Posted on 03/11/2013 6:09:06 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Participants in the annual, three-day Sweetwater Rattlesnake RoundUp in Texas caught more than a ton of snakes, organizers said.
More than 30,000 people attended the event, they said, with visitors including people from as far away as China, Israel, Germany, England and Australia..
The roundup paid $13-per-pound for captured rattlers, featured about 2,160 pounds of rattlesnakes being weighed, the most since the 2,168-pound total in 2010, the Abilene (Texas) Reporter-News reported Monday.
"The importance of this is to control the snake population and to inform the public," Texas Game Warden George Pasley said. "You see all these snakes here and you think there can't be many left in the wild, but there's plenty. We see rattlesnakes all the time. I have seen no shortage of rattlesnakes."
Kathleen and Darrell McIntyre of Childress won a $400 prize for capturing the longest snake. It measured 78 inches.
If that were the case, we'd be up to our ass in rats since the roundup has been going on since 1958.
It's to help the ranchers protect their livestock. You might want to keep better control of that broad, 'stupid' brush until you know what you're talking about.
In before the-only-good-snake-is-a-dead-snake posts! LOL!
Gorgeous pics! Honestly, though, rattlesnakes don't bother me near as much as those little coral snakes.
[shiver]
No tootsie roll, you just have a lot more than you otherwise would. Any person that thinks killing off critters that keep rodents under control is a good idea is by definition stupid. If the shoe fits ...
I was a member in the early ‘90s at The Cliffs golf course before it expanded into a plush club. It’s located WNW of Fort Worth and Palo Pinto on Possum Kingdom Lake.
There were signs everywhere warning of rattlers! Lots of rough areas that no one would enter to look for an errant golf ball. One rattler skin 13 ft. long on the wall in the pro shop.
Playing with another couple, we men teed off and the ladies began driving to their tee... then suddenly were backing up. There was a rattler lying across the 5 ft. wide cart path getting warm and hanging over both edges of the path.
On a par 3 green approached over a canyon and with a rock face, one lady with us was lining up her putt when a rattler crawled up onto the green and was only about 4 feet behind her.
The area is full of rattlesnakes. When I was 12-14, my dad and I would spend a week each Summer at a friend’s cabin on a slough of the lake. I’d walk the area with a shotgun and kill 3-4 rattlers a day, when we weren’t out fishin’.
Sorry for the long post, but this just brought back a LOT of memories.
Yeah....becuase we are SO much more concerned with the population of RATS than we are the survival of the cattle.
[PSST! - That's what barn cats are for]
apparently the shoe fit.
“apparently the shoe fit.”
You come on here claiming a rattler eats 10 lbs of rodents per pound of rattler and have the gall to call others stupid. your very funny and a very poor representative of the great state of Ga.
Really?
Thanks for letting everyone know what you size was.
Is it the same as your I.Q.?
I've seen it before. You probably have too.
It's not based on logic, common-sense or any type of rationality...
It's a 'I hate all thing Texas' syndrome, so we're all wrong by association.
Texas in the Spring
Mama I take good care of all the critters here on the ranch, the good ones need not fear me but the bad ones better watch out. Rattlers and Coyotes are always on the hit list, all the others get a pass. No Corals or Copperheads out here and we don’t have enough water for Cotton Mouths.
[but it makes me SO glad our bluebonnets only have butterflies]
That's what good stewardship is all about, IMHO.
I have pictures of an eastern rat snake eating a hummingbird - but shan't post them here for fear bruising someone's delicate sensibilities. :-)
I can tell you for a fact that the snake went on it's way unmolested....even though I put a great deal of effort into attracting the hummingbirds here to begin with.
-----
No Corals or Copperheads out here and we don’t have enough water for Cotton Mouths.
We have all of those, but the thing that gets me with the coral is trying to remember which band pattern is the 'bad' one.
LOL!
Thanks, BTW!
Welcome to Texas, please don’t pick the Bluebonnets and we ain’t kidding!
Last May we planned a trip across Texas to see the Blue bonnets and enjoy Texas. We followed the 900 miles of Texas Butterfield Trail. (the trip was from Memphis to San Francisco on the trail, the route of the Overland Mail)
Alas, we had to delay a month and missed the flowers. A friend sent the photo and said just as well....... here’s what you missed.
Great Horny Toads!
Okay. Now I have trip envy.
After seeing the picture, though, maybe your timing was perfect after all. :-)
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