Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Copperhead snake

So I thought I'd go down for a wonder in the backyard and spend some time with our dog Gus. He was sleeping very soundly on the back step.

I reached down to wake him up and to my shock there was a Copperhead Snake all curled up sleeping like right next to him. If I didn't know that Copperheads where deadly I may have found this almost cute. They both seemed very content basking in the sun together.

I very (VERY) carefully woke up Gus, took him by the collar and moved him before he noticed who his napping mate was.

We put him in the house and then I stomped on the deck a bit to wake the snake from his slumber... luckily he moved off without a fuss. Most snakes are actually very timid if you don't harass, poke or tread on them.

Above is picture of him heading off down the yard and back into the bush....

Mark Sobierajski a local snake wrangler in Nowra NSW gave us this bit of information:
Austrelaps superbus is a common copperhead, very bitty but not really aggressive, it can kill you. I think about # 3 or 4th deadliest snake in Australia.

2 comments:

Chris Kreussling (Flatbush Gardener) said...

Whoa. Good thing you were paying attention.

In North America we also have a poisonous snake with the common name "Copperhead". It looks like a very different beasty than yours.

What does it mean when you say it's "very bitty"?

Alexander said...

Hi xris, 'very bitty' you know they are very inclined to bite you if you step on them or if they get scarred.