Strange Experience

[Gary A]

Yesterday we were looking at some land. The people had an old chicken coop and there was a large snake wrapped around the door post. He was very still so I touched him to see if maybe he was dead. He wasn't! It turned out that he had his head trapped in some old fish net and struggle as he might, he couldn't get loose. I was in the process of trying to get him loose. My wife was concerned and telling me to be careful. I have no idea what kind of snake it was but it was at least a meter and a half long with a thick body. I couldn't see the head because it was stuck in the fish net.

The situation ended when an old Thai lady ran up and was jabbering. My wife informed me that the old lady's son was on the way over and they were going to eat the snake. There was no talking them out of it so we left and it appears that the snake was most likely killed and eaten.

[Cuban]

> He was very still so I touched him to see if maybe he was dead.

I come across snakes fairly often out in the fields an occasionally at home, a snake will prefer to remain hidden from view at all times (unless in an agressive mode due to protecting young/eggs or territory - the cobra does this), when caught out in the open a snake will be aware that it's movement will give it's location away and so will remain perfectly still - maybe taste the air with it's tongue. To avoid reaching out to the snake to test 'whether the paint is dry' as it were, is simply look carefully around the mouth and eyes. Any animal that is dead will be covered by foraging ants within a few tens of minutes.

I've used this trick often when walking past a frozen snake at the side of a path, by dogs have not seen and ignored it but not seeing any ants around it I'm poised with me walking stick should I need to take action.

As for your snake, difficult to tell from the blurred image, and I'm no where near expert at identification, but the lighter colored ban or stripe along the side is similar in part to the markings on a Checkered Keelback - often found near water, eat small chicks and fish. We caught a 3m version around the house a few months ago, it was released out in the countryside near a stream.

[Gary A]

I never did see his head. It was firmly tangled and hidden in old fish net. The picture is bad because I had to stick my camera phone through the slats and estimate where to point it.