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Interesting account of Austrian Snake...need advic
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by Rob_Carmichael on December 3, 2008
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Hey gang,
One of my staff is now in college and just wrote about a question on identifying a snake that his roomate ran accross in Austria. If anyone has any ideas please let me know.
Hey Rob its Spencer,
I was wondering if you had ever heard of any snake like this, or with a defense mechanism like this. I searched the web but didn't find much.
My roommate was telling me about his encounter with this snake in Austria, which he found near some lake. After he grabbed it, he claimed it started whipping/hitting his arm with it's tail, which was spiny or had spikes on it, and within minutes he had an allergic reaction with blisters covering his arm.
-Spencer Hauri
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RE: Interesting account of Austrian Snake...need a
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by CrotalYES on December 3, 2008
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My idea: It was a colubrid (likely Natrix) and the critter musked him. He reacted allergically to the musk resulting in a local reaction. The spikes were a bit of a "fish story" due to an uninitiated individual attempting to pick up an unidentified serpent.
Matt King
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RE: Interesting account of Austrian Snake...need a
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by LarryDFishel on December 3, 2008
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He wasn't out picking mushrooms was he? :)
Seriously, there are a few snakes where the tip of the tail comes to a point which can be used to poke an attacker. No venom or poison there and it does not do any damage, it's more meant to startle you and make you think you grabbed the wrong end I guess. Not likely to cause blisters. I don't know if there are any species like that in Austria.
Maybe a very large caterpillar?
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RE: Interesting account of Austrian Snake...need a
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by Cro on December 3, 2008
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In Austria, they would have the Aesculapian Snake, Grass Snake, Barred Grass Snake, Smooth Snake, Dice Snake, European Viper, Horn-Nosed Viper, and the Meadow Viper.
None of the snakes mentioned have a behavior anything like what was mentioned.
Perhaps the student had sampled some of the local Absinthe before the snake catching adventure ?
Best Regards
John Z
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RE: Interesting account of Austrian Snake...need a
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by LarryDFishel on December 3, 2008
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They also have the Slow Worm (Anguis fragilis), a legless lizard. That might do the tail whipping thing (I don't know), but still no spikes...
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