Water moccasin's that chase you

natas · #1 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 04:19 PM

Ok, here in Texas (and I am sure in other states) everyone who hunts or fishes has a friend or family member that has a story of a water moccasin chasing them.

I have heard this story from 2 family members (both who swear up and down it happened to them) and from atleast 3 friends. Basically each person claims they were either hunting or fishing and stumbled up on a female water moccasin. Once the water moccasin sees them she then starts to chase them (run them off I guess). One of my friends claimed that a water moccasin fell out of the tree and chased him down.

Now since this is such a common thing around here you would think more people would be bitten. You would also think that warning signs and education on the subject would be widely known. But rather than us getting official warnings about the subject we get "common urban legand knowledge".

I have stumbled upon many water moccasin's in my life while fishing and I have yet to have on chase me down.

wreckwriter · #2 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 04:21 PM

Ever run across a coachwhip?

natas · #3 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 04:24 PM

Actually I remember my dad catching a coachwhip when I was younger. I remember that snake being really quick and giving my dad a hard time. I was really young at the time so I don't remember much more then than

wreckwriter · #4 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 04:30 PM

Lots of stories about them chasing people too. Never seen it happen but its more believable with them than CM for me. Of course there's also stories that they can take their tail in their mouth and roll downhill like a hula hoop

natas · #5 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 04:33 PM

Haha I would love to see a snake do that. Thinking about it right now is making me laugh

JuliusSqueezer · #6 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 04:39 PM

My coachwhip chases me lol..My canebrake and fla cotton will charge the door at me when I open it. I think they miss me sometimes and want to give me a little kiss when they see me. In the wild, I've never had a pitviper of any kind move towards me. They tend to eaither hold their ground and protect their personal space or if they have a chance will turn and make a slow run for cover...except copperheads and corals who will usually turn and run for cover quicker and with a lot more speed. Racers are similar in color but nothing close to the body weight of a western cottonmouth. Maybe they are confusing racers and cottons out there? If you startle a racer and then back slowly away, they will follow an sometimes give a little charge at you. One step back in their direction though and you see nothing but a blur and leaves flying up as they turn and haul butt. A lot of people get horrified over this though about this black snake "chasing them"...and I suppose if the story doesn't get the reaction they expected from enough people, the "blacksnake" must have been a cottonmouth otherwise their story won't be frightening enough to impress anyone.

blkcrochunter · #7 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 04:42 PM

I have never been chased by a cotton mouth, but there were times while fishing they will come to where you are casting your line in the water. They seem to not show any fear, for they will come right up on you. Also one summer I was fishing and someone hooked one, it had grabbed the fish that the guy was pulling in. I dont mess with them at all.

natas · #8 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 04:45 PM

Julius your probally correct on the snake being a racer. But its still a fun story I hear alot from people around here.

toker · #9 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 04:47 PM

There have been times when I would be out in a boat and a snake would come from shore and start heading right for the boat. This was back before I had any critters so i dont know what kind it was. BUT at the time I would swear it was out to get me.

When it happend we just started up the boat and it went underwater. didnt see it again.

bcfos1 · #10 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 06:12 PM

Every single native to Alabama venomous snake I have ever caught has never came at me unless it was to strike. And for the record it takes a lot of prodding to get a cotton mouth to strike. They will hold up in a defensive posture mouth open and coiled back ready to strike if cornered, but usually they just want to get away from the big thing with arms and legs.

The only venomous native snake I have ever run across that was pretty strike happy was a smaller male EDB. But it was also during mating season so I figured the little guy was in a foul mood because he was on the trail of a female.

-=krissi=- · #11 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 07:10 PM

my mother used to have a northern pine snake that would try to tag me SO hard when i would go to get him from his "play room" that it looked like he was chasing me haha.

i used to let him in this secure room in my mother's house to get some exercise while i cleaned his tank or if we jsut wanted to watch him and let him exercise.
every time, without fail when i would go to grab him to put him back in his tank he would strike at me, i'd back away from his bite, he'd move forward and strike at me some more and this would go on. he was on my every movement, until i finally got a new snake hook and put an end to that.

he was so aggravated at all times and he never took to any kind of handling (no matter how much we tried) but he was so beautiful.

JuliusSqueezer · #12 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 07:17 PM

The funny thing about pines, bulls and gophers...Almost all of that is bluff. they stand up like a rattler, hiss very loudly and vibrate their tails...make all kinds of racket with mouth open and will strike but seem to fall short even when in range...Pick one up sometime when they are doing this and call their bluff. Actual bites rarely happen. I'm not saying I've never been actually bitten by a pituophis because I have...but usually when they are doing this, you can put your finger inside that hissy open mouth and they will pull back and never bite down, they back up and resume their bluff as if to say...dude, don't you get it? I'm mean and scarey. GO AWAY! They do have a very convincing bluff though, I'll give them that.

-=krissi=- · #13 (**permalink**) 08-12-2005, 01:26 AM

oh yeah, i agree. every single other pine i've worked with were all bluff and mainly just tons of vocalization. i think it's cute!
my mother's wasn't ALWAYS all bluff though.
he always put that doubt about him in our minds haha.

my mother had been bitten a few times by him pretty good. the only time he actually bit me was once when i "called his bluff" bwahaha. it wasn't a bad bite but he still got his point across.

it's instictual for me to jump back from even my western hognoses when they bluff their little hearts out and i KNOW they won't bite.
i don't mind getting bit (unless it's over 6 feet) but it's just a bad habit that i can't break.

pathfinder36 · #14 (**permalink**) 08-12-2005, 03:41 PM

I lived in Cypress TX for 13 years.... we had TONS of water moccasins in our area. I was CHASED by one maybe 4-5 times. You'd like to think this is an urban legend, but I can tell you from first hand experience that it bears a bit of truth.

=)

pathfinder36 · #15 (**permalink**) 08-12-2005, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JuliusSqueezer

and I suppose if the story doesn't get the reaction they expected from enough people, the "blacksnake" must have been a cottonmouth otherwise their story won't be frightening enough to impress anyone.

That may be true in a lot of cases, but my dad and I were always snake lovers. When you live in an area like Cypress and love snakes, you KNOW your vens. We always relocated the vens that we found on our property or our that our neighbors found and were freaking out about. Many times, they were just colubrids.... ya' know, those dang Garter snakes with their viscious fangs. LOL

That being said, I've never been chased by a moccasin that was cornered. They always just coiled up and stood their ground or turned and ran. The times I was chased were usually around ponds in our neighborhood in open fields. They were all quite large as well... like 5' or so. Anything smaller then that just took off.

Anyone that can mistake this loving face for your common colubrid needs to just lock themselves in a closet:

LOL

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