~*An ugly side of our nature*~

Infidel 762

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The human race is by far the most wasteful population on the planet... Chucking something away is a part of everyday life... Been that way for quite some time;



Round here... between the tin and sun, there are snakes... Most aRe easily identifiable... However with this one, I don't know what it is??? It looks like a prairie rattler crossed with a cotton mouth;



Our paths crossed, nowhere near water... It coiled up and shook its tail silently, similar to a rattler... Not sure what he has going on down there?



Short, thick and now dead... Anyway, I thought it best to not fully trust this serpent;



Grasshopper! The corner stone for every nutritious breakfast!



So yeah, it is getting close to time, so I thought I would try... Throw out sum bird and rabbit distress... See if I can call a YOY, in the three digit heat;



Surprisingly, I had an older male come in... He showed himself early in the stand... After the shot I threw out some pup distress... Nothing... I sat there until dark, not knowing how ugly this coyote was;



Nature knows no cruelty, only pitiless indifference... Walking out... I saw it in this deer, Chronically wasting away... Out here... under the stars, things are neither good nor evil... cruel nor kind, just simply callous... Indifferent to all suffering... Lacking clear purpose;



Knelt down to feel his bony flesh... He was shivering to the touch... No use in his back legs with only strength to hold up his head;



By law, it is not legal to put the deer out of its misery... How cruel...
 
looks like the little buck was asking Please put me to Sleep--Guess I'd broke the law-----coyotes pull him down or car hit??? Grats on killing that yote--Thanks for sharing Nice Pic's
 
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I've killed more rattlers than I would like to, that were silent... A theory of mine is that when we are mowing or hydroswinging hay, they curl and rattle in defense and with their tail up, the sickle sections cut off the rattle...
As a matter of fact, just a couple years ago, I was on an irrigation tower making some tweaks, threw the wrenched down, jumped down and 3 ft away was one that had it's rattles missing, not good.
 
Originally Posted By: SVBcoyotes pull him down or car hit???

I am not a vet but I am 90% sure it is either; Epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD)or Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)

the way it was so skinny and shaking, leads me to believe it is CWD
 
good write up. one thing about nature, seldom are there peaceful deaths in your sleep as it sometimes is with humans. Most end in violence on way or the other.
 
Great write up and pics! Most tree huggers have no idea of the cruelty of nature. What we do as sportsmen to keep things in balance help with the cruel nasty deaths. Predator prey deaths are usualy rather violent, but end quick. When there is no balance, and nature uses desease, death seems slow and agonizing. If I were in the shape of that deer and knew there was no chance, I would definatly be glad to see a prime predator!

I HATE snakes!
 
Wife said " i hope he silently helped out the buck " and walked away ! Mother nature is very cruel , we as hunters are all witness to that. Awesome colors on the snake & the grasshopper. Ours are kinda boring. Good to see your still putting them down. Missed my shot this morning
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, next time lol.
 
Originally Posted By: Pa. MickWife said " i hope he silently helped out the buck " and walked away

That deer is no longer suffering
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Strange marked snake, Jeremy. Found an "Oklahoma water snake" that looked similar but couldn't copy picture. (Said it is poisonous.)

These Northern Pacific rattlers are also similar looking but would be a long way from home.
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Your snake appears to be female based on Wilkipedia, "Also, the tails of males taper gradually from the body, whereas the tails of females narrow abruptly at the vent."

By the way, next time you wish to remove a set of rattles, "unscrew them" rather than cutting them off. Cutting leaves a bit of flesh that will need to dry, but if you grasp the body tightly as close to rattles as possible, and rattles by first segment, then twist as to "unscrew", the rattles separate cleanly with a little effort.

Shame we cannot put suffering wildlife out of their misery; always makes me feel badly to go off and leave one. Hope you guys aren'g getting CWD. Read where they found a case in a game farm here in Texas recently. So far none found in indigenous population.

Regards,
hm
 
Wow.. that is different.. I know all i need to know.. Look at the head, that tells me "most of the time" leave it alone, or dispatch.

That Deer is a sad deal. Nature is cruel and people that tell themselves otherwise are lying to themselves.

If i was part of the Game and Fish, I would change the laws to allow for the humane dispatch. [beeep] should have to be the result of ethical hunters that just know what is right.

If you can show a video of it, and clearly this one was in that boat of not being healthy, F&G should be called and told where to find it, and could go test it to see if there is something they should be looking into with biologist.
 
Maybe is a crossbreed or might have come over in a bundle of bananas or an aquarium. God knows enough other stuff has. I saw a Nile monitor lizard along a canal here in Miami about six months ago. Too bad about the deer-hope it is not the start of something wide spread. I would of had to dispatch it in "fear of contracting rabies" or something along those lines.
 
I was also thinking it might be a crossbreed... I don't know how common it is to see cross breeds... I know Florida has a lot of snakes that are not native to the area.. people release pets that survive due to your climate... i don't think native snakes have a very good chance of surviving our winters...

Clarence,
It does look a lot like a water snake with its colors and some of its markings... I have handled a fair share of water snakes that where much longer and not nearly as thick... this one was really short like a prairie rattler... also the scales on this one are very well defined like a rattler, water snakes i have encountered are much smoother.. I am not sure what is going on with its tail, if it is scared from where rattler used to be, or been torn off or partially developed from cross breeding...

normally if the snake is not venomous i don't kill it... with this one i am not sure..

I understand why mercy killing sick animals is not lawful... poachers could shot game and cry mercy killing... our deer numbers have been down the past few years...
 
I hope you did him a favor and gave him a lead sleeping pill. I can't stand to watch an animal suffer. Those were some very interesting pics for sure.
 
My knee-jerk reaction when I saw that snake was water snake. The head shape does have the poisonous look to it, but then that could be distorted by the damage from the bullet passing through right behind it. Tail damage, rattles or not, could make the tail look the way it does. And I think, IIRC, that I have seen water snakes do a "fake rattle" before, but not sure on that. Only way to really tell would be to key it out.

On the deer, we have found some in fences before that other than being hung up, still looked in decent shape. Have released some of them before and watched them run off. Released one a different day though that was a total no-go once he was free. We did our duty on that one. Also have found one hung up that it was obviously eaten by coyotes while it was still alive. All kinds of things cause damage to deer in the wild, any idea what the culprit was on that one?
 
Thankz for sharing - great presentation - Mother Nature Rules -- keep the snakes there -- thankfully we have only a few in the North -The Snow Snake being the most dangerous - with its long hairy fur - snow white camo- coiled and ready to strike -with the warning of its single christmas like bell on its tail tip- Ding! Hibernating in the through the summer heat - Hunting all winter-on the frozen landscape- rarely seen -
 
thanks all

Originally Posted By: JTPinTXMy knee-jerk reaction when I saw that snake was water snake. The head shape does have the poisonous look to it, but then that could be distorted by the damage from the bullet passing through right behind it. Tail damage, rattles or not, could make the tail look the way it does. And I think, IIRC, that I have seen water snakes do a "fake rattle" before, but not sure on that. Only way to really tell would be to key it out.

On the deer, we have found some in fences before that other than being hung up, still looked in decent shape. Have released some of them before and watched them run off. Released one a different day though that was a total no-go once he was free. We did our duty on that one. Also have found one hung up that it was obviously eaten by coyotes while it was still alive. All kinds of things cause damage to deer in the wild, any idea what the culprit was on that one?

not sure what you meant by keying it out... pretty sure the carcass has been eaten or decomposed to nothing... the deer was no where near a fence... I have found them in fences to... most are already dead... funny how easy the can die from the shock of fear and exhaustion, yet run so far after being shot... I am pretty sure the culprit is disease... he was skin and bone...

Originally Posted By: Wile E CoyotieThankz for sharing - great presentation - Mother Nature Rules -- keep the snakes there -- thankfully we have only a few in the North -The Snow Snake being the most dangerous - with its long hairy fur - snow white camo- coiled and ready to strike -with the warning of its single christmas like bell on its tail tip- Ding! Hibernating in the through the summer heat - Hunting all winter-on the frozen landscape- rarely seen -




yeah...
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I hear when bitten by the snow snake your blood freezes
 
My degree is in Wildlife Biology Jeremy, and we had lots of lab classes where we would have to ID various animals. Many things are obvious like a coyote or whitetail deer, but others not so easy. Various mice, bats, snakes, toads, lizards and such can really get down to the nitty-gritty, with very minor variances between species. To help with that they have things called "keys," to help in ID. Basically it is a book where you get asked a series of either/or questions that lead you to the next step. They are set up like, "If it has more than 8 rows of ventral scales go to step 26, if it has 8 rows or less of ventral scales go to step 13." The questions can be about any number of things, scale shape, rows of scales, number of toes, spines or rays in a fishes fins, whatever. Eventually after you go through 10 or 15 or 20 steps it will tell you what genus and species it is. There are keys for mammals, fish, reptiles, all kinds of things.
 
I'm not an expert, but I did just kill one two weeks ago that looked very similar to your snake and it was a water moccasin. Here is a pic I pulled from google:

 
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