Snakes

By: Glenn Wilsey, Sr.

In my stories I talk a lot about alligators and some of you have asked about snakes in the everglades. As a child growing up in the everglades I played with alligators but also played with snakes. Living in the everglades we would see alligators in our back yard along with snakes. On many mornings I would here my mom calling me to chase a snake off the patio and I would all ways find many different snakes in our yard. My mom didn’t like me playing with reptiles but didn’t mind at all if I chased them away.

As a child I had many of the snakes that are indigenous to the everglades. There are about 27 different kinds of snakes in the everglades region and 5 of them are venomous. The 5 venomous snakes of Florida are the eastern diamond back rattlesnake, pigmy rattle snake. Water moccasin, coral snake and the SOUTHERN COPPER HEAD. Someone that came from another state tried to tell me that there are no copper heads snakes in the everglades. When I was 13 years old I caught a copper head snake in my back yard and that was on the tamiami trail (US 41) in the everglades. From the time I was 13 until I was 16 my friends and I would catch snakes and sell them to Bill Haast of the Miami Surpentarium. I have caught copper head sakes on US 27 (Krome Ave.) where it meets the tamiami trail on the East Side of the state. I’ve also caught copper head snakes on loop road in the middle of the everglades and I’ve caught copper head snakes on Turner River road on the West Side of the everglades. So as you can see the SOUTHERN COPPER HEAD snake is all over southern Florida.

On one day me and my best friends, Alex Price and Greg Patterson were catching snakes on loop road to sell to Bill Haast. We were just past Sulavins BBQ. When we started seeing cotton mouth moccasins. The moccasins seem to be every where we looked. We had 2 big trashcans to put the snakes in and started to catching the moccasins and storing them in the cans. Before we new it we had 56 moccasins in the cans and called it quits for the day and decided to go swimming. When we got to our favorite swimming spot there were some other people there and we asked them if they would mind if we went swimming. These people were from the University of Miami and they also were catching snakes for their lab work. They were surprised that we were there to go swimming and warned us that there were dangerous snakes and alligators in the water. At first we didn’t say why were there. As we swam around we all started talking and found out that they were there for the same reason we were. They said that catching snakes wasn’t very easy but they said they had caught 2 brown water snakes and a banded water snake. They told us that they were looking for water moccasins but couldn’t find any so we opened the trashcans we had and they were totally surprised to see all the water moccasins we had. They asked if the could buy some of the snakes we had and we told them that they were for Bill Haast and they said ok. When we went to see Bill Hasst he said we had to many snakes and he could not buy all of them. Bill took 20 of the snakes we had and we donated the rest of them to our new friends at the University of Miami.

The biggest eastern diamond back rattlesnake that I’ve ever seen is in a picture that hangs on the wall at Gator Park. The best guess at its length is 11 to 12 feet long. Mr. Ben Wolf donated the picture to us. Ben lives on loop road smack dab in the middle of the everglades. The biggest eastern diamond back rattlesnake I’ve ever caught was 7 � feet long. I caught the rattler just off turner river road in the cypress forest. The biggest eastern diamond back rattlesnake I’ve ever seen in person was dead but measured 9 � feet long. Rex Patterson caught this rattler; Rex also caught his big rattler off turner river road. To find an eastern diamond back rattlesnake that big now a days is almost impossible.

The most common snakes that you could possibly go see in the wild would be south Florida water snakes like the common brown water snake, common green water snake and the banded water snake. These snakes can be seen almost any where in the everglades but you have to move slow and look hard. All of the snakes blend in very well. I f you look hard you may see the mud snake or a crayfish snake. On the ground look hard and you may see a black racer, ribbon snake, garter snake or even a green grass snake and if you are real lucky you may catch sight of the southern black indigo snake. Look in the trees and you may see a red rat snake or even yellow rat snake. Also on the ground are Florida king snakes these snakes are what most collectors like to breed. King snakes are the most even-tempered of Florida snakes. There are four different kinds of king snakes and they are the brooks king snake found in the southern most part of the state. The Florida king snake ranging through the central parts of the state. The chain king snake found in north Florida and the blotched king snake found only in a small area of the panhandle of Florida. We do have the scarlet king snake also. The scarlet king snake some times get people a little confused when they see it because it looks like the coral snake, which is the most deadly snake in Florida. The easiest way to tell them apart is, the scarlet king has a red head and the coral snake has a black head.

Most people come to everglades with dreams of seeing snakes all over the place waiting to attack but that’s not going to happen. The best stories are the ones where people talk about hitting trees and snakes falling in the boat. I have hit countless tress and never had a snake fall in my boat but I must admit they are exciting stories but just that, stories. Lots of people come here from cities and suburbs and every snake they see in the water seems to be a water moccasin. Most of the time the water moccasin turns out to be the brown water snake. The brown water snake is also called the false water moccasin. The largest water moccasin I’ve ever caught was 6 feet 7 � inches long. My friend Dennis Wilkerson and I were on a camping trip to Avon Park Florida. One morning we went on a hike trough a thick and deep swamp just east of Avon Park next to arbuckle creek. We stopped on a high and dry Island to have some thing to drink. I sat down to rest and Dennis went looking around and saw some thing on the ground and bent over to pick it up. While he was bending over he looked to his left and two feet away, sitting on a big cypress stump even with his face was this huge water moccasin. The snake was coiled up in a striking position ready to strike at Dennis. Dennis called out to me, and I saw what was happening. I started running in his direction and as I was passing him I grabbed him by his shirt and pulled Dennis away just as the snake was striking at him. Dennis thanked me and we caught the snake and brought it back to camp. Knowing it wasn’t feasible to keep a snake this big we let it go.

If you come to the everglades looking for snakes, move slowly and look hard.

Well I do hope you enjoyed my story this month.

Remember NATURE RULES!

Thanks for checking out our award winning web site.

(Gatorman) (Glenn W. Wilsey Sr.)

PS. If you are a teacher or a student and you want permission to use my stories just e-mail me and I will give permission thanks.

*This story or any part of it can not be used or reproduced with out written permission of the author!