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Category Archives: Herp Attacks

Vallejo man bitten by possible rattlesnake

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A Vallejo resident was bitten by what may have been a rattlesnake Monday on the Mare Island Golf Course.

Vallejo paramedics were called to the golf course at 6:27 p.m., Fire Capt. John Ha said.

Ha was unable to provide further detail about the injury or its recipient, due to patient privacy laws.

A golf course official told firefighters that rattlesnakes have been seen on the course before, Ha said. He added that snakes are more prevalent during the summer.

Ha said snake bites are not common emergency calls in Vallejo, in his experience.

Drunken Aussie tries to ride giant croc

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SYDNEY — An Australian man was lucky to be alive after drunkenly scaling the fence of a crocodile enclosure and trying to take a five-metre (16-foot) beast named “Fatso” for a ride, police said Tuesday.

The 36-year-old jumped the wildlife compound’s fence after being ejected from a pub in the northwestern city of Broome late Monday night, and tried to sit on the back of the massive saltwater reptile.

“He first climbed into a compound containing two female crocodiles, before approaching a five-metre long male called Fatso,” a police spokeswoman told AFP.

“The man was bitten on his right leg as he tried to sit on its back. He managed to escape and make his way back to the pub, where an ambulance was called.”

Pub manager Mark Phillips said staff told him that the man reappeared at about 11pm with bits of bark hanging off him and flesh gouged out of his limbs.

“They said he had chunks out of legs and things like that,” Phillips told thewest.com.au website.

He underwent surgery for severe lacerations, and park owner Malcolm Douglas said the man was lucky to have survived his encounter with the 800-kilogram (1,800-pound) croc.

“The crocodile didn’t kill that guy because it was jammed in the corner,” Douglas told thewest.

Douglas said Fatso, one of the largest reptiles in the park, could crush a man with a single bite.

An average of two people are killed each year in Australia by aggressive saltwater crocodiles, which can grow up to seven metres (23 feet) long and weigh more than a tonne.

Police save Palestinian from snake

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A 20-year-old Palestinian shepherd from the village of Rantis was saved by the swift actions of Border Police officers after being bitten by a viper on Sunday night.

The shepherd, Rami Hariziat Hassan, had fallen asleep while his goats and sheep grazed, his friend, Raja Talam Va’ada, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

“Suddenly, a snake bit him on the foot. We rushed to a local checkpoint and asked the soldiers for help. They really helped us,” Va’ada added.

When he got to the checkpoint, Hassan’s condition quickly deteriorated as the snake’s venom spread through his system.

“He nearly died. He wasn’t breathing,” Va’ada recalled.

Border Police quickly brought in a medic who began providing the snake bite victim with first aid. Meanwhile, officers called in an Israeli ambulance and instructed the drivers to rush the victim to the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.

“We kept in touch with doctors to monitor his condition, and ensured that the snake, which had been killed after it attacked, arrived at the hospital [so that doctors would know which anti venom to use],” Border Police Spokesman Moshe Pinchi told The Post.

“The doctors gave him a shot and saved him. We want to thank everyone – the Border Police and the hospital doctors,” said Va’ada. “Well done to everyone.”

“A human being is a human being, whether Jew or Arab. I recently called an ambulance tafter witnessing an [Israeli] car flip over on the road,” he added.

Before being released from hospital, Border Police officers came to visit Hassan to check up on his condition and bring him candy.

Fla. man bitten while trying to trap 4-foot gator

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A man was bitten by a small alligator when he tried to remove the reptile from underneath a Florida mobile home.

State wildlife officials say 40-year-old Michael David Nurse was treated at the scene Saturday for a bite on his hand. The 4-foot-long alligator was removed by a professional trapper.

Karen Parker of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says Nurse should have called authorities instead of trying to trap the gator himself.

The Gainesville mobile home is near Lake Kanapaha and Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, where an 11-foot-long alligator bit off a man’s arm in 2002.

Texas County man nearly dies from snake bite

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A Texas County man nearly died after being bitten by his pet cobra.  It happened a few miles north of Houston.  The sheriff says his department found out about it when someone called the Children’s Division, saying there were several kids in the home with extremely poisonous snakes.

The man was bitten on the finger by one of five poisonous snakes in his collection of about a dozen exotic snakes.  Texas County Sheriff Carl Watson says they were not registered as required, but the family has agreed to get rid of them after the nearly fatal bite.   “And if that’s the case, they’re not going to be charged with any offense.  Even though they didn’t register them prior to this, if they take care of the problem, we’re going to go along with that,” Watson says.

The poisonous snakes inside the home include two diamondback rattle snakes, a puff adder and two cobras.  The man was bitten last week and was flown to a St Louis hospital to be treated, where the proper treatment was available.  He is out of the hospital tonight.

Crocodile caught in Cairns drain

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A crocodile that attacked a fisherman in Cairns has been captured after it was found in a suburban drain.

The first reported crocodile sighting in the city in a year, the 2.4m saltwater reptile was caught after a five day search after it lunged at a local fisherman.

Joel Pezzuti was casting for bait in a drain two weeks ago when the crocodile lunged at him, managing to tear a massive hole into his net.

79-year-old survives rattlesnake bite

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PHOENIX — An elderly Coolidge man has a tale to tell after being bitten on the hand by a four-foot-long rattlesnake.

Robert Wondzell is in great spirits, looking forward to turning 80 and getting married this summer.

He almost didn’t make it.

From his room at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital, Wondzell shows his hand which was pierced by a rattler’s fangs.

“You can see the two marks. One of them is disappearing… It’s a little bit painful.”

Wondzell said he’s played catch-and-release with rattlers he’s found near his Coolidge trailer nearly two dozen times.

He doesn’t want to kill the snakes.

“They’re part of the environment. They have a place in nature’s scheme of things.”

His latest encounter came as he sat under a tree outside his trailer..

“The dogs barking woke me up, and then I heard a rattlesnake’s tail and I thought, `Oh, oh, I’d better do something.'”

He grabbed his home-made snake stick.

“I put the snake in the car and decided to take him for a two-mile ride and then release him. Well, at the point of release, he decided to bite me.”

The bite hasn’t changed Wondzell’s belief that snakes have a place in the desert and shouldn’t be killed. He said his bite was just “an accident.”

His advice for people in areas where snakes might lurk: “Walk very carefully and listen carefully and when you hear a snake rattle, stop in your tracks.”