by Joel La Rocque

Created on: April 15, 2009   Last Updated: April 18, 2009

For decades, children have been told of mythical super snakes that can perform amazing feats to capture a child should it wonder near its home. Mothers and grandmothers have told these stories to protect their loved ones from receiving a deadly bite should the child encounter a snake while playing out of doors. The one problem with the telling of these tales was that they were never corrected when the child grew older. The stories of flying rattlesnakes were dispelled with age but what about the stories that just might be true? The Hoop snake, The whip snake, The Bull / Rattlesnake mix, and many such stories that could be true at least in theory. Besides, my Grandmother would never lie to me! or would she?

Story number one: the hoop snake. It is said that this snake had the ability to form a circle with its body and by placing its tail tip within its mouth flip onto its side and roll after its prey or roll after the child that disturbed it. Once it caught up to its quarry it would deliver a deadly bite. The truth: There are no hoop snakes, never were never will be. a snake could lay in a perfect circle but how would it prop itself up onto its side? Think about it.

Story number two: The Bull / rattlesnake mix. It is possible for different sub species of rattlesnake such as the eastern and western diamondbacks to breed and produce young hybrids but they are from the same genus. The same goes for a cottonmouth and a copperhead, both are of the same genus. A Bull snake and any species of venomous snake are equal to a dog and a cat reproducing. Can't be done, never happened never will.

Story number three: A snake will not die before sundown! If you take an axe and cut the head off of any snake it is dead right then and there. A snakes central nervous system is extremely slow and the nerve impulses do react after death for a short time. The stories of a man getting bit by a decapitated rattlesnake are true, but this was the result of a dying nervous system not a living head minus a body. One half hour post decapitation the snake is gone nervous system and all. Always was always will be.

Story number four: The fang in the boot! The story goes a snake bit a man through a leather boot and a fang broke off in the boot. The man died and his son put on the boot ten years after his father died. Well now the son drops dead and his son inherits the boots and the same happens to him. The truth: A gaboon viper has the longest fangs in the world, about 2 inches long. There is not

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