# Interesting encounter with a rat snake



## Hoot (Aug 5, 2015)

Mountain biking this morning in Dallas, I came upon this 4' joker, lying on the trail and facing away.  I stopped, to take a look, and because I didn't want to run over it.  It didn't seem to want to give up "owning" the trail.







Then it turned around, and commenced to coil.






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I tried to coax it away with a pine limb.  It didn't strike the limb, but would not allow me to guide it off of the trail.  So I eased my front bike tire up to it, and it didn't like that at all.  It struck.






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What was really interesting was that as soon as it turned around and coiled, it kept rattling its tail.  I did a double take, thinking maybe I had mistaken a rattler for a rat snake.  But there were no rattles on its tail.  I have seen hognose snakes do that, but never rat snakes.

When I backed my bike away from it, to put away my phone, it slowly crawled away in the woods.

Years ago, I kept a black rat snake as a "pet" for a while, when someone brought one to me at work in a pillowcase.  It had a very testy temperment, and I never even tried to tame it.  When I let it go in the woods, it turned around and coiled, ready to bite, as if saying, "Gee, thanks for letting me go".


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## j_seph (Aug 5, 2015)

Cool experience but I have always been told that you can not tame a snake you can only condition them to tolerate you as more than a predator to them


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## Hoot (Aug 5, 2015)

j_seph said:


> Cool experience but I have always been told that you can not tame a snake you can only condition them to tolerate you as more than a predator to them



Yep.  I don't think they ever get to liking people and becoming "cuddly".  

They (some of them) just get accustomed to people.


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## fishtail (Aug 5, 2015)

They are exactly like that from birth.
On a couple of instances I found some about 8" long. They quickly stood their ground, struck and even rattled their tail against the mulch.
I had to get close enough to look them in the eye ball to make sure they weren't a baby rattler.


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## T-N-T (Aug 5, 2015)

Snakes are not cuddly.  

But fun to come up on in a situation like that one Hoot.

Thanks for sharing.


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## TimBray (Aug 10, 2015)

Several weeks ago, I ran across a Eastern King about 4' long that did the same thing. Cutting the grass and almost ran over him/her. Got off the mower to move it along (the others I've come across usually will crawl away as you walk up) but it coiled and I noticed it rattling it's tail also. Never seen one do that before.    Wound up prodding it with a limb to get it moving.


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## HammerG26 (Jan 2, 2016)

I used to have a red rat snake I would take to school in my shirt, until he came out during language arts - my teacher was not a fan...
He was really tame... I would take him everywhere...


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## little rascal (Jan 3, 2016)

*Yea, just*

wait until you run up on the copperheads that like laying in the trail, they won't scoot on!
You can take a cottonmouth into captivity and he will be as gentle and docile as a pussycat. Just don't step on him though, he will strike then.


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## smokey30725 (Jan 7, 2016)

little rascal said:


> wait until you run up on the copperheads that like laying in the trail, they won't scoot on!
> You can take a cottonmouth into captivity and he will be as gentle and docile as a pussycat. Just don't step on him though, he will strike then.



I'll take your word on that, lol. Although, as a dumb kid of about 10, I did manage to catch a copperhead and bring it into the house and play with it. Never did strike. I took it out into the woods and released it and then bothered to look up what I had caught in the big Audobon field guide my dad bought me. Only then did I realize what I had caught.


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## Hoot (Jan 7, 2016)

smokey30725 said:


> I'll take your word on that, lol. Although, as a dumb kid of about 10, I did manage to catch a copperhead and bring it into the house and play with it. Never did strike. I took it out into the woods and released it and then bothered to look up what I had caught in the big Audobon field guide my dad bought me. Only then did I realize what I had caught.



You sure were lucky.  Oh, and when a 2' Copperhead is trying to crawl away, and you reach down and flick its tail, it kinda gets really, really mad.


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