Who Has Poisonous Reptiles Where They Live?

in #nature7 years ago

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Snakes and Lizards Native to the UK
Image source: BBC

I live in UK where we only have one poisonous snake! It is called the 'Adder' or 'Common Viper'. They are rare here so I've never seen one.

Adders are usually brown with zigzags from head to tail and spots on their sides. In the UK Adders are found in England, Wales and Scotland but are thee are none in Ireland where there are no snakes.

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Adder or Common Viper
Image source: Jason Steel Wildlife Photogarhy

Another of our UK snakes is the 'Grass Snake'. There aren't any grass snakes in Scotland or Ireland but are common in Egland and Wales.

Grass snakes like ponds because they are very good swimmers and find food in the water.

As they are non-venomous they are sometimes caught and eaten by small mammals like badgers and foxes.

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Grass Snake
Image source: Froglife

The last snake found in Britain is the 'Smooth Snake'. It's quite rare, only being found in the south of England. They are often seen in pairs. Again, I've never seen one.

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Smooth Snake
Image source: Froglife

Please tell me about your snakes if you live somewhere else.

Thank you for viewing.

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I grew up in the State of Alabama in the United States on a small farm in a lowland area. There was a creek running through our property and we had several springs where water just bubbled up out of the ground. The land along the creek was swampy and stayed wet most of the year and was very prone to flood during heavy rain storms. The rest of our land was divided into fields for crops and fields for livestock grazing.

This provided a perfect setting in our warm climate for many types of reptiles, especially snakes and frogs. Almost every day as a kid I came upon a snake while out working or playing. I had to learn to quickly identify them and avoid the poisonous or aggressive varieties. I was often accompanied by our small dog when going into the more dangerous areas, she was part Chihuahua but mostly just a mutt. That dog hated snakes and it would walk the paths through dense brush or thick grass ahead of me checking for danger. She was bitten a few times (Usually for taking on a snake too big for her to handle) but always survived. I have no idea how many poisonous snakes that dog killed, keeping them away from us or our home, but it was a very large number. She was fast and would work herself into a position to grab the snake in the middle, and then she would shake here head back and forth very rapidly until she snapped all of that snakes vertebrae.

The main poisonous varieties that I encountered on a day to day basis were Cotton Mouths (Moccasins) near the water, and Copperheads in the brush and brambles and out in the fields. Most of the snakes that we saw though were not poisonous and were actually very beneficial around the farm by helping to keep the rodent population to a minimum. Occasionally a big chicken snake would find the roost and steal a few eggs, but most of the time our rooster kept them run off from the hen house.

We had some fun snakes also, most people have no idea how entertaining snakes can be. There were a lot of black snakes around, we called them black racers. If you came upon one of these black racers out in the fields or in the woods you could take off running after them, they were very fast. After you chased them for a few yards turn around and run the other way, they would chase you back! It was a fun game for a bored kid to play lol.

When I went to Summer Camp it was considered a big status boost if you could find and catch a ring neck snake, they were small dark colored snakes with a golden ring around their neck. Every bunk house and their leader wanted to catch and have one of these snakes as a pet for our time at the camp, if your bunkhouse didn't have one the rest of the campers made fun of you for being so unlucky or inept. And the house leaders lost status points with the other leaders also, so there was a lot of pressure on us kids to get out and find a snake for our bunkhouse. These snakes made great pets during our stay at camp and the camp leaders took that opportunity to teach about the different varieties of snakes and why there was no need to fear most of them. That was very good instruction for the kids that lived in the city, many of which had never even seen a snake. I'm sure that they main reason for this tradition was to get us to go outside exploring soon after we arrived and to get our minds off of home.

My favorite snake of all time is the Puff Adder, this is the most fun and comical snake in the world, at least in my opinion. They are not dangerous, but you would never know that if you came up on one and he felt threatened in any way. They will rise up like a cobra, flatten out their head to look like one and then hiss at you, looking very mean and aggressive! But tap him lightly on the head with a pencil or some other object and he will immediately fall to the ground, roll over on his back and lay his tongue out like he is dead! It is one of the funniest things that I have ever seen an animal do, and it is impossible to get them to roll back over onto their belly. If you try to turn them over they just roll all the way over on their back again with that long tongue laying out and eyes shut, it is so funny.

Well that's my story on snakes, I'm sorry that you didn't garner more comments or upvotes on this really nice blog. 🙂

Thank you so much for your interesting reply. It must have been exciting to grow up there. The Puff Adder sounds so cool.

I am used to low response on posts. I don't expect much but it would be nice to have them read.

Thanks again for your reply :)

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