Yesterday: a snake!
Trish Brown
around for her and then we all went out into her garden to do a few
chores (like propping up a branch of her massive magnolia tree and
planting the dozen or little plants she bought last week).
Well, as we pottered, a voice hailed from across the street and it was
Russ, my childhood playmate and first boyfriend!
Short aside:
Russ and I have been mates since we were in nappies and we did
*everything* together from learning to ride bikes to learning to drive
cars. I think I've told the boring story on TOG about how Russ tried to
give me an excellent snake for my tenth birthday, but his Mum had a
hissy fit (ie a fit of hysteria - from the uterus) and made him walk the
five miles back to Edgeworth and give it back to its previous owner.
Later, *my* Mum thanked her very much for that. I didn't.
Sigh.
Anyway, now that we are groan-ups and Russ has a grey beard all the way
down to his waist, we can do whatever we like, right? So, Russ was
coming over to show me his current snake, which was twined artistically
around his wrist! Hooray!!!
Little Phang is an Australian Jungle Python from far north Queensland.
Russ has had him since he was an egg, but he's growing quite nicely and
is already about two feet long and as thick as your middle finger. He's
glossy black with the most *beeootiful* bright yellow bands and the
dearest little golden snakey eyes. Of course, I was allowed to hold him
for the couple of hours it took Russ and me to catch up on the latest
news and I am afraid I have fallen irrevocably in love with this
enchanting little reptile!
He just sat, looped around my extended fingers and looking at me
inquisitively. When he felt like it, he would go 'for a walk', as Russ
put it, and explore around my neck and over my ears. Then, he would
settle back in my hand and curl up to bask in the hot afternoon sun.
There's nothing quite like the sensation of the snake's textured
muscularity gripping onto you and moving about in rhythmic waves, using
you for support and looking, occasionally, into your eyes as if he knows
you well!
Matt was funny! He held Phang for a while, but then when Phang went
walkabout, he got a bit nervous: not that Phang would hurt him, but that
Phang might fall! When the little snake rose up, threw a loop of himself
over Matt's (large) nose and then gained access to his wide-brimmed hat,
the expression on both faces was quite hilarious to behold. LOLOLOL!
Poor Matt stiffened, thinking if he moved just a skerrick, Phang would
plummet and be broken into bits. However, it's quite amazing how the
snake uses its underneath scales to hang on. He was quite secure, even
on the smoothness of Matt's hat.
Later, as Russ and I stood gasbagging, Phang began to move rhythmically,
squeezing and releasing my arm. It felt like a massage and was quite
pleasant. Russ said it's just him being a python and exercising his
muscles to keep them strong. I rather preferred to think it was the
equivalent of a cat purring in contentment. Anyway, Phang and I are now
good friends and I already have a date to meet his brother, Chopper.
Chopper is a Murray Darling Python, which is basically the same snake,
only in black and white rather than black and yellow.
NB. In Oz, we have a whole group of snakes loosely termed 'Carpet' or
'Diamond' Python. They're all known by the overall name: _Morelia
spilotes_. However, since they're starting to separate into what can
best be called 'different colourways', they've been divided into races
to describe the small differences in colour. So, Phang is _M.spilotes
cheynii and Chopper is _M.spilotes metcalfei_. Isn't that neat?
At this level of relationship, the pair *ought* to be able to mate and
produce fertile offspring, but perhaps the two races are now different
enough to have developed into separate species. Russ hopes to find out.
If any eggs occur, I'm first on the list! Of course, it all depends on
the genders of the two snakes, which is at this time indeterminable
except by laparoscopy. We have to wait and see.
NB again. The only serious obstacle is that these reptiles like to eat
(koff, sputter) - mice! Phang enjoys a fat pinkie (day-old mouse) every
week. Chopper, who's bigger, eats adult mice. Sigh. I don't really think
I could do that... But we'll see. More when/if The Eggs occur!
--
Trish Brown {|:-}
Newcastle, NSW, Australia
PS. Do a google image search on 'Amethystine Python' to see A Real
Snake! The AP is Oz' largest snake and quite a respectable one at that!
Nickname unavailable
as a pet. The last time I had my photo taken (a good many years ago,
as I hate being photographed) it was with a very large black-headed
python, called Rocky, around my neck. He was quite the charmer. I
love the feel of the snake's skin, so smooth and silky, and also the
rippling movement of the muscles. I'm glad Phang is being frequently
handled, as Morelia can be quite feisty and snappy. This way he'll
learn to enjoy being with people. The good old carpet python is very
common in leafy suburbs here, of course. If you're ever going to see
a snake in Brisbane it will probably be the carpet. Other snakes tend
to make a quick getaway before you see them.
Johnno
Aramanth Dawe
Trish, you are *quite* welcome to Phang and Chopper! I don't think I
want to see them at all, no matter how nice and well behaved they are.
Snakes just give me the heebies.
Manth the coward.
Trish Brown
Black Headed Pythons are quite beautiful, aren't they? I love that
blunt, nubby look they have.
I was reading an entry in one of the herpetology magazines about a bloke
who was bitten by his Jungle Python (a big one, about 2m long).
Apparently the snake mistook him for prey and recoiled as soon as it
realised its mistake. The bloke said he paid no attention to the 'minor
skin scrape' from the bite, but after about five days, he had a beaut
case of septicaemia! Apparently, he'd had some bad bacterium on his
skin, which the snake's teeth pushed into his bloodstream. It was a
freakish thing to happen, but it did. Now, he advises everyone to avoid
snakebites, even from the 'most gentle and affectionate' of snakes.
Reminds me of pit-bull owners, LOL!
Trish Brown
Russ and I were talking about that. 'How could anyone not appreciate the
sheer beauty of form and movement in a snake?' we said to each other. It
must be one of those atavistic things, same as spiders etc. I've never
been scared of snakes, even as a kid. I find their conformation and
colouring far more interesting than anything they might potentially
*do*. Of course, I'm not stoopid either. I wouldn't just rock up to the
nearest one and shake hands as it were. I just like to observe from a
distance and handle when it's OK. I like lizards, too.
The thing that most gives me the heebies is grasshoppers, cicadas and
Christmas beetles. Did you know that grasshoppers can deliver quite a
nasty bite? And cicadas do that horrible clinging thing to your clothes.
Christmas beetles can bite quite efficiently too and they also have the
nasty habit of strafing you and getting entangled in your hair! Euuuw!!!
No, gimme a nice warm snake *any* day!
Trish Brown
> I'm another snake lover, but I draw the line at handling them. In my
> youth, I rather enthusiastically killed any snake I encountered and,
> on the farm in western NSW, that was a lot. Mostly this was
> defensible because the snakes we encountered were usually around the
> house and, being almost exclusively eastern browns sometimes of
> considerable size, eg up to two metres, were a danger to people and
> other domestic animals. Later I grew up and came to love them rather
> than fear them and would no more think of killing one than fly.
>
> Tiger snakes are more common here in Canberra, I think, and we get the
> occasional one in our yard.
>
> Mique
The kids' erstwhile piano teacher told us of the huge, enormous Brown
Snakes that used to bask on top of their home tank on the family farm in
Tamworth. As the sun went down, they would make their way into the roof
cavity to sleep and then slither down the outside walls to hunt the next
morning. Jane was taught how to shoot them as a very young child because
they were so plentiful around the farm and her dad had a horror of her
getting bitten. As it happened, she never did, but says she's seen
'hundreds and hundreds' in her lifetime. Apparently, they lost a few
cattle each year to brown snakes.
In our erstwhile paddock (love that word, don't you?), the occasional
calf would be unlucky enough to step on a snake and get bitten enough to
die from it. Once, the Ugly Sister was walking across the paddock with
the (then) three-year-old DNephew. They disturbed a sleeping brown snake
on the track and it rose up to threaten them. Ugly grabbed Timmy at the
end of a stiff arm and ran like blazes with him. The snake must've eaten
that day, as it didn't follow. Which is not usual, from what I hear
about Browns.
Another time, (then ten-year-old) DNiece, Jacquie, turned a cartwheel in
the bottom paddock and looked down between her two hands to see a Black
Snake looking back at her! LOLOLOL! I've never seen a child run so fast
as Jack did that day. For anyone who ever comes to Oz, a great place to
visit is the Australian Reptile Park at Somersby. You can get a good
close (and safe) look at some of the really, really, *really* dangerous
critters of our land as well as some from other lands too.
Cheryl Isaak
else's home, but not my own.
BUT
Many many moons ago, when I was about 6 or 7, I was entranced at the large
snakes someone was showing at an "outdoor and camping" expo. My mother is
terrified of snakes and hurried past. I stayed to watch and actually pet
one. Not knowing I was by myself, the owner let his python drape it's front
tenth about my neck and shoulders.....
Just in time for my mother to come looking for me... The scream was truly
memorable.
C
Joan
> NB again. The only serious obstacle is that these reptiles like to eat
> (koff, sputter) - mice! Phang enjoys a fat pinkie (day-old mouse) every
> week. Chopper, who's bigger, eats adult mice. Sigh. I don't really think
> I could do that... But we'll see. More when/if The Eggs occur!
Finally.....a *good* reason to have mice on hand!
Joan, r,d,h reeeeaaaalllly well!!!!