6 Venomous Snakes of Florida! Kamp Kenan S2 Episode 17

you know snakes get a pretty bad rap and so many times you persecute harmless snakes because we think they're venomous well today we are going to show you exactly what the venomous snakes of Florida are I'm here with my good buddy David hey doin bud doing good yeah I'm always getting him out of the office he loves me anything to play with something dangerous exactly well that's what we're gonna do we're gonna actually show you some of the venomous snakes here Florida but we're also gonna show you why these animals here are so important for the environment there are two things I've loved most in this life bikes and reptile now I crisscross the globe learning about all kinds of incredible and sometimes I know what I'm doing other times and over the head but one thing's for certain will come away a whole lot smarter in every event this is camp Kennedy so alright folks we are here with the diminutive pygmy rattlesnake okay and David you know these animals are found all throughout Florida correct yes and this is probably Florida's most common venomous now the thing to notice about them is look at this incredible pattern on them these animals will be found mostly in dry pine forests and that's what that coloration comes into play for but also I don't know if you can hear it at home but you can hear that little buzz it is a true rattlesnake they've got a rattle at the tip of their tail but because of their size and the fact he's only got a few rattles it is almost impossible to hear in an order for you to really hear it you have to put your head right up to it of course we don't want to do that now but definitely not I can hear it just fine and this is about as big as this snake will get they really don't get much bigger also not to say just like you said you don't want to get bit by the snake but if you are a full-grown adult this is not a lethal line is it it is very very rare to have a lethal bite from the pygmy rattlesnake here in the state of Florida I don't know that there's ever been a reported death from a pygmy rattlesnake bite itself however I have to comment that out of all the venomous snakes that we have pygmy rattlesnakes are probably responsible for more bites to human beings than any of our other venomous snakes that we have within the state and that's probably a good thing that the animal isn't so highly toxic and this way you know we can get the anti-venom real quick it's definitely gonna make you very sick so pay attention when in snake country that's the best thing and that's what we're trying to do here and again why this snake is beneficial it's gonna eat small rodents other lizards animals that you consider vermin and really that's important because it stops the spread of disease throughout the ecosystem and potentially some of these animals can make us sick so that's why venomous snakes as a whole are really important to the ecosystem all right so that's the pygmy rattlesnake that snake number one that kid well kind of make you have a bad day you know the thing that I realize about that mistakes is they're really quite beautiful and this animal right here this is the Copperhead and this snake is actually found in northern Florida you won't find it this far south naturally but you know talk to me a little bit about this animals venom and this is also this is we're going up in toxicity aren't we well kind of you know it's really hard because everybody's body reacts differently fair enough and and there's evidence that shows that you know geographically the same species you have a different makeup of their venom so it's it's car it's hard to have anything you know specific to say but you know most certainly the pygmy rattlesnake is is not nearly as dangerous as some of the other things that we're going to see and I would I would say the same thing about the copperhead now in other parts of our country copperheads are very very common and this is this is a snake which bites a lot of people the problem that we run into is that a lot of the bites occur not necessarily because they accidentally stepped on the snake it's people saw it and we're trying to catch it trying to kill it or we're actually handling the animal and that's something I want to stress also you know David you bring up a great point it's the easiest way to not get bit by a snake is to leave it alone and you have to understand you hear all these stories and one of the snakes we're gonna see in just a little while is notorious for chasing people and that is just a falsehood no snake has ever bitten out of offense it's always a defensive bite as snake is afraid of you it's either surprised or it's as he mentioned it's either being grabbed at by somebody but you know what this the Copperhead obviously you look back at this head and you can see the coloration there which gives it to the name and another thing that we have to look for is you know the old tail how do you tell if the snake is venomous and it's that triangular head now this can be deceiving because a lot of non-venomous snakes when threatened will flatten their heads out and it gives them a triangular appearance and that's because they know - hey look I want to look scary unfortunately that usually results in the snake's head being removed from the rest of its body which in my opinion is a cowardly way to deal with any animal and what I think a lot of people don't realize too is that when you when you step into that mode of trying to kill a snake you're actually becoming a statistic because if you turn around and you walk away yeah let me tell you something that snake doesn't want anything to do with you even with as close as we are right now if we were to slowly move awaken and we're and we're just completely out of harm's way obviously being this close working with the snake is much more dangerous but you notice how you notice how the snake is is not really not really wanting to come towards us he's trying to find a way to go someplace else and if you look he's pointing between you know out of the way of our cameraman Tom and us and he just wants to head into these Paul meadows where he can finish out his day nice and safe so awesome now one of the thing that I want to comment because one of the things that people often do is is they think of colors and we think of a a copperhead you can okay many times people take a look at a coppery color so any snake that has red on it they automatically assume is going to be a copperhead and and one of the calls that I get most frequently is people who find red rat snakes or for instance and they think that it's a copperhead because of that reddish color and it couldn't be further from from the truth and in my mind there really is no similarity and appearance at all not at all so snake number two Copperhead northern Florida David actually you know every time I come over and hang out with you and help with the snakes this is one of my favorite snakes to look at this is the Canebrake rattlesnake and I think it's one of the more beautiful rattlesnakes that we have in the United States it is and let me tell you something there's the color variety is incredible some can actually be just absolutely team comparison to the darker color one like this this is really a beautiful thing now another little factoid for you folks is this is actually a color variation of the timber rattlesnake so this the timber and the Canebrake are actually Sonam is the same type of snake but the southern variety which only occurs in extreme northern Florida is actually the Canebrake and then up in the northern parts of the range it's the timber ratified in May in the to look absolutely totally to holding to another yes so it's amazing the fact that they're that they're so close to that yeah now we're talking about toxicity and you know level of danger this is definitely a dangerous snake for human beings this snake could put a hurtin on absolutely fur for a few reasons one because of the size and the volume of venom that it can it can deliver but so far with the snakes that we've looked at there the toxic properties of their venom are more of the hemotoxic type in the venom this particular snake though there's some evidence that shows that it also contains some neurotoxic properties as well and you know that in itself makes this snake very very hard to treat and it makes it quite dangerous and especially when you end up running into one of this size okay so hemotoxins are gonna affect you know blood cells they're gonna burst blood cells destroy tissue now the neurotoxins they're gonna stop your nerves being able to talk to the rest of your body in other words they clog the synapses between your nerves and you can't send signals to breathe so you can effectively become paralyzed the diaphragm can become paralyzed and you can well asphyxiate as part of the way of expiring when getting bit by this snake now another thing you mentioned and I think it's it's something important that we need to say you know we are talking about the venomous snakes of Florida here but there's also some wives tales with snakes that we we should dispel and you were talking about the volume of venom now a lot of people think that a baby snake a baby venomous snake like a baby timber rattlesnake is more dangerous than an adult and that's not true they they don't control the amount of venom that's just an old wives tale they that you get bit by a baby snake and it injects way more venom because it hasn't learned yet how much to in and that's just not true don't get bit by any stick that's venomous baby or adult you know I will say this over and over again the smartest thing to do if you're ever find yourself close to a snake regardless of whether you know that it's venomous or not right stop slowly take a few steps backwards and leave it alone and you know part of reason I want to do this videos to remind folks to come down from up north you are in snake country so you really have to be aware of what you're doing you know it's not Long Island New York it's not New Jersey anymore you know you're in a place that historically was a swamp and this is where these animals live not necessarily the Canebrake they're more pinewood snake but you are in snake habitat so always have that in the back your head don't walk around terrified you still have nice beaches and stuff but be careful we were talking before we started filming a day and somebody had asked the question what's the easiest way to tell the difference between a venomous and a non venomous snake we got into the discussion about the pupils mm-hmm that the pit vipers that are found here in in Florida have an elliptical see hole right where the non-venomous snakes have a round pupil but I always tell people you have to get too close to the snake to really tell and depending upon the light conditions a pit viper can still have a round pupil instead of an elliptical pupil so we've we've discussed the triangular head isn't necessarily a good thing to go by and neither is the elliptical pupil for one you got to get too close to lighting can confuse it definitely and one more thing here we're talking about a rattlesnakes this guy's rattles aren't necessarily too formed right now he had some injury in the past and that's why he doesn't have so many rattles so normally a rattlesnake is going to be rattling but let's get to the next animal get him back in his enclosure okay so this snake right here is probably the most famous snake and against the worst rap out of any venomous snake in the southern united snakes United snake G would you like that little slip I did the United snakes of America but here we are with the cottonmouth now Alzheimer's will tell you stories about cottonmouths chasing you out as a boat and the reality is this this snake like all other venomous snakes is defensive and just wants to get away and be left alone from people that being said getting hit by this snake would be bad definitely the bite of a snake from a bite from a snake like this would not be a good thing no way most of my experience when I run into these snakes is either they want to get out of your way as quickly as possible where occasionally what I'll see them do is they'll curl up into a tight little circle they'll put their head straight up and they'll actually twitch their head back and forth opening up their mouth which is kind of where we got that name cottonmouth from because it displays the light color of the inside of its mouth and I have to say I've been out in the woods and I've been walking around not paying attention and I actually came up to a Cypress knee where one of these snakes was coiled up and good thing for that white mouth because honestly the snake did not I was within feet like two feet from this type of snake and it opened its mouth and it let me know hey wait a minute I got to back up and that's all the snake did you know so again I describe it as is a white flag of truce yes letting you know I'm here I'm not gonna go anywhere you got everywhere to walk around right and this animal here lives in and around water that's where you're gonna find them they're highly aquatic they'll eat fish rodents different lizards basically any animal that they can find and subdue and swallow now you got to also remember that a snake's venom is actually designed to help it catch and digest food it's a modified saliva so basically you know us being terrified of snakes coming after us it doesn't make any sense because we're not food to them all we are these giant loud lumbering creatures that annoy them and they'd rather just go hide somewhere nice and quiet so there is an adult cottonmouth sorry I just get a little transfixed by the snake it's that snake hypnotism well this this is starting to exhibit the complete adult colors as it gets older it's the the body is going to get darker and darker and it's going to lose the patterns but here's what's amazing is that when you look at a baby cotton mill it almost looks more like a copperhead and if we can put this snake away and I just want honor you see what a baby looks like because it almost looks like you're looking at a completely different species of snake cool let's check it out so you know David you're talking about how the cottonmouth and the Copperhead are kind of they look like and in fact they're actually members of the same genus right there they're very closely related to one another the cottonmouth as it gets older it becomes much much darker the copperheads pretty much keep the color the same all all their entire life but with the cottonmouth the younger ones to me look more like copperheads and it's an easy mistake not only that but these guys they they have a few adaptations one they have a very light color tip on their tail and here's the neat thing those how he's shaking his tail all snakes regardless of whether they are a rattlesnake or not all snakes will shake or vibrate their town if they're sitting in leaves it sounds like a rattlesnake and again it's an it's a scare tactic leave me alone but this guy has a brightly colored tail and they've been known to use it as a lure to get something close to them a lizard or a frog so that it's within striking distance and they can grab a hold and also let's not forget that this is a keister Don Pisgah Boreas which means fish eater so that lure would come in handy man but let's move on to probably the biggest well the biggest venomous snake in the United States which just happens to live in Florida right you know up and chase makes my whole life at you 40 years he's a little bit older than me but anyhow nothing will ever stop me from getting this primal sense of adrenaline when you hear as a rattlesnake make that famous noise so this is the Eastern diamondback rattlesnake and this is actually a smaller we pulled out a smaller one now he's got a bigger one but you can see where we are and we just thought it would be a bad idea to have a large snake that can dart off into these Paul Meadows but you know David you know you've lived in Florida your whole life how often do you come across wild-eyed and uh you know here's the funny thing I grew up in Miami and then my younger years would go out looking for diamondback rattlesnake would rarely find it a rattlesnake in the Everglades now I'm livin in Palm Beach County and would you believe that I get a call almost once a week Wow about me snake and where are they found they're found right in the middle of the city because we've got some newer development here that were just crying rattlesnake habitat and now people fill houses on them and these guys are everywhere you know it's a quick funny story guys back in 2008 I was in Australia looking for snakes I call my 80 year old dad from Brooklyn asked him what was going on and he had left the French doors open and in came a 5-foot Eastern Diamondback so here I am coming up empty with snakes in Australia and my dad found the snake that I had always wanted to find and took me near personally it took me about eight years before I saw one in my neighbor's yard or in the wild you know and it's so true what you say these animals habitats are being shrunk and so that's where you get this snake human conflict and it's just starting to calm down right now but now this is probably arguably the worst bite that you're gonna get from from a venomous snake in North America what would you say when you look at all the different species of snakes this is definitely not the most dangerous venom okay but because of the volume venom that it can deliver in a single bite and the size is this name and the size of the Fang when this snake makes contact it almost always there's gonna be a large volume of venom that's in there and that probably makes this snake the most dangerous snake in North America when it comes to our venomous snakes but here's the thing well notice how this snake is constantly rattling constantly letting you know where it is because this snake doesn't want you to step on it and it's giving you every opportunity to turn around and walk away and again I mentioned you know when we pull the snake out that sound should be primal every human being hears this sound and they know to back away and and this snake means business but again you know we like to demonize snakes whether it be you know from religious reasons or just the fact that there's some kind of feel that human beings have built into them when we've wandered out of you know the savannahs of Africa you know when we didn't have anti-venom but these are not horrible animals these are actually magnificent highly evolved animals I mean get get this they're related to lizards okay snakes and lizards are closely related snakes went in one direction without legs and they get around just amazingly we haven't also discussed that most of the animals we saw say in fact every venomous snake we've seen so far was a pit viper that means they have the heat-seeking pits in between their eyes and nostrils to help them locate prey think of them like the alien predators Rimmer Arnold Schwarzenegger 1986 awesome movie these guys have and heat vision and that's how they can find locate their prey they give it a nice delivery system with those that venomous bite then they go back and find the animal afterwards we have one more snake we're gonna see but I wouldn't mind just gazing at this one forget this foot second longer so enjoy a few shots while we get the next snake ready okay so we've gone from the Vipers which comes from the Latin name to give birth live live bearing to the final venomous snake here in Florida and that is the beautiful coral snake and interestingly enough David didn't have a coral snake at the sanctuary it was a one snake we needed and I was walking around two days ago in my backyard and found this animal so it's just magic that we got this was very fortuitous for this video but okay this is definitely a venomous snake it's related to the to the Cobra it's in a lab and how often you get calls on these this is probably the snake that we receive the most calls about people are surprised to find out that this is very very commonly found in people's backyards they can easily bury themselves under almost any substrate grass leaves mulch anything like that and and disappear just as quickly as the is they appear so I always tell people you know just because you see a snake like a coral snake in your backyard really nothing to panic about unlike all the other snakes that we've seen today the coral snake really doesn't have a striking response so you're not likely to get bitten by a snake because you step near it you almost really have to pick up the coral snake and have your hands on it to get bitten and that's kind of what happens here in Florida where this snake is found either children pets will grab it or you'll be doing gardening okay and you'll disrupt the snakes you know daytime hiding and get bitten so again it's a defensive bite it's a beautiful snake but the the venom is you know it is quite potent it's a neurotoxic venom there's a couple of different properties this this snake is very very hard to treat for a few reasons one the rarity at this at this date of actual anti-venom for a bite like this the pharmaceutical companies that we're making it they're no longer producing it right now so if you get bitten by a coral snake like this there's a very very small supply much of that supply probably is even outdated and is going to be off-label use or you're going to end up with a different type of antivenom that's it's designed or a snake not found in this area gotcha well you know what folks we have seen six of Florida's venomous snakes I loved living down here it's a great place to live even better place to vacation know even better place to live as I live where you vacation and we got snakes so I want to say thanks to David a few guys are online go to Busch wildlife dot o-r-g you're always welcome to send a donation in so you can continue doing the fantastic work that he does here and educating the public also you can visit me at camp Kenan on Instagram and Facebook and don't forget to subscribe so you can see some more fantastic videos like this enough get to work I make up meetings identity this is more fun to listen anything I could do to get a job this is great I don't have to play with something exactly when you look at the face of the cottonmouth you can just see this animal is not to be trifled with you know I mean look at that scale right above its eyes and there you go don't move don't move there we go all right so that is you can see just how extremely fast these snakes go from zero to 60 okay [Music]

Channel: Kamp Kenan

Views: 1,182,909

Rating: 4.7186332 out of 5

Keywords: florida snakes, snakes in florida, venomous snakes, poisonous snakes, Venom, Venomous Snake (Cause Of Death), Snake (Animal), Kenan Harkin, Reptile, Lizard, Crocodile, Alligator, Iguana, Turtle (Animal), Tortoise, Animal (Film Genre), Animals, Wildlife, funny video, national geographic, conservation, python, bmx, animal planet, red bull, Florida, animalbytestv, cute, busch wildlife sanctuary, feeding, Education, Kamp Kenan, science, nature, pets, dangerous, dinosaurs, snakes, snake, kamp, kenan, viper

Id: WScJ_255VsY

Length: 22min 27sec (1347 seconds)

Published: Tue May 26 2015