 3" across be "not that big" for a famously venomous and highly agressive spider. Around here, my wife would be on the table screaming, I'd be on the chair next to her, screaming and shooting .45's at it.

Originally Posted by treydampier

15 feet is enormous. ..... Its a shame they killed it, but if some kid ran into it, it would either kill them with the bite or cause them to loose a limb depending on the location of the bite.

I thought 15 feet was outside the realm of possibility for an ED rattler. The amount of venom that would be injected would have a high liklihood of killing a child and many adults, I think! Regardless, the tissue damage would be horrific. However, I don't like to see animals killed just ebcause we are in their territory. It's not like there aren't places it could have been relocated to, though they are so plentiful in some areas that I'm sure the ecological cost/benefit isn't really there as far as the animal cotrol officers are concerned. But a zoo would make sense for such a beast!!!!



EDIT: AHA! Your own personal snopes service.....
http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news...ge_rattlesnake

Picutre look familiar? Seven foot three inches. 15 feet would be about twice as long as the previosuly recorded LARGEST EVER! Now, that is STILL a monstrous ED.

"Brandon Booth, the A-1 Trapper Man, told Action News he's seen snakes like that before. And he knows they're not something to mess around with. "They're venomous. So they can kill you or make you lose a limb." he said.

Booth killed the snake and gave it to a local man, who will use its skin to make sheaths for knives."

Hallettsville, Texas
About 70 miles east of us.
About 30 miles south of IH-10 between Sealy and Luling, about half way between San Antonio and Houston.

Good old Texas wildlife.