The Eastern Milk Snake (OT)

Posted by Rod in Smiths Falls, ON, on May 30, 2007 at 04:27:30 from (209.71.222.37):

Last week I took some pictures of a magnificent eastern milk snake which was sunning itself by the garden. The thing was four to five feet long but only about the diameter of a quarter. Impressive.

I googled the species, of course, and read about how it earned the name because of legends that the snakes would milk the cows, reducing production for the farmers. Biologists dismiss these tales as trash.

Then I told this to my mother and got a very different account.

It was seventy-two years ago that she and Wilma, her younger sister, went to the back forty to get the cattle for milking. To their horror a milk snake had attached itself to a cow's teat and wrapped itself around her leg. They frantically drove the cattle to the barn, reported the situation to their father, and fled to the house. The cow's teat never milked again.

She wouldn't budge from this account, so I started to speculate as to how it might have occurred. From what I saw last week of my garden friend, the milk snake is a stupid creature, slow to react but nasty if something comes within its strike range. What's the lowest point on a cow? Narrowly missed by a front hoof, the snake would have just enough time to react to the passing teat.... only to get his teeth stuck in the thing. The paper I read on the snakes cites the design of the teeth making it very difficult for a milk snake to let go of anything. Chances are the snake wasn't really thirsty, but Mom vividly recalls its ride wrapped around the hind leg of that cow, mouth firmly clamped over the end of one teat.

Does anyone have any other accounts for my skeptical tree-hugging friends?

Rod

Replies:

• Re: The Eastern Milk Snake (OT) TomH in PA 22:12:44 05/30/07 (0)
• Re: The Eastern Milk Snake (OT) Michael Soldan 05:26:42 05/30/07 (1)
  • Re: The Eastern Milk Snake (OT) Rod in Smiths Falls, ON, 15:40:12 05/30/07 (0)

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