Settle An Argument Please :)

[Carnelian]

So a rough scale is incapable of interbreeding with a carpet snake?

That is correct.

 

[Sel]

Picking it up was smart.

 

[tuppyandjess]

Picking it up was smart.

He picks up all snakes. You can't stop him. Some people are just idiots.

Thank you for all the factual information guys. What an awesome forum! I was expecting to wait days for anyone to even notice the thread.

 

[Wally]

He picks up all snakes. You can't stop him. Some people are just idiots.

Thank you for all the factual information guys. What an awesome forum! I was expecting to wait days for anyone to even notice the thread.

We're into reptiles. A lot of us would be borderline OCD...

 

[Jeffa]

Yes to a degree within species, and between some very close species.

And most definitely NO.

Hey Geck, besides pythons, is there any elapids that interbreed that you know of?
cheers mate.

 

[tuppyandjess]

We're into reptiles. A lot of us would be borderline OCD...

Yeah I noticed that
While I think they're very beautiful, I prefer small furry things with wet noses myself. How do you snuggle with a snake?

 

[Shaggz]

No venemous snakes are capable of breeding with any python, It is an old wives tale that was designed to scare people more than they already are of snakes

 

[tuppyandjess]

OK so now my friend is peed off about the snake not being a hybrid & is insisting that the stories he heard about xyz snakes interbreeding out the back of Bourke ARE true.
So rather than me making a twit of myself by listing every story he's heard - what crosses have occurred in Australia?

 

[tuppyandjess]

No venemous snakes are capable of breeding with any python, It is an old wives tale that was designed to scare people more than they already are of snakes

I kinda thought that might be the case But some poeple just loath being wrong - especially old timers who have spent a lot of years in the bush & had a know it all attitude to start with

 

[tuppyandjess]

Oh ... one more argument buster question please
Has anyone ever died from a Rough Scale snake bite in Australia?

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Hey Geck, besides pythons, is there any elapids that interbreed that you know of?
cheers mate.

It's not my area of most knowledge. But I believe some members of the Pseudechis group and Acanthophis group have been known to interbreed, you'd probably be better off finding your own information about this though.

 

[Jeffa]

I will, but a red belly with a collet's or spotted black? wow!
Adders I would believe without hesitation.
Cheers mate.

 

[KaotikJezta]

I used to live in Northern NSW and every second person you meet up there tells the story of pythons interbreeding with vens. We used to live on a headland at Urunga and we had a lovely black and white coastal adopt us for a few months. So many people tried to tell me it was a red belly crossed with a python and the venom was 10 times as deadly

 

[tuppyandjess]

I used to live in Northern NSW and every second person you meet up there tells the story of pythons interbreeding with vens. We used to live on a headland at Urunga and we had a lovely black and white coastal adopt us for a few months. So many people tried to tell me it was a red belly crossed with a python and the venom was 10 times as deadly

Oh cool! Well you know where I am then There's a lot of snakes up here
I have also lived at Tabulam & Casino & I spend my life with old blokes who work in the bush ... so yeah ... I've heard more crazy snake stories than I've had hot dinners

 

[Bluetongue1]

Because of the poor lighting it difficult to see the keeled dorsal scales – there is only a hint of striations. However tigers lack the small scales found on roughies around the neck immediately following the head shields. Tigers also have a distinctly narrower snout. It’s the broad vertically flat snout of a rough-scaled that gives the front of its head a very squared off appearance, which you mentioned. The head on a rough-scaled is generally quite distinct from the neck whereas it is not so distinct in tigers. If you are looking for subtle differences, the eyes of a roughie are slightly larger and positioned slightly further forward. So without having to enumerate each small difference, the experience eye can pick the overall difference in appearance. Hence comments like “you can tell by the head”.

That is a particularly strongly and regular banded form and as a result it would easily be mistaken for a tiger. As was alluded to, the bite from one of theses is somewhat different to most vens and produces some very nasty symptoms and particularly rapidly compared to other dangerous vens.

My guess is the snake was sick or injured in order to have been so calm. I cannot speak from personal experience but these guys do have a reputation for being pugnacious when cornered. I would think very seriously about not attempting to tail another.

 

[Carnelian]

Most bushies still try & push the old snakes interbreeding thing no matter how much you explain to them it can't happen, they always know a million people who witness such snakes but non can ever prove it. I live in central country QLD, think near Longreach, & we get told all the time about these stories but you can't tell rednecks who have a grade 6 education.

 

[tuppyandjess]

Wow - thanks for all that Bluetongue1 Dorsal scales means all it's scales - all over it's body yes?
I've cropped in the photos as much as I can so you can see them better I hope. Note: I've played with the exposure on these so the colour etc may be a bit wonky.

 

[tuppyandjess]

Most bushies still try & push the old snakes interbreeding thing no matter how much you explain to them it can't happen, they always know a million people who witness such snakes but non can ever prove it. I live in central country QLD, think near Longreach, & we get told all the time about these stories but you can't tell rednecks who have a grade 6 education.

Well I wasn't going to put it quite like that Carnelian ... but seeing as you did ... ... um yeah

 

[KaotikJezta]

Most bushies still try & push the old snakes interbreeding thing no matter how much you explain to them it can't happen, they always know a million people who witness such snakes but non can ever prove it. I live in central country QLD, think near Longreach, & we get told all the time about these stories but you can't tell rednecks who have a grade 6 education.

Not just rdnecks, a lot of the indigenous people of the area are convinced as well. I lived at my DIL's tribal landrights claim and her grandmother was forever calling family members idiots for saying it.

 

[tuppyandjess]

[QUOTE
My guess is the snake was sick or injured in order to have been so calm. I cannot speak from personal experience but these guys do have a reputation for being pugnacious when cornered. I would think very seriously about not attempting to tail another.[/QUOTE]
I found a blurb on the net tonight via google from some bloke who was a snake collector who had one single specimen of these that was remarkably quiet & placid - all the rest he ever had were nasty. My experience is only with the very quick moving ones who clearly don't like humans. I never bothered cornering one. This one was totally placid. It didn't look sick (not that I would know what a sick snake looked like I guess) it was just very quiet. Would paralysis ticks make them dopey? I've seen quite a few pythons with paralysis ticks on them. And I've had wallabies that had such a huge overload of them that they got dopey. This bloke didn't have any but there is still the odd one around. I'll enquire with the snake guy in a few days & ask if he's still doing OK - the snake that is