I don’t like snakes, but I love snake stories. While reading the April 20, 2009 edition of The New Yorker, however, I learned one potential Tennessee snake story that absolutely gives me the chills: Burmese pythons, which can grow to 20 feet or longer, have established themselves in South Florida, and could, over time, make their way to Tennessee.
The photo above is a python held by Skip Snow, a wildlife biologist in Everglades National Park, who is quoted extensively in The New Yorker piece, which was written by Burkhard Bilger. You can hear Bilger talking about his article here.
Here’s the scary part, with my emphasis: “Roughly a third of the contiguous United States lies within the python’s range, they (US Geological Survey zoologists) concluded, including all the Southern states and large portions of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.”
I hope I never live to see that day. The pythons are apparently very adaptable critters, and one wonders how the Holiness church snake handlers of East Tennessee and elsewhere will adapt to these monsters. All I can say is that if I ever to come face to face with a Burmese python in the wild–Tennessee or anywhere else–I will most assuredly start talking in tongues on the spot.
This blog is part of a much larger website, also entitled Tennessee Guy, that contains travel and cultural information about Tennessee. Visit it here.
April 19, 2009 at 1:36 am |
Something has to constrict the kudzu.
April 20, 2009 at 7:34 am |
More snake in the road lore: On a hike in Texas, Ed and I came upon a rattle snake. Not that we knew it was a rattlesnake. We were stopped by a loud and twangy Park Ranger: “Rattlesnake!” he said, “uglier and meaner than I am.” We came closer, figuring a tough old ranger like that one had the beast under control. But he warned us back, “ain’t worth losin’ a leg over.” That’s our secret password now, what we say whenever we see danger ahead in our marriage.
June 28, 2009 at 12:44 pm |
Chestnut blight, kudzu, boa constrictors. Is there anything else we can import from Asia to “improve” East Tennessee?
August 24, 2009 at 3:01 pm |
I almost stepped on an enormous snake behind my house about 1.5 years ago. It was super fat and had a distinct pattern on it. I didnt stick around long enough to see how long or what kind it was. I just have that memory of a fat snake, maybe 5 inches in diameter. I looked online and tried to figure it out to no avail. Honestly, the size makes me wonder if it could have been a python. Yes, I live in Tennessee.