Snakes on a Plain
Steven (Mon, 04 Nov 2013 17:07:21 PST)

Thank u Terry & tgats good advice for everyone... Your aggression comment is exactly right.. I have caught thousands of snakes over the years for both venom collection & "free" catch & release.. In that time I have only pushed my welcome twice... One when I was in primary school I steped on a log & squished a Rough Scale & it attacked in fear, I made the mistake of moving & it nearly got me.. The only other time I was on a little tractor & saw a huge 9 foot Eastern Brown where I always walk. These are critically deadly, great eye sight, can be volatile if provoked & one this big hasn't seen a predator for 50 years probably so they are scared of nothing. A 9 foot is the biggest ive ever seen, got too close tractor was small & I frightened it, it rose up to eye level to taste the air, & flicking it's round eraticly means I was in danger because it was agitated & ready to defend it's self.. I through the tractor into reverse & pulled my bare feet back as far as I could & it str
uck the tire with 3 super hard bites in less than a second or two.. Venom volume from a single bite would kill a half a dozern elephants so I had my heart in my chest that time..

As a matter of safety, most of our snakes only have about 4mm long fangs, so thick leather hiking boots & jeans are all it takes to greatly help protect you from all Australian snakes up to about 6ft long, except two.. Tipan & Death Adder will bite through a boot.. I know of someone whos husband kicked a death adder & it killed him with a leg bite.. months later his son decided to use his dads boots & a dried fang was torn out in the boot & he felt a strange prick & died, not realizing it was a fang laden with dried venom..

Steven : )

On 05/11/2013, at 5:56 AM, Terry Frewin <frewintp@gmail.com> wrote: