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27 comments

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  • David Nunn
    I thought everybody knew that. That phenomenon was explained, and later demonstrated to me by my grandfather when I was a very small boy.
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  • rider
    Me too. Being raised in the desert, encounters with rattlers was commonplace in the '40s & '50s and killing them on sight didn't make you a monster then, btw. We always treated them with caution alive or dead. [:)][:)]
    rider
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  • buschmaster
    my gawd! that would give me nightmares for a while. glad I know that now.
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  • Nighthawk
    I heard what was told as a true story of a big biker dresses in leather and all of his bike riding gear(Minus the helmet) going on a ride at an Amusment park in Western NC. called Tweetsie Railroad. Ive been there myself and love the train ride and the show the indians on horses put on attacking the train. Anyway allegedly a copperhead was coiled between his feet and he picked it up and it bit him. Then fair is fair I guess? He in turn bit the snakes head off and it bit him somewhere in his mouth. True or false I dont know, but possible? Yes!
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  • turtles11756
    what goes around comes around
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  • LOKO383
    Even ole timber rattlers will play that trick on you..seen it..no one bit thank god..mnts of west virginia are full of them..dry years look near water they aint hard to find..Loko [:D]
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  • iceracerx
    I'm with NUNN on this one... "I THOUGHT EVERYBODY KNEW THAT"

    It's amazing that the Fisheries and Wildlife Biologist DIDN'T know this. What are they teaching in those courses these days?

    A bite from a dead snake can be worse then from a live one. At least when they are alive you have a 50/50 chance of it being a "dry" bite.
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  • AHansen
    I thought it was just plain common sence to know the head would still bite. Atleast everyone around here knows.
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  • spryor
    quote:Originally posted by AHansen
    I thought it was just plain common sence to know the head would still bite. Atleast everyone around here knows.
    Yep, but i guess some have only seen them in zoo's...if even then..
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  • Horse Plains Drifter
    Yep, have known that since 1964 or '65.
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  • RUGERGUNZ
    Wow, I never knew that. But I live where I don't see snakes.

    Along the same lines, some large fish can bite down and lock the jaw even after being dead for a few hours.
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  • pickenup
    We always buried the heads after cutting them off.

    One time when hunting them, we had a small clearing where we were putting the bodies, after removing the heads. Had a pretty good-sized one coil up and strike my leg. [:0] Even with leggings on, that can get the adrenaline pumping.
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  • HandgunHTR52
    I always make sure there isn't enough left of the head to bite me! A couple of shots with .357 snake loads will pretty much vaporize the head. Then there is no problem.[:D]
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  • Jorge
    There are no poisonous snakes whatsoever around my corner of the rain forest.

    Decapitated snakes biting? I don't think so. The physiology of dead animals biting makes no sense to me whatsoever.

    Dead tissue generates no neuronal activity, no depolarization, no organized electrical activity, no neurotransmitters, no action potentials, no ATP, no cyclic AMP production, no cross bridging between actin and myosin fibers, no muscle contraction, no nothing.

    How then can a dead snake bite?

    I'm a man of art and science. Can someone please provide me with a logical explanation on how can a dead and decapitated snake inflict a bite wound?

    [?][?][?]
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  • dcon12
    I once cut the head off of a diamond back and the head was steady opening and shutting while the body coiled up. It was the first time I had gone rattlesnake hunting and was surprised when cutting the rattles off of the first one. Don
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  • phillip
    quote:Originally posted by nunn
    I thought everybody knew that. That phenomenon was explained, and later demonstrated to me by my grandfather when I was a very small boy.


    +1 ,Dad even showed me with a copperhead he caught.He feels the same as you about snakes.
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  • chicken_man
    Psycho, it takes tissue a while to actually die. I've not had experiences with snakes, but a chicken with its head cut off once ran toward me. I was a kid, and it scared the willies outa me.
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  • dheffley
    Grew up in rattle snake country of West Texas. We learned that one by age 3!
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  • oldnbald
    +1
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  • jwb267
    thought everyone new that
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  • shooterof57
    Check out the pictures of this rattlesnake bite.

    http://www.rattlesnakebite.org/rattlesnakepics.htm
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  • shooterof57
    Check out the pictures of this rattlesnake bite.

    http://www.rattlesnakebite.org/rattlesnakepics.htm
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  • Rack Ops
    Turtle heads can still bite after being cut off....maybe its a reptile thing
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  • phillip
    HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![:0][:0][:0]
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  • David Nunn
    Polite Psycho, you may be a doc, but you need to bone up on reptile physiology. Did you ever see a chicken with its head cut off? They will run and flop all over the place. Even mammals have been known to run long distances after being "dead" from a well-placed shot.

    When I was a youngster, my grandfather killed a large canebrake rattler. It was over 5 feet long. He cut its head off with a hoe. I went to where the snake was and retrieved the head. It was very much alive, and tried to bite. I used a stick to carefully maneuver it into a jar. I also retrieved the body and skinned it.

    It was creepy carrying the headless body. It was wriggling and rattling. Every so often, as I walked along carrying it, it would draw back its neck in the familiar S shape, and then strike at my leg, hitting me with the bloody stump of its neck. Despite being deprived of its sensory receptors, it was amazingly accurate.
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  • iceracerx
    I'm thinkin' that you Texas boys need to invite the Doc up for a roundup... he might learn a thing or three.
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  • Highball
    Back when the earth was flatter, and hills less steep, I was running the back roads of Kansas with a 'cowboy' and his girl.We dusted by a windmill and whipped in for a drink.
    There was a 4 foot rattler contesting our use of the water...I started to shoo him off, but 'cowboys' girl wanted the rattles.

    I snapped a shot with the Blackhawk I was carrying and (miracle) nailed the critter just behind the head...
    Trying to impress his girl, 'cowboy' bent over and stepped on the snakes head..and promptly squirted venom into his eyes. Such a girlish scream you never heard...we grabbed him and stuffed his head in the tank, washing his eyes out for nearly an hour.
    He was getting relief from the cold water...we were 2 hours from a doctor..and I was afraid that leaving the water would do permanent damage to his eyes.
    The only impressing done that day was by me..and man, was that girl loverly....
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