Biggest snake you've ever seen (in the wild)

[Lonegle57]

I wanted to be a herpetologist in my younger days but figured the only way to make a living at it was gathering venom and that didn't appeal to me. Spent many afternoons in highschool looking for local snakes in Alabama and Florida. The largest was an Indigo, in the North Port Charlette area of Florida. My guess was close to ten feet, thicker than my wrist right behind the head. I caught it , knew I couldnt keep it since it was protected, an awesome specimen though.

 

[OLDSTER]

The beneficial Bull Snake up here commonly grows to 6 feet. The largest one I remember was in a prairie dog town; nearly 7 feet long and as thick as my forarm. Unfortunately, they are confused with Prairie Rattlers by some and are killed

 

[Breakaway500]

When I was building a garage for the house,I stepped out of a side door to see this beasty serpent rear up..with a full size toad in its jaws! Scared the hell out of me..and the smell was enough to make you puke. I ran over to the shop to get my 35mm camera and snapped this photo..only to use up the last shot. I then had to run back to the shop,reload the 35mm..and by the time I got back..the 6 foot beast had vanished! Nobody believed me till I had that roll of film processed. Biggest snake I had ever seen..never saw it again. Still amazes me how fast it disappeared with that huge frog in it's mouth. I hate snakes..but don't kill them,unless they don't move out of my path with the mower fast enough..

 

[SPEEDGUNNER]

Well, look at the bright side: that black snake that chased them with its head held high probably wasn't a Black Mamba. Probably would have caught them and it'd be all over for them. I dread the thought of people keeping foreign snakes like that that may escape. It sometimes happens.

But I can easily top your account. A python escaped from a pet shop in New Brunswick a few years ago, slithered through the A/C system, and constricted two boys in a home next door. Killed both. Hadn't swallowed either by the time of discovery.

The RCMP investigated, and it was speculated that charges might be filed against the pet store owner. Never read how that case ended.

Jury finds python owner not guilty in deaths of New Brunswick boys | Canada | Ne

 

[Tyrod]

Hmmmm....After this thread, I've come to realize snake stories are like fish stories.

I once startled an Indigo snake in my driveway eating my car.

 

[Kevin J.]

On an assignment with some Air Force military police we were entering one of the gunnery ranges and as we go to the gate there was a Western Diamondback curled up. Here are two guns with M-16s and their revolvers but they decided it would be cute to kill this snake by throwing rocks at it.

After a few minutes I had to get into the act and found a huge rock. I smashed it on the snake and killed it. We measured it to be justs over 6 ft. Not the biggest but it was the first snake I've come across after moving to Arizona.

At K-9 school at Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio we always has stake out chains with us (20 ft. chains for securing a dog to a tree or such when on break). Made great rattle snake killers. We would catch them early in the morning when it was cold. They would be coiled up on the gopher mounds trying to warm up, but being cold they were very slow. Then we had rattle snake cook outs, never cared to much for that part though.

 

[soFlaNative]

Breakaway's frog eater must have been a mutant.
A three foot garter snake down here is considered large.
Could it be some species I don't recognize?

 

[tlawler]

I was doing some work at Streamsong golf resort near Lakeland and saw an Eastern Diamondback that was at least 6' long.
William Hasst from the Miami Serpentarium retired to Punta Gorda over here on the West coast and rumor has it that there may have been some "exotic" species that may have gotten loose in the years before he passed away. He was the most bitten man on the planet, but it seemed to do him no harm...he lived to the ripe old age of 100! He was quite a sensation when he ran his serpentarium. When I was in grade school, we would make yearly field trips there and everyone looked forward to him wrangling and milking the king cobras. The guy played by Strother Martin in "Ssssssss" was loosely based on Haast.

 

[sheepdawg]

The water moccasin my dad and I found by the lake in our backyard around 50 years ago is up to about 20 feet long by now.

 

[lyman]

That's the infamous Black Racer. One got after my FIL, too. It was reared up and chasing him down a dirt road.

had a juvenile racer cruise thru my garden last year,

I let him be, since they don't eat the veggies,


as a kid, my grandparents ran a dairy farm,
plenty of black snakes (either racers or king snakes) that were routinely over 6 feet,

we kids were allowed to look at them but not mess with them,

grandma would ofter relocate them to the corn crib or barn, plenty of vermin hanging about for them to eat, and the left the barn cats alone,

now if grandma saw one climbing a tree , it was killed,
she said a snake that would climb a tree would climb in the house,, and that was not allowed

 

[Mr.Harry]

The ED rattler on the left was going almost seven ft.

 

[PALADIN85020]

This gopher snake was found on the back yard wall of my house several years ago. I estimated, comparing him to my own height of 6'0" and seeing him as longer than I am tall, to be about 7 feet long. Sure scared the heck out of the yard men working on the other side of the wall!

John

 

[LVSteve]

This gopher snake was found on the back yard wall of my house several years ago. I estimated, comparing him to my own height of 6'0" and seeing him as longer than I am tall, to be about 7 feet long. Sure scared the heck out of the yard men working on the other side of the wall!

John

Sonoran Gopher snake. Saw a nice one at Montezuma's Castle a few years ago when he came out to play with the tourists.

 

[Double-O-Dave]

I once startled an Indigo snake in my driveway eating my car.

Uh yeah, don't tell us, your car was a Chevy Impala - right?


Regards,

Dave

 

[oneounceload]

Biggest was a rattlesnake in a pipeline ditch in Tyler TX in 1979. Had the "immigrant workers" scurrying real fast out of the ditch. Rattles ran from your wrist to the tip of your finger. Stretched out, he was over 8' long and fairly fat - guess he must have recently eaten. The foreman took the skins and those workers divvied up the meat. Snake was asleep at the time.

MEANEST goes to the good old cottonmouth; here they will drop out of trees into your boat, or swim up to and then climb in your boat - very aggressive monsters......

 

[CH4]

The biggest is probably a 5' western diamond back and a timber rattler of the same length. The most recent was this 2.5' timber rattler that slithered between my legs mid stride, while backpacking yesterday.

 

[Texas Star]

Saw two large pythons in South Africa. No idea how long, but one had to be as round as a stove pipe! Possibly called Rock Pythons?

That's correct. I think that's the only python in Africa, but it comes in two sub-species.

I saw a photo of one that bit an electric fence and got killed.

They are pretty fierce. I think they sometimes take African children. Most such occurrences wouldn't be reported to such authorities as might be interested.

 

[Texas Star]

The biggest is probably a 5' western diamond back and a timber rattler of the same length. The most recent was this 2.5' timber rattler that slithered between my legs mid stride, while backpacking yesterday.

Nevada is much too far west to have seen a true Timber Rattler, Crotalus horridis or its sub-species, the Canebrake rattler.

We have them in eastern Texas, but that's about as far west as they get. It's the snake on the Revolutionary War flag, Don't Tread On Me.

I think your photo suggests a Prairie Rattler or maybe a Great Basin Rattler. I'm not too familiar with the latter or its range.

The member in Washington said they don't see a lot of very long rattlers, but they have the Northern Pacific rattler, C.v. oreganus and it is a dangerous snake. I suspect a big one there may reach 4/5 feet, but it is dangerously venomous.

Animal Planet used to feature Dr. Sean Bush treating snakebites in southern CA and many serious envenomations were by the southern form of this snake, Crotalus viridis helleri. Some of those patients nearly died.

 

[Lee in Quartzsite]

It's common around here to see Bull Snakes 5-6 feet long. When I lived south of here we saw a lot of Sidewinders, most were 2 feet long. While out riding the ATV I came across these tracks, obviously from a Sidewinder. Largest Sidewinder tracks I have ever seen...never did see the snake.

 

[Texas Star]

In South Africa, I saw a black mamba moving quickly through some thigh high grass, faster than I walk, about 10 ft from my car door. Its head was 3 to 4 ft. above ground, neck arched, so it was 8-10 ft long. I was glad I listened to the Rangers and had my car windows up. That thing was spooky.
Otherwise, the local black racer snakes, about 5 ft long. Copperheads around here are usually less than 2 ft.

The black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) reaches 14 feet or more and is widely deemed the fastest snake, at least 7 MPH. It is also among the most lethal.

You mentioned keeping car windows up. In 2015, an American woman, a TV producer, was in a Johannesburg lion park and ignored that warning. Moreover, she leaned out a window to take a picture. A lion in her blind spot hooked her out of the car and killed her.