venomous snakes?
how close to maine are they? this probally sounds dumb. but i still ask.thanks for your input.
downhill
Well, if they're on a plane, they could be anywhere!!!
http://www.snakesonaplane.com/
Seriously though, I believe that there are copperheads up there, but I could be totally wrong about that.
Don't take anything I say seriously... I certainly don't.
a quick google check produced this ...
Every state but Maine, Alaska, and Hawaii is home to at least one species of venomous snake. But any snakebite should be considered a medical emergency. So study your snakes, campers!
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"In the woods, too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods is perpetual youth." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
uh oh ... this site says Maine has timber rattlers
www.venombytes.com
"In the woods, too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods is perpetual youth." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
www.venombyte.com (there is no "s")
"In the woods, too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods is perpetual youth." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Interesting thing about snakes, the only person i've known who got bitten by one, had it for a pet.
Here in Thailand the other day i saw a really big (about 2 metres long) Cobra that i think might have been a king cobra. I saw it entering my friends grounds (they have a wall around their house and it was going thru the wall) It scared me a little bit because she has 4 kids. Well, i saw her the next day and told her about it. And she said: oh, good luck for you. you should go play the lottery. She wasn't worried at all. It turns out that cobras are a lot like rattlers back home, if you don't mess with them, they leave you alone.
Rattles are rattling to tell you to GO AWAY! cotton-mouths, don't have that option. Still, they would rather NOT strike. I'm reading the Long Distance Hiker book. Only the young and old (frail) need to really be concerned. If bitten. Get to a shelter. Lay down. Fluids. Rest, try and hike out, or send someone out, so you can get out and get medical attention.
For a couple of bucks, get a weird haircut and waste your life away Bryan Adams....
Hammock hangs are where you go into the woods to meet men you've only known on the internet so you can sit around a campfire to swap sewing tips and recipes. - sargevining on HF
There are rare little populations of Timber Rattlers in New Hampshire and Maine, but good luck finding them. Academics who study them and know where they are, are NOT saying as they are endangered species in this region. I've heard plenty of reports of Copperheads in the rocks of the cliffs and ledges in the Blue Hills reservation of Massachusetts, and there are reports of Rattlesnakes along the Connecticut River valley in NH and VT.
Andrew "Iceman" Priestley
AT'95, GA>ME
Non nobis Domine, non nobis sed Nomini Tuo da Gloriam
Not for us O Lord, not for us but in Your Name is the Glory
Downhill--
Don't worry about it.
In re. to your question, Timber rattlers are so rare in Maine that they're basically considered absent. Maine is generally considered to be the one state in the lower 48 that is free of poisonous snakes.
Do they still live in Maine?
Maybe. But good luck proving it. And don't worry, you're not gonna see them on the A.T., and if you do, and you can prove it and take a picture, you'll make a pretty penny from it.
Poisonous snakes aren't a concern in Maine, just like (except for around four days in Pennsylvania) they aren't a major concern anywhere on the A.T.
there's no such thing as a poisonous snake because to harm you you have to consume poison. there is venomous snakes that inject you but you could eat any snake (except for venom glands) and be fine because there are no poisonous snakes. so maybe you heard one in the notch downhill! cause they could be there but it's kinda cold in that notch!
Brian
snakes on the A.T.
Originally Posted by downhill
i think Eastern Rattlesnake or "Timber Rattlers" are in every state on the Appalachian Trail...also you'll find the Copperhead in most of the southern states.
enjoy the hike...avoid the snakes....hehehehehehe
There has not been a confirmed sighting or anyone bitten by a poisonous snake in Maine since before the Cival War. There were a handfiul of timber rattlers in Maine in colonial times but they are now believed to be extinct. The experts think a few may exist in New Hampshire and I have heard an estimate that less than 400 timber rattlers exist in Mass. but they are almost extinct. I saw a huge one in New York, I have a picture, and from New Jersey on south they exist in great numbers. Don't worry, snakes have no hearing but detect vibration s of an approaching hiker. Unless you step on one, touch one by mistake or get drunk and pass out next to a copperhead nest (a hiker did a few years ago) you will never have a problem with snakes on the AT. I even slept in the Tom Floyd shelter when several journal notations told of a Rattlesnake living in the rocks under the shelter. I spent a night with no mice and simply used my headlamp when I got up to pee. Snakes eat mice, not hikers. They will leave you alone if you leave them alone.
[FONT="Arial Black"][/FONT]Don't fret the petty things, &
Don't pet the sweaty things[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][/FONT][I][/I]
(I'm moxie00 on my apple-moxie on my PC)
there are rattlers in the berkshires, but i think that sightings of them are measured in years between sightings
I follow such things more closely than most. I've never heard of a confirmed sighting of a timber rattler in Maine. Scientist types may have done so and kept the discovery a secret. But no hiker has ever reported a timber rattler to my knowledge. Certainly I've never seen one in many years of looking. Nor has anyone I've known.
Weary
[quote=fivefour]uh oh ... this site says Maine has timber rattlers
www.venombytes.com[/quote
On the Moosehead Lake's south-eastern shore the fresh water jelly fish are more of a threat when migrating down the Kennebunk River in the fall than rattlers. I'm not saying it's true but the fording of the river has lost lives in waist deep water from cranium/fulsome a known side affect from the sting. The decline of the jelly's is due to the clean water act in 1972 something about pulp mill nutrient runoff decline but I would still be very wary of them, more so than any snake.
Timber Rattlesnake Extirpated!
The official status of the timber rattlesnake in Maine is extirpated. The term extirpated means while the critter was once found there it's no longer present.
I don't know when it was last recorded there, but I believe that event occurred many, many years ago.
I wanted to post a link to Inland Fisheries and Wildlife's official status, but failed to find it in just a few minutes. Someone else may want to do a bit of digging and post the link.
http://www.maine.gov/ifw/
Timber Rattlesnake Links
Here are a few recommended links to information about timber rattlesnakes and what hikers visiting Pennsylvania should know about them. Unless you are an expert on the species, you are likely to learn something by clicking on these links. Enjoy!
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry...%20in%20PA.pdf
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry...tlesnakes.aspx
http://www.fish.state.pa.us/Fish/ang...attlesnake.pdf
Link sought in post #16 located.
Maine's list of endangered and threatened vertebrates. See page 2 for the status of the timber rattlesnake.
http://mainegov-images.informe.org/ifw/wildlife/etweb/pdfs/eslist_11_12.pdf
Snakes not the only threat in Maine.
One of the biggest threats in Maine, much bigger than snakes, is The Moosehead Manattee. This lake cow gan grow to over 400 pounds and the Moosehead species, unlike it's Florida relative grows webbed antlers. While they are seldom seen in Mooshead Lake they peacefully live under the surface and eat water lillies. They used to come out of the lake at night to hunt their favorite food, timber rattlers, but now the snakes are extinct they rarely leave the water. Where they are a threat to hikers is in the fall when they migrate down the Kennebec to their mating grounds near Caratunk. In the years before the MATC started the ferry service many hikers fording the Kennebec were knocked offf their feet by male moosehead manatees who mistook scruffy smelly thru hikers for female manatees in heat. The last known case of a manatee attacking a thru hiker was in 2002 when a manatee started for Lone Wolf who was fording the river. At the last moment the manatee saw Lone Wolfs beard and realized it was not a female and just brushed past him. As they have poor eyesite there is no gaurentee future attacks might be averted bt a full beard. No, snakes are not a threat in Maine but never ford the Kennebec during the mating season for the Moosehead Manattee. They mate from late August until early October.
[FONT="Arial Black"][/FONT]Don't fret the petty things, &
Don't pet the sweaty things[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][/FONT][I][/I]
(I'm moxie00 on my apple-moxie on my PC)
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