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512935775a21a.preview-300.jpg Officials investigate giant rattler

 

Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife are investigating the authenticity of this photo showing an unusually large rattlesnake. The man’s face has been blurred because authorities don’t know if a crime has been committed. Officials have not released his identity.

 

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Posted: Thursday, February 21, 2013 12:03 pm

 

Officials investigate giant rattlerBy Catherine DominguezHouston Community Newspapers

 

Officials with the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife are trying to determine whether a photo of a man holding a nearly 10-foot rattlesnake is real or just a hoax.

 

The photo, which recently surfaced on Facebook, was sent to game wardens who say they know who the man is but as of Wednesday afternoon had not yet interviewed him about the photo and the snake.

 

“We know that sometimes when people take pictures, they put things closer to the camera to make them look bigger,” Game Warden Brannon Meinkowsky said. “I think they did that. I’m not saying it’s not a big snake, but we haven’t had a chance to go interview the couple of guys that took the snake in.”

 

The Courier received calls and emails regarding the snake, whether it’s real and where it was killed.

According to Mein-kowsky, the snake was killed while the men were duck hunting on the north side of Lake Conroe. He didn’t have any other details and declined to release the names of the men involved. He said the photo may be several months old.

 

“We do have rattlesnakes in the area; but based on the photo, it looks like a diamondback rattlesnake, which are more commonly seen in South and West Texas, not East Texas,” he said. “In East Texas, we typically see the timber rattlesnake.”

The Western diamondback rattlesnake averages about 4-6 feet and is found in the southwest region of the United States, including parts of Texas, according to National Geographic’s website.

 

However, the Eastern diamondback rattlesnake is the largest venomous snake in North America, with some reaching up to 8 feet long and weighing up to 10 pounds. The Eastern diamondback is commonly found in southern North Carolina to Florida and west to Louisiana. They typically are not found in Texas.

 

The timber rattlesnake, which is listed as “threatened” in Texas according to Texas Parks and Wildlife, is typically only about 3-4 feet long and can be found in the eastern United States as well as some eastern parts of Texas.

 

http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/cleveland/news/officials-investigate-giant-rattler/article_4ae027b0-6df0-55c4-9248-f0869d1ad7e2.html

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I think they have a bar holding up the snake , running from the driver's side back corner of the truck. The kid just has his hands hidden behind the snake. A snake that big would weigh maybe 80-95 lbs. He'd have to be a super -hoss to hold it in that position. Just my opinion.

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I have never seen a diamondback rattler, Eastern or Western, in East Texas, although several of the guys on the deer lease I am on say they have seen them on the lease near Caddo lake. The article that was posted in the Cleveland newspaper, near Houston, and it says the TP&W people know this guy. Evidently he is from Texas, but the picture could have been taken in Siberia for all I know. It's a big snake no matter where he killed it.

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True... wherever it came from, it's down right creepy!

 

Hares, would love to see pics!

 

Water moccasins (sp?) prevalent here...the only thing I see hubby get "spastic" about... he says they're "evil". LOL

 

Couple of stories.

 

When the boys were younger, they'd go down to the pond and creeks and "trap" crawdads, then use 'em for fishing. Was cleaning out the barn one day, picked up the trap and saw a snake inside - looked exactly like their rubber snake they used to "lie around" scaring folks....then it moved. Hubby liked to have had a heart attack. Course I got screamed at because "I touched it." Then got this GET THE HOE OR THE GUN...okay, not like it's going anywhere....LOL

 

One day hubby's out bush-hogging, I just happen to be looking out the window, all of a sudden, he's jumping around on the tractor, tractor's going this way and that way, and I do mean JUMPING AROUND - I don't know what's going on, so I'm running outside... when I get to him I asked him what the heck was wrong.. he said he'd just run over a water moccasin and then something brushed by his neck, and he thought it shot back up on him......LOL.....I never laughed so hard in my life.

 

The boys... well....they were about 7 and 8, got a bow and arrows for Christmas...always went to the back at the big creek with the dogs... hubby comes in, says uh, babe, best come see what the boys brought up from the creek (they were always bringing up something)...I see at least 10 arrows in this HUGE water moccasin....they were so proud. Suffice to say, they weren't allowed to go down to the creek without us anymore.

 

I can't begin to tell you how many times oldest has run over a water moccasin and tried to scare his Dad...told him to quit, he was getting older, would make him have a heart attack one of these days...

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My brother was bitten by a cottonmouth one day when we were seining a pond for bait. It actually got up his bell bottom levis and bit him on the lower leg then again on the hand when he pulled it out of his pants leg. I always thought they couldn't bite under water, but I know they can now.

 

I was walking down near the creek when i was about 15 and was bitten on the side of my boot ankle. It didn't penetrate my redwing boots, but made a mark. I hate cottonmouth moccasins.

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^ You guys are creeping me out! Suffice to say, no night fishing for me where there's low-lying limbs... one reason I WILL NOT go to Caddo... that lake flat creeps me out.

 

We're scheduled to go up to Beaver's Bend, stay on the river end of May, obviously get a canoe and do some fishing.....I think I'll be in the middle of the river at all times....CREEPY, CREEPY!

 

Suffice to say, if one does get in the boat, I'd probably leave the boat. LOL!

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Yeah, probably so on the bar holding the snake up.

 

The only rattlers I'm familiar with are the ones in West Texas starting where the West begins, Fort Worth. The snake was prevalent in Parker County when I lived in that county though I don't recall seeing any...one was just aware of the possibility because the diamondback was certainly present in the area.

 

The largest rattler I killed while nothing compared was killed in Indian Gap, Texas while dove hunting. The western diamondback stretched from my chin to my feet headless plus missing about two additional inches of body due to shotgun blast. It literally scared the heck out of me as I came within feet of stepping on an old grandaddy rattler basking in the sun along a hillside full of live oaks and resting dove. The only good thing about a rattler other than they help in controlling vermin is the normal warning to back off which has undoubtedly prevented some people from being struck. I don't like them but they don't concern me as much as a copperhead or cottonmouth. The snake had six rattlers and with no exaggeration appeared as big around as my forearms. I have pictures buried among old film photography.

 

Don't count on the rattle these days - it is a dinner bell for feral hogs and the rattlers have gotten wise to it - they have adapted and don't give the warning so much anymore according to the local game wardens around here.

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