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My greatest reptile discovery to date.

Ozzy

SirKristoff is a poopiehead
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I had to work Saturday. Me and my boss was riding in a golf cart when we came up on another foreman that had stopped his truck in the road and was looking in the back of the truck. We stopped and walked up to him and I looked in the bucket. I saw a snake with it's head completely flattened. Without even hardly looking at the snake, my first reaction was to ask, "Why did you kill it?" He said "I didn't kill it"

I looked closer and I realized I was looking at a snake that I have been looking for for years. It was a hognose snake. I reached in and he hissed and struck at my hand. Hognose snakes don't bite but they will strike at you like they are going to. I picked him up and he calmed right down. He still had his hood spread though. In his hood he had a cool rainbow of colors. There was bits of yellow, purple, blue and so on. I asked what he planned to do with him. He said he was going to take him in the woods and let him go. I asked if I could have him. I told him I may keep him for as while and then let him go.

So I took him and I had to figure out what I was going to do with him until I got off work. That was 9 more hrs. I got a cleaner bucket and a cardboard box I taped the box onto the bucket.

Luckily I was working in some offices that day, so I didn't have to worry about heat.

I couldn't wait until lunch. I took him out, let him crawl all over me. He seemed as tame as any pet snake could be.

I took this pic with my phone. I hope the womans who this office belongs to don't mind me letting a snake crawl all over her pc screen and phone.

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I brought him home and let him rest from his stressful day. On Sunday I went to get him out of the tank I made for him and I guess I scared him a little. He went straight into the thing that hognoses are known for. He started playing dead.

I got my camera and I got some nice shots of this.

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I took him outside to get some better pics.

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Look at his faint pattern.


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I'll get more pics of him later. I'll also film his release.



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awsome! i love it!

if only we had such cool reptiles in urban california!
 
Beauty. Never seen one so dark. You plan on keeping him long term or gonna free him?
 
Great find. That's a great video of him/her playing dead! That must take some strong will power to just lie there while being poked and prodded.

xvart.
 
Good for you for taking such good care of him. That's a really neat video!
 
Beauty. Never seen one so dark. You plan on keeping him long term or gonna free him?


That's what i need the frogs for. It depends if I can get him to eat. By the way some are solid black. I'm sure this one will be when he gets a little older.
 
  • #10
dont they give off a foul smell when they play dead?? great pics! and good thing your buddy didnt kill it!

Alex
 
  • #11
They give off musk like most other snakes. The hognose musk wasn't that bad though.
 
  • #12
You get my PM on some possible frogs??
 
  • #13
Yes I got your PM. Sorry that I didn't get back to you.

I don't think I'm willing to do what I'll have to do to get this snake to eat.

I don't want to feed him live frogs or put frogs in the blender to scent mice.

I'm planning to release him next week.


Thanks for the offer though.
 
  • #14
You didn't discover him, the guy with the bucket did!
 
  • #15
But I discovered the guy with the bucket.

I thought I'd give a little update.

Sunday I met with a guy to film cp's and various wildlife in the area. I thought it would be a special treat for him to film the snake. He got some great footage of him spreading his hood and of him playing dead. As far as I know this is the only quality video of this, and he has it in HD. You may be seeing this guy on nature shows soon.

Anyway, as much as I didn't want to, I released him this morning. I risked my job and violated federal regulations by taking my camera along just so you guys could see the release. Unfortunately I left my memory card at home. So I got no pics.

First thing this morning I borrowed a golf cart and headed into the woods behind the plant. There's a few miles of wooded land that was perfect for the hognose. I chose a place that was semi sandy, and had a water supply so that there would be plenty of frogs for the snake to eat.

Here are Google Earth pics of where I released him.

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If you look close there is a stream that runs through there. I let him go on the bank. He crawled straight to a hole and hid in it. It was like he knew where he was going. As soon as I let him go, two ground skinks quickly crawled down the ditch bank. So he should have plenty of food.

I'm really going to miss him.
 
  • #16
You did a good thing :)
 
  • #17
yeah they do glider.
atleast with my experiances with them.
but they are oddly cute when young.
 
  • #18
Ozzy,

Very neat find. I'm proud of you for releasing the hognose. Cool how you gave the location.

Question: Was the posterior part of the belly darker than the undersurface of the tale?If so its probably the eastern hognose snake.
It looks like Heterodon platyrhinos to me because it I did not see any dorsal dark blotches.

There are two species of hognose snakes that live in coastal regions of NC.
The eastern hognose snake (Heterodon platyrhinos) and the southern hognose snake (Heterodon simus). I do a good bit of research on threatened and endangered species with my job. The southern hognose snake either was or still is listed as "special concern" by both state and federal agencies. You probably already know this means it is not considered threatened or endangered yet but may be in the future if deemed necessary. If it was the southern sp. it was an even rarer find that that of the eastern. Either way neat find. I've lived in NC all my life and never seen one.

In the spring/summer I'm trying to get some folks together to do some hiking around the Sandhills or the Green Swamp for some observing and photography. I have not been in years. If you are interested let me know.

Victor
 
  • #19
I know about the two species. I think that the southern has been placed on the endangered list, for NC anyway. I tried to get info from the state but they act like they don't know the laws themselves. I saw the permit to keep endangered species that cape fear serpentarium has that they were listed.

If you look at this pic you can see the bottom of the tail is different and lighter the the rest of the belly, that makes it an eastern. It was more obvious in person than in the pic.







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I used this snake in documentary that was shot about this area. You can see some of the footage here.
http://www.hdvisions.co.uk/

Look for where it says See Neils work here.

Where are you located? I live about 10 miles form the Green Swamp. I'd love to join you out there sometime.
 
  • #20
Ozzy,

Have you come across any pygmy rattlers or other vipers down there? Photos? What about northern pine snakes (Pituophis melanoleucus melanoleucus )? I saw a beautiful king snake last time I was that way.

The only vipers I've come across other than a copperhead here and there was a timber rattlesnake way over in heath balds of the Transylvania county mountains.

Victor
 
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