Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake:

Sorry, no politics in this post:

Eastern Diamondback rattlesnakes customarily range from 3 to, at max, 6 feet in length.

Check out this unique specimen:






An accompanying article from News4 in Jacksonville, Florida indicates:

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- The trappers who caught and killed a giant rattlesnake in St. Johns County said the snake was 7 feet 3 inches long.Experts said it's one of the biggest rattlesnakes they've ever seen.The rattlesnake slithered its way into Tuscany Village, a St. Augustine townhouse community, over the weekend.

If that snake was 7'3" long, then I'm an M1 Abrams tank.

Look at the photos. An e-mail circulating around the internet (thanks, Chris!) states the snake was 15-feet long. I'm not so sure. But I'd posit the estimator was off by more than just a few feet.

Look at the thickness of the snake at its greatest point as compared to the deputy taking the photo in the top illustration. The snake appears to be roughly as thick as the thigh of the officer. The entire length of the snake is not seen in the top photograph -- and, as you can see, the snake is curved towards the bottom.

That snake is easily longer than the deputy in the top photograph. And not just by a foot or so. Further, the second photo doesn't even detail the full length of the creature. Fifteen feet? I don't think so. But it's clearly, in my opinion, longer than a mere seven feet.

One strike from that monster would kill a child in a matter of minutes, and kill an adult human. My guess is: you would not walk away from that snake's bite, no matter how much antivenin pumped into you. The head and, thusly, the venom glands are simply too big.

Another reason that, along with heat and humidity and hurricanes and rampant pythons: you can keep Florida. Thanks but no thanks.

I think the Jaguars have nice uniforms. Does that help?

BZ