Can Dead Snakes Still Move?

Originally posted by Capt Steve:
"I have walked many a mile in eastern oregon, in the high dessert and in the forest regions, over 23 years here in central texas walking in all kinds of terrain,,still have never seen a rattler,,,"

I hear similar comments from the local golfers all the time. "Been here ten years, play 4 times a week and never have seen a rattle snake". Spotting one is easier the second time as your eye will be more likely to pick up their movement, coloration etc.. Their natural camouflage is off the charts effective. Take your eye off of one for even a couple of seconds and they will disappear before your eyes....only they haven't moved an inch. Spring has sprung here in the high Sonoran desert and the damn things are everywhere. I see several every shift at the golf course and end up moving a couple.

This time of year if you see one, chances are very good there is another nearby. They have been denned up all winter and are out looking for a meal and a mate, not necessarily in that order. It is the one you don't see that will likely strike you. To get bit by one you see you have to be an idiot. The basic rule is to never put your hands or feet where you cannot see. Be careful out there.
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Well, Steve, if their camouflage is as effective as you say, why would one have to be an idiot to get bitten? I have a photo of a rock rattlesnake that almost totally blends with its background.

A lot of people are bitten while fooling around with snakes, and that is idiotic! I thought that Steve Irwin was lacking a few fish on his stringer, and even HE didn't fool around with a rattler that had taken cover under a rock.

They're fast, and they're dangerous. And their heat sensor pits let them deliver an aimed bite in total darkness.
 
I sat on a timber rattler, oh about 30 years ago while dove hunting a field that had just been cleared of standing timber. It bit me in the wallet. I shot it in the head with a Remmy 870 12 ga after grabbing it by the tail and flinging it away from me. That thing squirmed around in the dirt and dust without a head for the next two hours. Kind of REAL CREEPY. So, yes they can and do move LONG after decapitation. Near same thing happened with a copperhead two years ago during muzzy deer season. This time he did not get me in the wallet. He was stuck to the heel of my hunting boot before he lost his head to my USMC Ka-Bar.
 
I've killed a lot of rattlers, in both Az. and Ca. Haven't seen any here in Oregon, but I have always removed and buried the head. As a kid I was told that yellow jackets or other bees could feed on the head then sting a person and transmit the venom. I don't know if it is true or not, but I just bury the head just in case. And yes, they do wiggle after they are dead and will strike just from muscle reaction.
 
Many years ago I was in the pasture looking at the cows. Looked down and there was a 5 foot snatelrake about 10" in front of me. One more step and I would have been in the middle of him. How I jumped backwards 10 feet I will never know. I had a Colt's series 70 .45 automatic stuffed in my belt and dumped everything in it at the snake. Got him with 6 of the 8 shots. So I go back to the truck and take a few swigs of beer to settle me down and figure I need to take him to work next day to show off and maybe have some fun with. I reach down grab his tail, mind you his head is shot off he is dead. He makes a huge twitch, I know he's dead but I fall down backwards kicking trying to get away from him anyway.
Yes they move when they are dead.

GST
 
Here is the skin of one I got 3 weeks ago on my patient's driveway. Smashed it with a rock, unfortunately it damaged a bit of the skin.

20090404032.jpg


It moved for a good hour after I chopped its head off. My friends wife is good at leather work and will inlay this into a holster for my dad.
 
pps-

How long was that one? Reliable reports say that the largest is the Eastern Diamondback, which MAY reach 11 feet.
 
Just a baby at 18 inches. Only 4 rattles at the tail.

btw, you DON'T have to be an idiot to get bit. I'm doing debridment of necrotic tissue of an oil field worker bitten in the Achilles through his work boot. The snake was fast enough to get between his gators and the boot.
 
Originally posted by Texas Star:
pps-

Reliable reports say that the largest is the Eastern Diamondback, which MAY reach 11 feet.
Click to expand...


The largest I know of was killed in North Georgia a number of years ago by a fellow helping to recover a large shipment of marijuana which had been dumped from an airplane by smugglers. How big was he? 10 1/2 feet,49 pounds!
f.t.
 
One more "Yes" vote. I worked in the snake business and a severed head will bite. Dead is dead in a reptile but it often takes a while to get there.
 
Those of us who hunt and fish and grew up in a rural farm community we know that a lot of animals continue to move after they are beheaded. Chickens with their head cut off with a hatchet will run around as blood flies everywhere. When I clean fish I will sometimes remove the head and guts in tact and then cut the fillets from the body and the mouth of the fish will continue to open and close. As far as the snake goes I have seen them move for quite some time and legend was they move till sunset.
 
I hit a local den one spring Sunday afternoon and collected a few nice specimens of Western Diamonbacks of appropriate size for belts and hatbands and such. Cut off and buried their heads, put 'em in a trash bag in an ice chest, brought 'em home, stuck the snake filled trash bag in frig... Wasn't until Tuesday nite that I had time to skin 'em. Retrieved trash bag from frig, dumped beheaded, cold snakes on kitchen counter... Phone rang, distracting me for some while... during phone conversation on cordless I'd wandered away from kitchen... Heard a "thump" then rattling! Dashed back to kitchen to find one of the snakes had writhed its way off the counter and onto the kitchen floor! Yikes!

When I recovered my composure and set to skinning these snakes, I found that they all still, about 48 hours after having been decapitated, had beating hearts and breathing lungs. Other similar experiences persuade me that snakes' have an autonomic nervous system not entirely contained in the "head", and that some part of the spine may contain the equivalent of a hypothallamus that allows them to function without any head.

The only other animal I'm aware of that still functions after being separated from its brains is the common American Democrat, which seems not to rely on brains at all to carry on....
 
Anyone who's ever heard me tell my snake-hunting story knows a headless rattlesnake can squirm up out of a backpack that a young lad is wearing.

<shudder>
 
When I recovered my composure and set to skinning these snakes, I found that they all still, about 48 hours after having been decapitated, had beating hearts and breathing lungs. Other similar experiences persuade me that snakes' have an autonomic nervous system not entirely contained in the "head", and that some part of the spine may contain the equivalent of a hypothallamus that allows them to function without any head.

The only other animal I'm aware of that still functions after being separated from its brains is the common American Democrat, which seems not to rely on brains at all to carry on....
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A cockroach can live for days with no head.
 
ONLY good snake is a dead one, when that head is blown to cell size pieces, the head that's not there can't move
icon_wink.gif
.
 
"Well, Steve, if their camouflage is as effective as you say, why would one have to be an idiot to get bitten?"

Read what I wrote once more:

"To get bit by one you see you have to be an idiot."

My point was that now, during the mating season, there is likely a second snake in close proximity to the one you see. This is the one you probably won't see and is most likely to do you harm.

Statistically, 70% of snake bite victims are male between age 17-29 and have been drinking. They usually are fooling around, doing their Steve Irwin impersonations and most often are in fact "idiots".
 
Originally posted by jkc:
Other similar experiences persuade me that snakes' have an autonomic nervous system not entirely contained in the "head", and that some part of the spine may contain the equivalent of a hypothallamus that allows them to function without any head.
Click to expand...
I'd buy that. I know nothing about snakes but was told by one who does that many functions located in the brain in humans are distributed throughout the spine in reptiles.

Bob
 
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