unknown snake

[Cockney_Red]

Groundsnake day

 

[Bluetongue1]

Poggle,
I was not indicating that Sammy was not at fault. I simply wanted to point out that there was fault on both sides.

There are some very clear problems that recurrently occur in association with ID threads.

1. People state an ID without qualifying how likely it is.
2. People state an ID without really knowing what they are doing.
3. People state ridiculous IDs to be humorous
4. People make personal comments when someone is in error rather than just correcting the error
5. Off topic conversations are started up.

If forum users were actually following the site rules, most of the above would not occur. And users can be coached to address the first two. The sad reality at the moment, is that the above actions are viewed as acceptable and such threads are utilised as a source of entertainment. I am extremely hopeful that it does not take a fatality to change things.

One last comment. Sammy was clearly defensive and fabricating support during the thread. I think you will find him receptive to correction now. My point is why couldn't that happen within the thread?

Blue

 

[Sdaji]

It's a public chat forum populated predominantly by kids and pretty much exclusively by herps. Is it realistic to expect that in such a place you'll get a reliable, unambiguous answer? Herps are always going to be using threads for entertainment, and many will always make ridiculous diagnoses (I'd like to say it's mostly the younger ones, but I'm not sure! :lol: ).

I recently had an interesting (to me) experience with this type of snake ID. I was told by someone they'd seen a python in north QLD, they asked me what type it was (yes, literally with that much information to go on). I said I couldn't tell them, they asked why not :lol: I asked how they knew it was a python, they said "It didn't bite me but it could have because I got close before I saw it" (yeah, I know... and yes, I spent a while discussing that point with them). The snake had been in a drawer in a garage, the guy opened the drawer, saw the snake, it didn't bite him, he closed it. He said it was 'black'. I said there were no plain black pythons in north QLD (or Australia. He said oh, "it was black with grey". I'll spare you the details, but that's all I got out of him, and everyone was disappointed that I couldn't ID the snake - clearly people are used to any 'snake man' being able to immediately give an ID, because generally people will, whether they can or not, and whether or not they know anything (well, actually, more so if they don't know anything).

After about 10 minutes he remembered he took a photograph of it, and pulled his camera out of his bag. Took me all of a quarter second to ID the Scrub Python. Strangely, everyone was amazed that I could ID the thing so easily and quickly. Go figure.

Oh, and no, it wasn't a trippy melanistic or axanthic one, just a stock standard Scrubby. Everyone seems to lose sense of proportion and become colour blind when it comes to snakes! It's a lost cause, this type of snake ID game happens every day in every pub, snake forum, back yard BBQ conversation and around every workplace water cooler in the country (world?) and always has, with the same level of accuracy. Might as well have a laugh along the way Those deadly Spinifex Pythons in central Australia are nasty, mate!

In any case, the unknown snake from the start of the thread was a King Panther Keelback.

 

[PythonLegs]

Ooooo...sdaji vs. bluetongue in a long post-off! I'll put $20 on blue, but not if I have to read either.

 

[Sdaji]

Ooh yeah! That's another thing I forgot about the herp forums! You converse with someone and everyone thinks it's an angry fight! :lol:

I'll put $20 on blue too

*takes a dive*

 

[MrBredli]

Is it too late for me to change my guess from bluey to death adder??