http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/2909932/

Thoughts? Any TWWers have the inside scoop?

5/20/2008 10:47:22 AM

(in my pants)

5/20/2008 10:47:55 AM

5/20/2008 10:49:56 AM

UNLEASH THE FURY!!!!

5/20/2008 10:50:13 AM

Quote :

"Byrd said he doesn't walk in the field anymore without a gun, and he won't go into the woods where he last saw the snake. "(Wildlife agents) tried to get me to go with them, but I wouldn't. I told them they hadn't seen what I'd seen.""

5/20/2008 10:50:27 AM

no way he saw a fucking king cobra

5/20/2008 10:58:46 AM

Hm. I wanna be on the news next week. What animal should I spot? Jaguar? 3 Toed Sloth?

5/20/2008 11:01:26 AM

Quote :

"Vernon Byrd was on an all-terrain vehicle in a field off Johnson Road last Tuesday when he said an 8-foot-long snake reared up beside him – and the serpent's head was about shoulder high to him. "

If it wasnt a king cobra, it was still a pretty crazy snake

5/20/2008 11:02:17 AM

They're just playing up the cobra angle to make it a bigger story. The guy said he couldn't identify it, and on the radio this morning they had some kind of snake expert (not sure exactly what he was, but they called him Dr. Snake) who said it could easily have been a native snake that got so big from eating people's cats or dogs that have pretty high-quality food nowadays.

5/20/2008 11:02:27 AM

a lot of people seem to think that what he saw was a Coachwhip Snake

5/20/2008 11:05:15 AM

I doubt it was a King Cobra, but I'll definitely be interested in what it actually was.

5/20/2008 11:08:32 AM

up to 8.5 feet long

5/20/2008 11:11:23 AM

It could've been a coachwhip or a black rat snake (they can hit 6' or more).

The odds of it being a cobra are so incredibly low...and the odds of them catching it are even worse.

5/20/2008 11:16:44 AM

^^coachwhip?


i know that hognose snakes can flatten their heads out too (and they're in this area), but they're not that long.

[Edited on May 20, 2008 at 11:19 AM. Reason : e]

5/20/2008 11:17:01 AM

yep. I doubt it was a hognose spotting. i used to catch them as a kid, and they only grow up to ~30"

5/20/2008 11:20:00 AM

I can't believe there's not a single reference to the high-quality beverage sold in downtown c-stores

On a side note, I'm terrified of snakes. I would've hauled in the opposite direction.

[Edited on May 20, 2008 at 11:22 AM. Reason : ...]

5/20/2008 11:21:48 AM

Hognoses are adorable. I had a chance to work on one at the vet school that came in with a tumor.



I'd never seen such a small intubation tube in my life.

5/20/2008 11:23:33 AM

ahahah i got the chills just imagining a snake rearing up to my shoulder

then i came

5/20/2008 11:24:09 AM

Quote :

"According to Gloyd and Conant (1990), the largest recorded specimen of A. p. piscivorus [eastern cottonmouth] was 74 inches (1879 mm) in length (Conant, 1975), based on a specimen caught in the Dismal Swamp region and given to the Philadelphia Zoological Garden."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agkistrodon_piscivorus

I've seen some fucking huge moccasins before in my life. When a big one rears up with that white mouth and hisses, you'll pay attention. Could the guy have mistaken something like a monster cottonmouth for a cobra? It's possible.

This reminded me, have any of you ever heard of the "Giant Congo Snake"?

Quote :

"A Belgian chopper pilot called Remy Van Lierde took the photo during a patrol over the Republic of Congo in 1959. The snake he witnessed has been estimated to be anywhere from around 40-50 feet long. It was possible to estimate the size of the snake because of the many features on the ground in the images taken. It was described by the pilot as a dark shade of brown and green with a white coloured belly. The jaws were of triangular shape. The pilot claimed the head was a massive 3 feet wide adding that as he cautiously moved in lower for a closer inspection the snake raised itself in the air as high as maybe 10 feet, looking like it may attack the helicopter. After much expert analysis the images taken of this 'Giant Congo Snake' were deemed to be genuine."

http://meta-religion.com/Paranormale/Cryptozoology/Snakes/giant_congo_snake.htm



(Aerial photo)



[Edited on May 20, 2008 at 11:50 AM. Reason : .]

5/20/2008 11:40:26 AM

Almost all snakes do something to mimic a more venomous snake. Copperheads will shake their tail under some leaves to make you think it is a rattlesnake, for example. So, many snakes will flatten their heads as much as they can, but the hood of a cobra is unmistakable.

Last summer at camp, we were checking coverboards. We found one of ours by the water, lifted it up and there was a really big, thick snake coiled up. It reared its head and opened its mouth. Its mouth was pretty white, but we've been told that cottonmouths haven't made it up around wake/durham counties. We didn't even try to catch it - better safe than sorry. Our professor (who wasn't there to see it) told us it had to have been a northern water snake - but I just don't know about that. Even though, the NWS does have a lighter pink mouth. Afterwards, we had to put the thought of a cottonmouth out of our minds, so we were thinking either hognose or NWS.

5/20/2008 11:54:49 AM

List of Places I Won't Visit for a While:

Cumberland County

5/20/2008 12:05:17 PM

^^^ that seems hard to believe. the picture might be genuine, but the claim that its 50 ft is exaggerated.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3845750

5/20/2008 12:21:02 PM

^ Yeah, I actually saw the episode of a TV program that aired this: Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World. Here's a clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R9v51KxdYc

The guy seems credible to me.

5/20/2008 12:29:17 PM

^^Gigantic snake, but not that gigantic.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/bigsnake.asp

5/20/2008 12:49:55 PM

fucking army grunts

[Edited on May 20, 2008 at 12:55 PM. Reason : i could see one of those guys keeping it as a pet and it getting out]

5/20/2008 12:54:08 PM

Quote :

"(I'm) staying in the house," said Ida Edge, who has been on edge about the situation."

hmmm... bad writing or an intentional pun?

5/20/2008 12:59:11 PM

8-foot snake rearing its head up to 5-foot heights = liar

5/20/2008 12:59:54 PM

Quote :

"we've been told that cottonmouths haven't made it up around wake/durham counties."

I have read that there are no Cottonmouths in Wake County, but I have also had relatively credible sources say they have killed them around Falls Lake. It certainly seems possible, but there are some banded water snakes that look a lot like them. I'd have to see one for myself to believe it. Something tells me that the rangers who work in that area every day would be among the list of people who have spotted one if they were really there.

5/20/2008 1:07:51 PM

^ I completely agree. It's easy for someone who is not trained to ID snakes to ID them incorrectly. But, when the wildlife officers say they have seen them - then I'll believe it.


^^^^^ "It's called shrinkage, ok!"

5/20/2008 1:15:09 PM

^ Only when it's really cold.

5/20/2008 1:18:17 PM

I can understand the length changing, but the weight would still be similar.

5/20/2008 1:54:43 PM

I'm with Vernon, fucckkkkkk thattttt

5/20/2008 2:06:14 PM

Quote :

"The guy said he couldn't identify it, and on the radio this morning they had some kind of snake expert (not sure exactly what he was, but they called him Dr. Snake) who said it could easily have been a native snake that got so big from eating people's cats or dogs that have pretty high-quality food nowadays."

For serious? Kitten and puppies, maybe, but what native snake gets big enough to consume an adult cat or dog?

5/20/2008 2:18:50 PM

this is a hoax

my schlong was nowhere near cumberland county last week

5/20/2008 2:22:37 PM

Schlong????

are you in 8th grade or something

but then again based on your statement

you must be......

5/20/2008 3:59:48 PM

what's wrong with schlong?


what is your preferred descriptive word for male genitalia?

5/20/2008 4:41:09 PM

I think its totally possible for a big snake to eat an adult dog. I mean... look.



Also, its possible for this guy to have seen a cobra. The illegal pet trade is pretty big, and if you don't want it anymore, you can't really get rid of it legally. So, the easiest (/laziest and dumbest) thing to do is let it go. And if it escapes, you can't exactly report it.

[Edited on May 20, 2008 at 6:53 PM. Reason : ]

5/20/2008 6:48:22 PM

^ hell..i was watching animal planet the other night and they had 3 cobras down in miami loose. .....some dumbass probably let their illegal pet go when they realized "oh shit, that's a dangerous snake."

5/20/2008 9:57:52 PM

idk part of me wants this to be true cause i think thats kinda cool to have some rare animal in the woods but part of me just thinks this is some dumb rube

5/20/2008 10:07:17 PM

5/20/2008 10:09:11 PM

Quote :

"I think its totally possible for a big snake to eat an adult dog. I mean... look."

That's not a species native to North Carolina. My eight-foot boa couldn't manage to shallow an adult chicken. It's bigger than anything you'll find around here. I've never heard of native snakes eating cats or dogs. As far I know, black rat snakes (perhaps the largest NC species) typically lose encounters with cats.

5/20/2008 10:20:22 PM

^^ i know right

MAD DOG 20/20 SPOTTED IN FAYETTEVILLE

5/20/2008 11:08:15 PM

^^ Yes. There are dogs and cats in other parts of the world though, parts of the world like where the King Cobra is from - and that is what I was getting at. I did not say that a NC native snake could eat a cat or dog. I did not specify "a big snake" because I know that the snake I posted a picture of is not from around here. Not even our continent. Our (NC) indigenous snake species rarely get longer than 8 ft in the wild.


Oh and, from the article:

Quote :

"a king cobra, the world's largest poisonous snake."

Come on now.... its VENOMOUS.

5/20/2008 11:48:24 PM

Quote :

"UNLEASH THE FURY!!!!"

road trip quote, +10 points

anyways, occams razor would suggest it is most likely a mistaken identification. anyone recall many years back when they found that fish in falls lake that looked a lot like a piranha....but it turned out to be some kind of plant eating fish that looked similar.

personally, i woulndt fuck with that thing, but im not a nature retard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYdfLeo3QRw

[Edited on May 21, 2008 at 12:39 AM. Reason : .]

5/21/2008 12:35:44 AM

That'll do... that'll do.

5/21/2008 12:52:28 AM

Quote :

""(I'm) staying in the house," said Ida Edge, who has been on edge about the situation."

5/21/2008 7:28:33 AM

Well considering the news reports are from people who don't know what they are talking about (Dumb redneck on ATV, Dumb fat redneck with clampstick making stupid claims, and dumb "dr. snake"
calling a radio show and feeding the stupid idea that snakes are magically getting bigger) best case scenario it is a coachwhip worst case scenario it is a garden hose. "Dr. snake" is an idiot. Smaller populations of snakes and less habitat mean that very few actually size records are being broken, especially in our larger species of snake. There is a reason why the previously mentioned record for the cottonmouth was from 1975 and not today when there are many more people out there doing research on the subject!

Quote :

"But, when the wildlife officers say they have seen them - then I'll believe it. "

Sounds like a good idea but I have seen many an ignorant park ranger etc ID Watersnakes as cottonmouths or copperheads. Best bet is to learn what is actually around and learn to ID it for yourself then you don't have to trust any of these idiots!

5/21/2008 8:05:15 AM

i'm just glad that when I moved to Raleigh that I don't have to worry about these bastards as much.

5/22/2008 7:57:30 AM

Quote :

"Its genus name, Ophiophagus, literally means "snake-eater", and its diet primarily consists of other snakes, including sizeable pythons and even smaller members of its own species."

holy shit.

5/22/2008 8:13:04 AM

Quote :

"The Black Mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) is an elapid snake. It is the largest venomous snake in Africa and the second largest venomous snake in the world. Only the King Cobra is larger. Adult black mambas have an average length of 2.5 meters (8.2 ft) and a maximum length of 4.5 meters (14 ft). The black mamba receives its name from the black coloration inside of its mouth, rather than their skin color which is a gray to olive tone. The black mamba is reputed to be the fastest moving snake in the world, and has been claimed to move at up to 20 km/h (12.5 mph)."

Quote :

"A single bite from a Black Mamba may inject enough venom to kill 20-40 grown men, easily killing one unless the appropriate anti-venom is administered in time. When cornered, they will readily attack. When in the striking position, the mamba flattens its neck, hisses very loudly and displays its inky black mouth and deadly fangs. It can rear up around one-third of its body from the ground which allows it to reach heights of approximately four feet. When warding off a threat, the black mamba usually delivers multiple strikes, injecting its potent neuro- and cardiotoxin with each strike, often attacking the body or head, unlike most other snakes."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_mamba

Good thing it's not a Black Mamba--they're very venomous, fast, and aggressive.

5/22/2008 8:20:57 AM