Snakes in the news

[Pivo]

Someone mailed a live rattlesnake to a California man. He thinks it was attempted murder.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... 808761007/

[chumley]

snakebite treatment center in Brooklyn

That was not on my 2025 bingo card.

[Alston_Neal]

@chumley
Treatment
Jacobi treats 5–10 patients per year with antivenom for snakebite injuries. Antivenom is the standard treatment for poisonous snake bites.
Partnership with the Bronx Zoo
Jacobi's snakebite program was established in the 1980s in collaboration with herpetologists at the Bronx Zoo. The zoo keeps 14 types of antivenin on hand to supply to Jacobi and other institutions.
Location
Jacobi is located in the Bronx, which is home to timber rattlesnakes and copperheads.

[chumley]

@Alston_Neal
There haven't been any timber rattlesnakes in NYC in over 100 years. Some unverified reports indicate that there may be some copperhead sightings.

I'd be skeptical of any herp source that mentions "poisonous snakes", which of course, they are not. Many people find them to be delicious.

I'll forgive using antivenom rather than the original antivenin as this term has been butchered for so long that the incorrect form has actually become accepted.

Regardless, the populations thereof, and any subsequent envenomations can exclusively be linked to ... the zoo.

[big_load]

@Alston_Neal
There haven't been any timber rattlesnakes in NYC in over 100 years. Some unverified reports indicate that there may be some copperhead sightings.

I'd be skeptical of any herp source that mentions "poisonous snakes", which of course, they are not. Many people find them to be delicious.

I'll forgive using antivenom rather than the original antivenin as this term has been butchered for so long that the incorrect form has actually become accepted.

Regardless, the populations thereof, and any subsequent envenomations can exclusively be linked to ... the zoo.

Yes, I thought it was weird that the report used "antivenom", and they did send him to the Bronx (not Brooklyn). I don't think I've been in the Bronx in over 30 years, but I think NYC in general could handle a few hundred thousand gopher snakes.

[chumley]

@big_load I've never seen a gopher snake big enough to take down the rats I've seen in the subway.

[Alston_Neal]

@chumley
The art of posting the triggers. All I did was cut and paste.

[big_load]

@big_load I've never seen a gopher snake big enough to take down the rats I've seen in the subway.

Yeah, maybe mountain lions would work better.

[mamakatt22]

@RedRoxx44
How does one train a snake?

[Grimey]

@mamakatt22 Similar to how you tuna fish.

[Alston_Neal]

@Grimey
But only in the key of C

[mamakatt22]

@Alston_Neal
That is funny!!!

[big_load]

@Grimey
But only in the key of C

I don't think we have C-snakes on the Atlantic side, although we have some B-flat.