Roadkill Water python

[iceman]

found this big male water python dead last night on the side of the road, a long with a few other dead snakes as well. he was on shed to.

 

[GetCoiled]

Hi Luke,
that water seems a very huge one. How long?
Cheers
Stefano

 

[jnglgrl]

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

 

[Possum]

Python

He looks like he was on the side of the road and someone has swerved to run him over :evil: Damn ar#$%^@s! Poor bugger!

 

[staffsrule]

Crikey that just makes my blood boil !!!!!!! Some people are just total a## Hol*s. Poor fella, what a way to end your life. We can only hope whoever is responsible ends the same way !! :evil:

 

[iceman]

GetCoiled- he was about just over 7ft long i'd say.

 

[farmdog]

Sdaji will be in morning*spelling*

but ****sme to death that ppl will go out their way to run over a reptile or mammal just for the thrill and to gloat to mates.

 

[GetCoiled]

Thanks Luke...
When I see pics like that I always hope was an unintentional "accident".
Yes, I know, I like to fool myself
Stefano

 

[rumpig]

why do people do this

 

[iceman]

coz most people think at the only good snake is a dead snake thats why they do it.

 

[moosenoose]

It is so hard to avoid things that shoot out across the road in front of you suddenly. I found that out first hand with an adult Perons tree frog which I regretably reduced to 1mm in height about 2 weeks ago

 

[snakegal]

Poor poor baby! I hope he/she is happy in snake heaven. Lets all spare a thought for all the reptiles and animals in general that have died at the hands of humans....

 

[Rennie]

Nothing that big could be venomous in this country, thats just plain cruel! An accident is understandable but that wasn't on the road, it looks like they swerved off to hit it!!

 

[iceman]

ur right about that Rennie it wasn't on the road, coz just before i turn on to that road that night, a car about 1 minute in front of me ran over a yearling brown tree snake in the middle of the road.

 

[R1MAN]

poor thing, sadly there are still alot of rednecks out there that think "a dead snake is a good one". it almost makes you think "any dead redneck is a good redneck"

 

[nathanbrisvegas]

although this does happend alot i have seen people hit snakes in front of me and have stopped to find the snake wringling off the road from nerves or something and just stop moving on the side of the road which makes it look like someones swerved to hit it but its just squirmed over there so hopefully thats wat happens more than wat people think and aussies arent really so cruel i hope anyway

 

[Sdaji]

Always a sad thing to see, tragic of course, makes you feel sick and often is an horrific display of human cruelty, but fortunately, despite the huge numbers killed on roads, the affect on population sizes is usually negligible. What Nathan describes is quite common, I've seen a good number of pythons dead or dying just off the road or sometimes 10-20 metres off it, which had been hit in the middle of the road. Look closely when you see a dead or dying reptile near a road and you might be able to locate the place it was hit (look for blood, guys, etc). I've seen snakes run directly over by cars, two wheels crushing the mid section of the animal, but after the car drives on, the snake appears perfectly fine, for a few minutes, which is enough to move some distance (while no doubt in absolute agony) before dying. Even snakes which have had their heads crushed, or even removed, will writhe about, sometimes for hours (I've seen this happen to a few things including large scrubbies, which is rather gut wrenching).

Not surprisingly, some of the ones which have upset me most have been Water Pythons. I saw a road killed hatchling near Cairns (probably hit without the driver seeing) and a large adult coiled up just off the road, about 100km north of where the ancestors of mine lived. It looked completely fine, I was really excited about seeing what might have been a not too distant relative of mine, although I wondered what it was doing basking at over 50 degrees celcius. It was fairly nastily injured inside, but looked completely fine on the outside (yes, I dissected it, yes, legally). It was still fresh (any more than a day old and it would have stunk). Quite clearly it hadn't been hit where it was, but after its insides were severely squished, the snake had moved to the side of the road, coiled up and then died of internal bleeding.

The ones which upset me most are those I watch happen. I once leaped out of the car to take a Red Bellied Black Snake off a busy road, but the truck behind me squished it. I've seen a few Tiger and Eastern Brown Snakes down in Victoria die from being tyred, but have never seen anyone swerve off the road to hit one. I doubt many red necks would spot them anyway. One thing many of us have thought about is getting road killed snakes and putting them off the road in lifelike poses, along with several tyre popping nails inserted :twisted: still, for all the people who talk about it, I've never heard of it being done, which jokes aside is probably for the best.