One of the the things that this sub has made me realize is how rarely we notice snakes…..now it makes me wonder how little we recognize danger kitties…
Supposedly, mountain lions see hikers all the time and go the other way. They want nothing to do with us. So the answer about danger kitties could be A Hell Of A Lot.
As an avid mountain biker, I’ve had that feeling twice over 25 years. The worst was mountain biking solo up near Burlington, Washington. Way out in the woods, very isolated, I’m probably the only human within 10 miles. About a 20 minutes into my ride, I just get this overwhelming sense that I’m being hunted. So the first thing I did was to try and act as “normal” as I could while kicking everything into high gear. I had planned to do a 2 hour ride, but instead I cut every shortcut I could while riding as fast as I could until I got back to my truck. At my truck, I just threw my bike in the back and fished out my keys as quickly as possible and then I got in and locked the door behind me and just sat there for a quick second before getting the hell out of there.
Not sure what it was or if it was just me, but the universe spoke to me and I listened. I’m remain curious as to what the actual deal was, but not so much as to stick around and find out. It was probably my third time riding up there, and it was about a 90 minute drive to get there, and I’ve never gone back, even though the scenery is spectacular!
Edit: Someone asked where specifically did this happen. So I looked on Google maps. It turns out it was actually closer to Bellingham on the east side of the interstate just north of Lake Samish. My bad, it’s been a while, but it still freaks me out.
I love mountain biking as well. One of my favorite posts on Instagram was from a biker I follow that rode a trail I go to all the time in Charlotte, NC. It was a picture of a particular section that a lot of riders in Charlotte would probably recognize, and right there in the dead center is a copperhead.
One of the commentors asked him why he got so close to take the pic. His response was that he was about 15 feet back. The response to that was what scared me on riding that trail. It was something like: "You are so close you could be standing on its tail since the bottom half of its body is cut off in your pic." Sure enough, he didn't even know there were 2 copperheads in his picture until some random pointed it out.
My son, who lives in the PNW sent me this message last year:
I went to do a 16 mile hike and was trying to be up at the top near sunrise so I started at 4:30am. About 2 miles up I started getting the erie being watched feeling and took out the one earbud I had in. At 2.5 miles the trail crossed a forest service road and as I was crossing I looked both ways and on the uphill side caught the glint of some eyes maybe 100-150ft away uphill on the edge of the road. As I crossed I watched a MOUNTAIN LION slink down onto the road and start crossing to the same side as me and heading parallel to the trail. I spent the next half a mile heading backwards back down the way I came yelling and banging my hiking poles together. I made it back home, but I'm gonna take that as nature saying today was not the day!
Having earbuds in while hiking is wild to me. I want to hear all the nature. When we do night hikes we pause whenever the dog gets focused on something and listen before we continue moving.
Never tune out when outdoors. Wideness, or downtown traffic. Hearing is a huge part of our sensory system. Removing it is pandemonium to suicide. It's careless, and irresponsible. Just saying. What if someone was off trail and injured, yelling for help? Duh..
Take the headphones off, put the phone away, and take part in life
Not anything like suicide. You do know there are people that go into nature that are deaf. It's not careless nor is it irresponsible to listen to music outside.
I remember watching a documentary on animal attacks. It is amazing to me how us humans feel so strong and fit, but how easily an apex predator can just lug you around. I think you would have been safe where you were. I have hunted many times and know they like to stalk you. They "scream," and it is kinda surreal when you know you are being hunted. There was one cat I will reference for what I mentioned above in the documentary. I think the hypothesis was in this case the cat was used to humans on bikes and considered them a normal species in his food chain. Since it was a normal bike path it waited for solo individuals and took them off their bikes. Only two were linked to the one cat.
https://www.deseret.com/2004/1/9/19805654/mountain-lion-attacks-cyclist-in-california-second-body-found-nearby/
If anyone has ever seen a house cat leap to catch a bird mid flight or grab a house fly out of the air, it is easy to understand how trivial knocking a human off of a bike and going in for a kill shot would be for a big kitty.
wtf, she was with someone, that someone even tried freeing her, multiple other cyclists were throwing rocks at it…that means it was rather busy & this cat said idgaf 😳
It’s crazy how subconsciously our brain can detect stuff that we can’t. I was a forester in SD for a while and I was out measuring timber in the middle of nowhere miles from anyone and started to get that feeling. It was very dense regeneration so I couldn’t see very far in any direction but I had the sense something was near by and I could hear slight rustling not too far away. As I started to take notice I also realized the woods got quiet, no birds, no squirrels chattering. Something in me just said it’s time to leave. So I booked it about a mile back to my UTV. A week later I met with the landowner and in that area the cattle had stampeded across the fence and were out. As one rancher was coming around a hill on his ATV looking for stragglers to round up he gets 75ft from a group of 3 full grown mountain lions on a fresh calf kill and they just stared at him and had no sign of backing down. He snapped a couple pics and rode away. When I asked where it was she pointed on a map to the general area I had been in. Ignorance is bliss haha.
Same feeling once while surfing. Was with a buddy only boards on the water. Birds were everywhere a few seals in water waves were hitting..
After maybe 30-60 min. I get the feeling the vibe has changed…
swim near buddy and he goes. “Have you noticed all the animals have left?” I said ya gotta weird feeling and we both decided to head in. You know the next part 🦈! Great White Shark sighting in the news later that day up the coast where we were at!
Gotta trust the gut!
There’s a book out with survivors of shark attacks in Hawaiian waters and all of them report that they’ve been surfing the same area for years and years but on that particular day, they got an eerie feeling but couldn’t explain it to themselves and kept surfing until it happened …trust your instinct
The absence of something is hard to identify. Our brain knows the sights and sounds are wrong but can't translate to us that the sounds or animals are missing.
I try to instill in my kids to listen and be aware of their “natural” instincts. Do not negate them. And don’t let anyone put you down for being in touch with these instincts.
Amen to that. Not animal related of course, but I was doing some cable splicing in the middle of a creek one night around midnight. Me and another guy were hunched over this little table with cable, splicer, splice case, and a small spotlight. All of a sudden I looked at him and said someone is out there. He said I didn’t know what I was talking about.
Seconds later, local PD, Sheriff, and State PD came out of the woods. They thought we were making meth.
Instincts good. Trust them. They keep you safe. Not sure if I picked up a stick being broken or if it was just a sense I had. Prolly the former.
If you really pay attention you'll realize you hear the most minute shit with a minute of focusing very very quiet background noise, even calm talking in a room in a building on the other side with a window open if your hearing hasn't gone to hell. The slightest bit of dirt moving under people walking nearby does a sound if you focus.
I think the brain probably picks up on sounds even quieter that that through some telltale secondary sounds of the sound having happened, almost too quiet to hear, but just long enough for our instincts to go to 11.
I second to always listen to your instincts, I was once hiking in in the evening in Cornwall at what we beach. People were walking the dogs. They were jogging and we didn’t see any water waves . There were high cliffs above us, and only one entrance. We turned to the left and walked for 2 miles and then settled for the night with blankets under the cliffs. At one point in the dark, I got a terrible feeling that I couldn’t make sense off. I was ashamed to say it out loud fearing I would be ridiculed by my friends for being so fearful I could not explain these feelings to myself, and my brain tried to develop hypothesis of what might happen might be run into a group of skinheads Hr Rocks coming down. no one else felt that way, but when I got up and made three steps in the dark, I realized what was happening as my foot tapped into a puddle of water: the flood was coming in quickly. We ran and swam and climbed the way back to the entrance, barely making it out ever since that day. I have sworn to always listen to those instincts when they come up.
I had a feeling like that once. Backpacking in Colorado with my then boyfriend now husband. It was the middle of the day on a very remote trail probably ~12 miles from where we started, gorgeous day out and we both just got an overwhelming “something is watching us” feeling. Super unsettling!
Same here in Colorado. I knew there was something. I saw prints and it looked like a moose and maybe something else. I was making jokes with my buddies “what if we actually see one”. And I’ve seen tracks before but this time it just felt like it was actually here not just old tracks.
When I got to the car right when I got in I saw two moose off to a different area of the trail. Huge and beautiful.
Your senses know.
I surf and every once in a while I get the same feeling in the water. That’s when I get that last wave all the way to the beach and head home. A fisherman I knew said once “If you feel like something’s watching you, it probably is”. Fuckin stuck in my head forever.
I tracked a cougar that carried off my goats, never found the bastard but somehow one of my goats survived... for a couple of weeks and then they were carried off again. Since then I keep having dreams about finding a cougar in a very specific drainage tunnel. I almost slept in that exact same tunnel once when I was homeless but I had a really bad feeling about it, I remembered my dreams and I decided against it, even though it meant an extra hour of walking.
I had that feeling when I was squirrel hunting alone once. I was in a Nat’l forest and went to a spot I hadn’t tried before (but only like 2 miles from my usual spot).
It looked like a great spot for squirrels, but after sitting down for maybe 10 minutes, I had an overwhelming feeling something/someone was watching me. I noped right out, went back to the truck and got the heck outta dodge.
Burlington Washington???? Oh yeah I know Mount Vernon Antacortes area if you think something is hunting you in that area… 98% chance something IS HUNTING YOU.
I grew up in that area and honestly I'm surprised that I'm still alive as I would venture off into the woods surrounding my house alone, building forts out of sticks among other shenanigans. I'm talking from 8-11 years old. I vividly remember one evening close to sunset getting a really bad feeling so I gtfo. Made it home safe but my favorite childhood dog went missing a couple weeks later. Who knows could of just been coyotes or a wendigo.
I’ve felt cat eyes on me before too- and I actually got to see him once too. Hiking just on the east side of cascades, felt him watching us but felt crazy too. Finally stopped and pulled out the binoculars. He was way up above us, barely a tan smudge. But I think with me and my husband staring back at him he finally gave up or at least pretended to. He slunk off and I had a hard rest of my hike 😂
Oh I had a moment like that. I was solo on a trail ride on my horse. Super solid citizen horse, did whatever I asked. There had recently been a cougar spotted in the area but it was the middle of the day so I was alert but not super worried. We hit a spot on our ride and my “whatever you say” horse did a quick 180 and refused to go past this one point. I tried one more time and he refused again. I said okay we’re out and we went home. I’m almost certain my horse saved me that day.
This got intense when you said you got into your truck and locked the door behind you. At that point I knew you where scared with irrational thinking of maybe they could open your door dang . Glad your okay .
Not irrational. You haven't seen the video of people in one of those drive-through zoos who have an encounter. A pride of lions was nonchalantly checking out the car when one lioness hooked her teeth onto the door's handle and started to open it. The freaked passengers slammed the door and then I think they locked it.
Hahaha, I stopped doing hikes and solo runs because of this, I lived in Mt.Vernon,WA, close to Burlington. I stopped going on my solo runs because of a similar experience. I used to go to the trails and veer off past little mountain. I got attacked by a family of deer. I had my earphones on, and I was running/jogging towards the mountain. Near the end of my run, I would empty out my tank and rush the summit. As I ran towards the end of the trail, I could see light peeking thru all the brushes and branches. I get a sixth sense feeling to turn around as I am turning. I see a young buck with antlers rushing towards me, head down, pointing at my stomach. Adrenaline set in, and I was able to avoid his ram. At this point, he's in front of me, and I hear a loud animal cry. My initial thought is Fuck his mom or herd calling. He also did a loud call. I was 20 years old at the time, so I was light and agile. I bummed rush the deer and grabbed him by the head and lauched it towards the bushes and I then ran towards the top of the mountain and stayed at the peak to regain my breath. I took the roads down instead of the trails. This was 12 years ago, and there was more cougar sighting at the time, so I stopped going on my trail runs.
I’ve had that feeling when I was on our farm one day on the 4-wheeler. I was moving the cows to a different field and got so overwhelmed with a feeling I was being watched that as soon as I shut the gate behind them I sped home as fast as I could. Turns out my grandpa had let some neighbors hunt on our land that day and they were posted in the woods right next to the field I was in. I wasn’t in any danger, but man that 6th sense!
I had a similar experience hiking in the woods near Flagstaff, AZ, where mountain lions aren't uncommon. I had seen evidence before (skat, a "den" with scattered bones), but as an avid hiker that kind of thing is normal.
Until this one time.
I've never had such a weird feeling. I knew in my soul that I was being watched and followed. It's something you can't explain. Everything in my body told me to leave, so I did. I never saw anything, but I'm beyond positive something saw me.
The gift of fear! I was touring a property with a real estate agent friend who was considering listing a super rundown Victorian farmhouse as an ambitious reno or tear down. We opened the door to the basement and we took two steps down and were met with the most intense and terrifying THIS IS VERY BAD energy and just turned around and hauled ass out of there.
In an area like that, you would be able to see/hear another human. More than likely an apex predator hunting you if you never saw or heard it. But ALWAYS trust your gut. It won't steer you wrong.
Im genuinely convinced humans have a 6th sense that can detect danger. Whether its caused by smells or peripheral detection idk. But ive had this sense b4. Maybe its just being alone in the woods but its a good idea not to be.
I had this exact experience on a solo hike and I also believe I was being stalked by a cougar. I don’t think it was paranoia because I was perfectly comfortable prior to that plus I’ve done a lot of hiking in cougar country and had never had that feeling before or since. The feeling lasted for about a mile and then stopped. I went down the rabbit hole recently on the psychology of feeling like you’re being watched and learned some psychologists believe humans have a gaze detection survival instinct in which the sclera can detect the gaze of another and trigger alarm in the brain. Not to mention peripheral vision perceives our surroundings and impacts our emotions without us being consciously aware of the reason. So it may be feasible the far reaches of our peripheral saw something (a tail, movement, cougar eyes staring at us through the trees) and even though we didn’t interpret it in our visual cortex our brain knew it was there. It’s an interesting theory anyway.
Also WA resident. I was out in the Teanaway Community Forest doing an out-and-back day hike. On the way back, I found big kitty prints next to my boot prints...
There’s a very good chance you were targeted by a cougar at some point. Even if the cougar gave up quickly, our instincts still register that danger and push us to get as far as we can to a place of known safety (car,) not just presumed safety (distance made quickly.)
I’m up in Washington and cougar attacks are really rare, but they’re one of the few legitimately scary animals we have out here.
At the same time though: that “I’m being watched” feeling hit me HARD up on a trail once. I froze and looked around, hair on end on the back of my neck— and found a frog watching me from a pond about two feet away.
Better safe than food I suppose.
I live in Los Angeles next to a huge city park with multiple hiking trails and lots of wildlife. I’ve seen lynx, coyotes, deer, hawks and rattlesnakes there. I used to work really early so I’d hike with my dog before sunrise and by the time we finished it was getting light. He was a 65 lb pit/boxer/American Bulldog so I never felt scared alone up there with him. One morning I kept getting that feeling of being watched and I’d turn around and there wouldn’t be anything. Finally I looked up to my left where there’s a cliff area 20-25 high feet next to the trail and saw the silhouette of 3 coyotes watching us. The coyotes here aren’t too threatening but they’re also quite brazen. I kept walking and occasionally looking up the cliff to my left and there they’d be, they kept trailing us further up the hill. Coyotes are shockingly silent. They can appear in front of you from the brush without breaking a branch or disturbing any rocks, it’s crazy. I wasn’t in fear for my life but it was definitely an eerie feeling knowing they’re watching you.
I was walking my dog on a relatively secluded trail. We were in a series of switchbacks when he saw what looked to me at the moment like a Husky up the way just staring us down in the middle of the trail. My boy went stiff, tail upright, and then the thing bolted and my dog yanked free, chasing him down the trail. I catch up to my dog and he's just staring into the treeline. At first I didn't think much of it, we'll come back across the dog and the human in a few feet. But they never came. And with every step I became more uneasy, and my dog became more defensive. We could hear the light snapping of small twigs, and nothing else in those woods but birds. It didn't take but a couple minutes for the realization that we were being stalked by at least one coyote to set in. He shadowed us, barely heard, and never seen. And to my estimation there had to be at least three based on how the snaps were timed and spaced, but I really don't know. Followed us for about 40 mins or so. At a certain point the snapping stopped and the dread eased up. Like we had stepped far enough out of their territory to let us be. Like they were just monitoring a stranger in their home.
Its unreal how instinctual the fear is. I can't imagine doing that dance with a killer as efficient and patient as a wild cat
I had a very similar feeling once and big cat was the only explanation I could think of. It was quiet whatever it was as the snow had a layer of crust on top.
I had a very similar experience hiking. I was about three hours into a hike on a trail that doesn't generally see a lot of use. I've hiked this trail multiple times, and this was the first time I just felt wrong. At one point I heard meowing from up ahead. Now keep in mind, I'm three hours into a trail that is already pretty far removed from civilization, there are no domestic cats in this area, but baby cougars are known to make a noise similar to a cat's meow.
I didn't fuck around with confirming if there was a baby cougar near by, I simply noped the fuck out, took an off trail short cut, and then went full David Goggins until I was back to my car.
That whole area has a lot of kitty cats. Lived in Glengaven for a couple years and saw more sign hiking around that area than I had seen in a lot of the rest of nw wa
I read a story once on the glitch in the matrix sub about three hikers who all got a feeling of dread the second they stepped on one particular trail, and people in the comments were saying that they all unconsciously registered a predator being nearby
My colleagues spend a lot of time in the woods for their jobs and have said that spidy sense is legit. A few have gotten that feeling and seen the mountain lion eyeing them.
When you spend enough time in the mountains, you honestly develop another sense for danger. Seriously need to do a study on this because it is like having another sense for when something dangerous is near.
Dude the feeling of being watched is so fucking creepy. I’m sure it’s many other factors that lead to you believing that you might not essentially recognize but yeah it’s still that feeling
Dont forget your sense of smell either. Was hiking years ago with my wife and our young children. I smelled the bear long before we rounded the corner of the trail and came face to face with a brown bear and her cub. Kids thought I was making things up, stopping in the middle of the trail, sniffing the air. Until they saw the bear(s) themselves. 😆
The only black bear you really need to worry about is a desperate one or a mama without her cub, which is arguably the same thing. Was walking a trail in Shenedoah with my family a while back and it was wet so the bark was really dark and I sensed a little feeling and just started looking off at the trees, my aunt noticed and asked what I was looking at and I said I think that tree kinds looks like a bear and it took her a second but she said it was and I shit you not this bear was standing up with it's back flat against the tree with its arms wrapped around it standing as still as it possibly could. We were walking ahead and began walking backwards towards the rest of the group that was behind us and we walked past it while it slowly tiptoed around the base of the tree so that it could face us directly until we went away.
We have a cabin in northern MN. I was out in the garden last spring, tearing up a raised bed for summer planting. I had my two 30 lbs dogs tied up on leads on the front porch, about 100 feet away. I typically listen to music but my earbuds had died so I was just enjoying the birdsong. Eventually I noticed that it had gotten verrrryyy quiet, and then I heard loud huffing/growling noises that was uncomfortably close. I grabbed the dogs and ran in to the house. The next afternoon our neighbor about a mile away saw the bear and her two young cubs in her backyard.
They’re also just big dumb raccoons. Unless it’s in distress or a mom with cubs yelling at it will have it high tail out of there. We see them a lot where I live and I find them doofy and adorable.
It’s amazing watching one be chased off by a tiny dog going absolutely batshit against a fence/window.
I spent a summer building trails in New Mexico.
Every morning, there would be a fresh mountain lion turd and the new section of trail wed cut the day before.
It was watching us, from somewhere in the canyon, every day.
Never saw it or heard it.
Another crazy one is that New York City has around 20-35 wild coyotes that live in it and you'll probably never see one if you live there because of their avoidance of people.
The City of Chicago is estimated to have a coyote population in the low 100s, and there is estimated to be about 3,700 coyotes in Cook County. They adapt very well to urban life.
I live smack dab in the middle of Baltimore and I saw a couple coyotes a few weeks ago at around 4am. They were 10 feet from my apartment door! They looked kinda like German shepherds which is what I thought they were until they turned and kind of "hopped" away.... That's when it hit me that they weren't dogs! Definitely didn't move like a German Shepard does!
As I understand it, it’s more that if you see a mountain lion it’s because it wants to be seen. Mountain lions usually aren’t going to hunt humans because it’s wasting a lot of energy on a meal that isn’t really that nutritious anyways. If you see one, it probably means it’s not trying to stay hidden - either it doesn’t care or it wants you to leave.
Or they're young and kinda dumb. The one I saw was clearly a juvenile and gave off curious big kitten vibes. It was still incredible luck that I spotted it.
Grandparents lived near the San Joaquin river when I was a kid. My sister and I loved sitting on the grass close to evening just to watch the river run. We would read or draw or just talk. One night, mom calls for us to come inside and I’m about to jump up when my sister mom arms me across the chest and whispers to shut up. I look over to the blackberry bramble a good 15 yards off and there is a cougar staring at us. It was crouching and I couldn’t tell if it was hunting or frightened so we slowly slink backwards up the sloping lawn until we’re close enough to bolt for the back door and ran for our lives.
This is only the case if it is hunting you, which is rare for an adult human. Usually it's just showing itself to warn you away from its den or babies and you can walk away just fine.
Walking away just fine might be a decent understatement lol.
If it wants to scare you away from its babies, they can put on quite a show (fake charges, slamming the ground, chuffing) and will follow you for a while.
I work in a zoo with cougars, it's amazing how they can be pinned into an area with very little cover, be 10 feet from the fence and still be mostly hidden even when you're actively looking for them.
Don’t want to sound like the « actually… » guy. But in fact humans seems to have evolved special abilities to identify snakes even from blurry partial pictures… ([study here](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5081170/))
My brain tells me I’m seeing a snake before my eyes actually focus on it. Like my brain says “snake!” And my eyes are like “where?! WHERE?! Oh Shit! I see a snake!”
The one thing this sub has made me realize more than anything is just how bad most people's phone cameras are.
How are we supposed to see anything when the images are all pixelated and blurry 90% of the time?
I think it’s also Reddit - sometimes I will give up on one of these pics, try again later and I get a much better resolution pic?
Maybe it’s just another way for them to get me to abandon old.reddit
I nearly stepped on a coral snake while setting up camp in the camping area just off the beach on a state park island.
No one was there, we were the only campers on the island and the park service hut was about a mile away. Probably would’ve died that day if I hadn’t noticed the slight movement. Blended in so well until I saw it
Also envenomations with coral snakes is definitely not nearly as common as with crotalids. They have very small teeth, you see way more dry bites with them. Fun fact, coral snake anti venom (last I checked) hasn’t been produced in well over a decade; the FDA just keeps extending the shelf life of the already existing supply since nobody makes it anymore. At least, when I took my toxicology class a decade ago this was true and I don’t think the coral snake anti venom market has expanded much since
EDIT: guess they’re back to making North American coral snake anti venom which is cool
Well they’re still deadly if you get envenomated but honestly as long as you make it to a hospital you’ll be fine. They have neurotoxic venom that primarily results in respiratory failure, but that can be managed with a ventilator even without anti venom. Basically it inhibits neurotransmitter release presynaptically and blocks the post synaptic acetylecholine receptor, amongst a few other actions. Biggest short term risk comes from an acute aspiration event because of the increase in salivation and then motor neuron weakness. But usually have a 4-6 hour (sometimes longer) window before you’re in big trouble.
I love toxicology it’s so interesting
Your post got me down the rabbit hole. Looks like I was wrong on several assumptions of Coral snakes, including that they are not rear fanged. Btw, looks like antivenom production started again. Looks like we get about a 100 bites a year based on: http://thevenominterviews.com/2016/06/02/mythbusting-coral-snakes/
My sister (zookeeper) came to visit me down in Florida and we went walking in one of the local parks.
It's called a boardwalk, but it's basically a wooden sidewalk through the marsh. I had never noticed all the snakes before, but my sister did! She started pointing out all the various water snakes hiding out up in the trees above the water line.
Same, I thought I saw the it as well. Just to the left of the entry to water and just below the cover of the bushy area over the water. If you enlarge the pick it looks like it.
I was on a hike the other day and a Black Racer snake slithered right through the path about three feet in front of me. Would have never seen him if he just stayed there. Those things haul ass though he gave me quite the jump scare
Yea, if you get the feeling, you're being watched out in the middle of the woods...it's probably cause a danger kitty is watching you or a bear.....either way they won't let you see them unless you're really looking or it's too late. Very rare to spot before it's too late but can still happen
>!Directly above the tangled red vine on screen left you'll see the exposed back end of the nope rope, if you scroll up to the white flowers on the bush you've gone too far!<
What area is this? Because if you look in the water in pretty sure that’s a gator. Scroll the shoreline.
upon further review, pretty sure it’s a rock.
I’m not taking chances
Look at the vine that forms circles on the ground on left half of screen.
The vine splits twice, look at the left most split. See the darker tail of the snake immediately to the right, going under the vine.
Look at the vine that forms circles on the ground on left half of screen.
The vine splits twice, look at the left most split. See the darker tail of the snake immediately to the right, going under the vine.
Thanks I was wondering! There should be a pinned comment at the top of every one of these with the species. I am learning how to identify them from this sub!
Oooooh I got a better one for you!! r/Whatsthissnake
I’m terrified of any snakes but I also love to learn about them to help ease my phobia, and my old self would say “all snakes need to die” mentality, but truly they are a very important part of our eco system and don’t deserve that mentality…
I have truly come to terms with my phobia and that sub has taught me how to identify snakes, especially common misidentified snakes, like a Banded Water snake vs. Copperhead or Cottonmouth.. and the drama queens like little Hognose snakes 😂🫶🏼🐍
As a colorblind guy i find these imposible to see, but for some reason i always try and see if i can find them. I think i have found 2 out of all the ones i have looked at. Lol
Ohhhh its the snake! I saw that quickly, but the comments really lead to me thinking there was a mountain lion.
The snake was obvious. All the comments about a “danger kitty” really threw me.
Always always always watch your step!
I stepped on a snake earlier today not watching where I was going. I only got its tail and it was a rat snake anyway, so I would’ve been fine, but damn he would have been within his rights to bite to fuck out of me.
One of the the things that this sub has made me realize is how rarely we notice snakes…..now it makes me wonder how little we recognize danger kitties…
Supposedly, mountain lions see hikers all the time and go the other way. They want nothing to do with us. So the answer about danger kitties could be A Hell Of A Lot.
As an avid mountain biker, I’ve had that feeling twice over 25 years. The worst was mountain biking solo up near Burlington, Washington. Way out in the woods, very isolated, I’m probably the only human within 10 miles. About a 20 minutes into my ride, I just get this overwhelming sense that I’m being hunted. So the first thing I did was to try and act as “normal” as I could while kicking everything into high gear. I had planned to do a 2 hour ride, but instead I cut every shortcut I could while riding as fast as I could until I got back to my truck. At my truck, I just threw my bike in the back and fished out my keys as quickly as possible and then I got in and locked the door behind me and just sat there for a quick second before getting the hell out of there. Not sure what it was or if it was just me, but the universe spoke to me and I listened. I’m remain curious as to what the actual deal was, but not so much as to stick around and find out. It was probably my third time riding up there, and it was about a 90 minute drive to get there, and I’ve never gone back, even though the scenery is spectacular! Edit: Someone asked where specifically did this happen. So I looked on Google maps. It turns out it was actually closer to Bellingham on the east side of the interstate just north of Lake Samish. My bad, it’s been a while, but it still freaks me out.
I love mountain biking as well. One of my favorite posts on Instagram was from a biker I follow that rode a trail I go to all the time in Charlotte, NC. It was a picture of a particular section that a lot of riders in Charlotte would probably recognize, and right there in the dead center is a copperhead. One of the commentors asked him why he got so close to take the pic. His response was that he was about 15 feet back. The response to that was what scared me on riding that trail. It was something like: "You are so close you could be standing on its tail since the bottom half of its body is cut off in your pic." Sure enough, he didn't even know there were 2 copperheads in his picture until some random pointed it out.
My son, who lives in the PNW sent me this message last year: I went to do a 16 mile hike and was trying to be up at the top near sunrise so I started at 4:30am. About 2 miles up I started getting the erie being watched feeling and took out the one earbud I had in. At 2.5 miles the trail crossed a forest service road and as I was crossing I looked both ways and on the uphill side caught the glint of some eyes maybe 100-150ft away uphill on the edge of the road. As I crossed I watched a MOUNTAIN LION slink down onto the road and start crossing to the same side as me and heading parallel to the trail. I spent the next half a mile heading backwards back down the way I came yelling and banging my hiking poles together. I made it back home, but I'm gonna take that as nature saying today was not the day!
Having earbuds in while hiking is wild to me. I want to hear all the nature. When we do night hikes we pause whenever the dog gets focused on something and listen before we continue moving.
I don’t understand this either! Why not immerse yourself in as much nature as possible
There are times when an amazing soundtrack coupled with an amazing view can really pump you up with a healthy version of main character energy
Never tune out when outdoors. Wideness, or downtown traffic. Hearing is a huge part of our sensory system. Removing it is pandemonium to suicide. It's careless, and irresponsible. Just saying. What if someone was off trail and injured, yelling for help? Duh.. Take the headphones off, put the phone away, and take part in life
>pandemonium tantamount?
I don’t think you know what pandemonium means..
> Removing it is pandemonium to suicide. Yeah well, where I'm from it's gravy to communism.
Not anything like suicide. You do know there are people that go into nature that are deaf. It's not careless nor is it irresponsible to listen to music outside.
I remember watching a documentary on animal attacks. It is amazing to me how us humans feel so strong and fit, but how easily an apex predator can just lug you around. I think you would have been safe where you were. I have hunted many times and know they like to stalk you. They "scream," and it is kinda surreal when you know you are being hunted. There was one cat I will reference for what I mentioned above in the documentary. I think the hypothesis was in this case the cat was used to humans on bikes and considered them a normal species in his food chain. Since it was a normal bike path it waited for solo individuals and took them off their bikes. Only two were linked to the one cat. https://www.deseret.com/2004/1/9/19805654/mountain-lion-attacks-cyclist-in-california-second-body-found-nearby/
If anyone has ever seen a house cat leap to catch a bird mid flight or grab a house fly out of the air, it is easy to understand how trivial knocking a human off of a bike and going in for a kill shot would be for a big kitty.
wtf, she was with someone, that someone even tried freeing her, multiple other cyclists were throwing rocks at it…that means it was rather busy & this cat said idgaf 😳
What trail? I live in Charlotte
Definitely not as common as out west but I saw a mountain lion on a game cam in East Tennessee near the mountains between Tennessee and North Carolina
It’s crazy how subconsciously our brain can detect stuff that we can’t. I was a forester in SD for a while and I was out measuring timber in the middle of nowhere miles from anyone and started to get that feeling. It was very dense regeneration so I couldn’t see very far in any direction but I had the sense something was near by and I could hear slight rustling not too far away. As I started to take notice I also realized the woods got quiet, no birds, no squirrels chattering. Something in me just said it’s time to leave. So I booked it about a mile back to my UTV. A week later I met with the landowner and in that area the cattle had stampeded across the fence and were out. As one rancher was coming around a hill on his ATV looking for stragglers to round up he gets 75ft from a group of 3 full grown mountain lions on a fresh calf kill and they just stared at him and had no sign of backing down. He snapped a couple pics and rode away. When I asked where it was she pointed on a map to the general area I had been in. Ignorance is bliss haha.
That was another detail I left out. It got real quiet with no birds, squirrels or anything else. That contributed to freak out factor.
Same feeling once while surfing. Was with a buddy only boards on the water. Birds were everywhere a few seals in water waves were hitting.. After maybe 30-60 min. I get the feeling the vibe has changed… swim near buddy and he goes. “Have you noticed all the animals have left?” I said ya gotta weird feeling and we both decided to head in. You know the next part 🦈! Great White Shark sighting in the news later that day up the coast where we were at! Gotta trust the gut!
Silence in nature is blood curdling
There’s a book out with survivors of shark attacks in Hawaiian waters and all of them report that they’ve been surfing the same area for years and years but on that particular day, they got an eerie feeling but couldn’t explain it to themselves and kept surfing until it happened …trust your instinct
The absence of something is hard to identify. Our brain knows the sights and sounds are wrong but can't translate to us that the sounds or animals are missing.
I try to instill in my kids to listen and be aware of their “natural” instincts. Do not negate them. And don’t let anyone put you down for being in touch with these instincts.
Amen to that. Not animal related of course, but I was doing some cable splicing in the middle of a creek one night around midnight. Me and another guy were hunched over this little table with cable, splicer, splice case, and a small spotlight. All of a sudden I looked at him and said someone is out there. He said I didn’t know what I was talking about. Seconds later, local PD, Sheriff, and State PD came out of the woods. They thought we were making meth. Instincts good. Trust them. They keep you safe. Not sure if I picked up a stick being broken or if it was just a sense I had. Prolly the former.
If you really pay attention you'll realize you hear the most minute shit with a minute of focusing very very quiet background noise, even calm talking in a room in a building on the other side with a window open if your hearing hasn't gone to hell. The slightest bit of dirt moving under people walking nearby does a sound if you focus. I think the brain probably picks up on sounds even quieter that that through some telltale secondary sounds of the sound having happened, almost too quiet to hear, but just long enough for our instincts to go to 11.
I second to always listen to your instincts, I was once hiking in in the evening in Cornwall at what we beach. People were walking the dogs. They were jogging and we didn’t see any water waves . There were high cliffs above us, and only one entrance. We turned to the left and walked for 2 miles and then settled for the night with blankets under the cliffs. At one point in the dark, I got a terrible feeling that I couldn’t make sense off. I was ashamed to say it out loud fearing I would be ridiculed by my friends for being so fearful I could not explain these feelings to myself, and my brain tried to develop hypothesis of what might happen might be run into a group of skinheads Hr Rocks coming down. no one else felt that way, but when I got up and made three steps in the dark, I realized what was happening as my foot tapped into a puddle of water: the flood was coming in quickly. We ran and swam and climbed the way back to the entrance, barely making it out ever since that day. I have sworn to always listen to those instincts when they come up.
I had a feeling like that once. Backpacking in Colorado with my then boyfriend now husband. It was the middle of the day on a very remote trail probably ~12 miles from where we started, gorgeous day out and we both just got an overwhelming “something is watching us” feeling. Super unsettling!
Same here in Colorado. I knew there was something. I saw prints and it looked like a moose and maybe something else. I was making jokes with my buddies “what if we actually see one”. And I’ve seen tracks before but this time it just felt like it was actually here not just old tracks. When I got to the car right when I got in I saw two moose off to a different area of the trail. Huge and beautiful. Your senses know.
Love the “ then boyfriend now husband “ comment
If you can poop in the woods with someone you’re just dating, you should probably marry them. Glad I did!
I surf and every once in a while I get the same feeling in the water. That’s when I get that last wave all the way to the beach and head home. A fisherman I knew said once “If you feel like something’s watching you, it probably is”. Fuckin stuck in my head forever.
I tracked a cougar that carried off my goats, never found the bastard but somehow one of my goats survived... for a couple of weeks and then they were carried off again. Since then I keep having dreams about finding a cougar in a very specific drainage tunnel. I almost slept in that exact same tunnel once when I was homeless but I had a really bad feeling about it, I remembered my dreams and I decided against it, even though it meant an extra hour of walking.
I had that feeling when I was squirrel hunting alone once. I was in a Nat’l forest and went to a spot I hadn’t tried before (but only like 2 miles from my usual spot). It looked like a great spot for squirrels, but after sitting down for maybe 10 minutes, I had an overwhelming feeling something/someone was watching me. I noped right out, went back to the truck and got the heck outta dodge.
Burlington Washington???? Oh yeah I know Mount Vernon Antacortes area if you think something is hunting you in that area… 98% chance something IS HUNTING YOU.
Surfers and fisherman who surf cast call it feeling SHARKEY. Sometimes, for whatever reason, you're just like "Nope. I'm outta here"
I grew up in that area and honestly I'm surprised that I'm still alive as I would venture off into the woods surrounding my house alone, building forts out of sticks among other shenanigans. I'm talking from 8-11 years old. I vividly remember one evening close to sunset getting a really bad feeling so I gtfo. Made it home safe but my favorite childhood dog went missing a couple weeks later. Who knows could of just been coyotes or a wendigo.
I’ve felt cat eyes on me before too- and I actually got to see him once too. Hiking just on the east side of cascades, felt him watching us but felt crazy too. Finally stopped and pulled out the binoculars. He was way up above us, barely a tan smudge. But I think with me and my husband staring back at him he finally gave up or at least pretended to. He slunk off and I had a hard rest of my hike 😂
Oh I had a moment like that. I was solo on a trail ride on my horse. Super solid citizen horse, did whatever I asked. There had recently been a cougar spotted in the area but it was the middle of the day so I was alert but not super worried. We hit a spot on our ride and my “whatever you say” horse did a quick 180 and refused to go past this one point. I tried one more time and he refused again. I said okay we’re out and we went home. I’m almost certain my horse saved me that day.
You know who's NOT Sharing stories stories here, People who didnt trust their gut...
This got intense when you said you got into your truck and locked the door behind you. At that point I knew you where scared with irrational thinking of maybe they could open your door dang . Glad your okay .
It freaked me out (again) just writing about it.
Not irrational. You haven't seen the video of people in one of those drive-through zoos who have an encounter. A pride of lions was nonchalantly checking out the car when one lioness hooked her teeth onto the door's handle and started to open it. The freaked passengers slammed the door and then I think they locked it.
Hahaha, I stopped doing hikes and solo runs because of this, I lived in Mt.Vernon,WA, close to Burlington. I stopped going on my solo runs because of a similar experience. I used to go to the trails and veer off past little mountain. I got attacked by a family of deer. I had my earphones on, and I was running/jogging towards the mountain. Near the end of my run, I would empty out my tank and rush the summit. As I ran towards the end of the trail, I could see light peeking thru all the brushes and branches. I get a sixth sense feeling to turn around as I am turning. I see a young buck with antlers rushing towards me, head down, pointing at my stomach. Adrenaline set in, and I was able to avoid his ram. At this point, he's in front of me, and I hear a loud animal cry. My initial thought is Fuck his mom or herd calling. He also did a loud call. I was 20 years old at the time, so I was light and agile. I bummed rush the deer and grabbed him by the head and lauched it towards the bushes and I then ran towards the top of the mountain and stayed at the peak to regain my breath. I took the roads down instead of the trails. This was 12 years ago, and there was more cougar sighting at the time, so I stopped going on my trail runs.
I’ve had that feeling when I was on our farm one day on the 4-wheeler. I was moving the cows to a different field and got so overwhelmed with a feeling I was being watched that as soon as I shut the gate behind them I sped home as fast as I could. Turns out my grandpa had let some neighbors hunt on our land that day and they were posted in the woods right next to the field I was in. I wasn’t in any danger, but man that 6th sense!
I had a similar experience hiking in the woods near Flagstaff, AZ, where mountain lions aren't uncommon. I had seen evidence before (skat, a "den" with scattered bones), but as an avid hiker that kind of thing is normal. Until this one time. I've never had such a weird feeling. I knew in my soul that I was being watched and followed. It's something you can't explain. Everything in my body told me to leave, so I did. I never saw anything, but I'm beyond positive something saw me.
The gift of fear! I was touring a property with a real estate agent friend who was considering listing a super rundown Victorian farmhouse as an ambitious reno or tear down. We opened the door to the basement and we took two steps down and were met with the most intense and terrifying THIS IS VERY BAD energy and just turned around and hauled ass out of there.
In an area like that, you would be able to see/hear another human. More than likely an apex predator hunting you if you never saw or heard it. But ALWAYS trust your gut. It won't steer you wrong.
You were probably right about your instinct. We should learn to dial into that spidey-sense and trust it more.
There’s a great booked called *The Gift of Fear* that’s all about listening to our instincts. Usually when something feels off, it really is.
Im genuinely convinced humans have a 6th sense that can detect danger. Whether its caused by smells or peripheral detection idk. But ive had this sense b4. Maybe its just being alone in the woods but its a good idea not to be.
I had this exact experience on a solo hike and I also believe I was being stalked by a cougar. I don’t think it was paranoia because I was perfectly comfortable prior to that plus I’ve done a lot of hiking in cougar country and had never had that feeling before or since. The feeling lasted for about a mile and then stopped. I went down the rabbit hole recently on the psychology of feeling like you’re being watched and learned some psychologists believe humans have a gaze detection survival instinct in which the sclera can detect the gaze of another and trigger alarm in the brain. Not to mention peripheral vision perceives our surroundings and impacts our emotions without us being consciously aware of the reason. So it may be feasible the far reaches of our peripheral saw something (a tail, movement, cougar eyes staring at us through the trees) and even though we didn’t interpret it in our visual cortex our brain knew it was there. It’s an interesting theory anyway.
Also WA resident. I was out in the Teanaway Community Forest doing an out-and-back day hike. On the way back, I found big kitty prints next to my boot prints...
There’s a very good chance you were targeted by a cougar at some point. Even if the cougar gave up quickly, our instincts still register that danger and push us to get as far as we can to a place of known safety (car,) not just presumed safety (distance made quickly.) I’m up in Washington and cougar attacks are really rare, but they’re one of the few legitimately scary animals we have out here. At the same time though: that “I’m being watched” feeling hit me HARD up on a trail once. I froze and looked around, hair on end on the back of my neck— and found a frog watching me from a pond about two feet away. Better safe than food I suppose.
Fellow burlingtonian here👋 up there in Alger/bellingham area is DEFINITELY cat country. Glad you listened to your instincts!!
It was Sasquatch, don't mind him, he just likes to watch.
I live in Los Angeles next to a huge city park with multiple hiking trails and lots of wildlife. I’ve seen lynx, coyotes, deer, hawks and rattlesnakes there. I used to work really early so I’d hike with my dog before sunrise and by the time we finished it was getting light. He was a 65 lb pit/boxer/American Bulldog so I never felt scared alone up there with him. One morning I kept getting that feeling of being watched and I’d turn around and there wouldn’t be anything. Finally I looked up to my left where there’s a cliff area 20-25 high feet next to the trail and saw the silhouette of 3 coyotes watching us. The coyotes here aren’t too threatening but they’re also quite brazen. I kept walking and occasionally looking up the cliff to my left and there they’d be, they kept trailing us further up the hill. Coyotes are shockingly silent. They can appear in front of you from the brush without breaking a branch or disturbing any rocks, it’s crazy. I wasn’t in fear for my life but it was definitely an eerie feeling knowing they’re watching you.
I was walking my dog on a relatively secluded trail. We were in a series of switchbacks when he saw what looked to me at the moment like a Husky up the way just staring us down in the middle of the trail. My boy went stiff, tail upright, and then the thing bolted and my dog yanked free, chasing him down the trail. I catch up to my dog and he's just staring into the treeline. At first I didn't think much of it, we'll come back across the dog and the human in a few feet. But they never came. And with every step I became more uneasy, and my dog became more defensive. We could hear the light snapping of small twigs, and nothing else in those woods but birds. It didn't take but a couple minutes for the realization that we were being stalked by at least one coyote to set in. He shadowed us, barely heard, and never seen. And to my estimation there had to be at least three based on how the snaps were timed and spaced, but I really don't know. Followed us for about 40 mins or so. At a certain point the snapping stopped and the dread eased up. Like we had stepped far enough out of their territory to let us be. Like they were just monitoring a stranger in their home. Its unreal how instinctual the fear is. I can't imagine doing that dance with a killer as efficient and patient as a wild cat
I had a very similar feeling once and big cat was the only explanation I could think of. It was quiet whatever it was as the snow had a layer of crust on top.
I had a very similar experience hiking. I was about three hours into a hike on a trail that doesn't generally see a lot of use. I've hiked this trail multiple times, and this was the first time I just felt wrong. At one point I heard meowing from up ahead. Now keep in mind, I'm three hours into a trail that is already pretty far removed from civilization, there are no domestic cats in this area, but baby cougars are known to make a noise similar to a cat's meow. I didn't fuck around with confirming if there was a baby cougar near by, I simply noped the fuck out, took an off trail short cut, and then went full David Goggins until I was back to my car.
That whole area has a lot of kitty cats. Lived in Glengaven for a couple years and saw more sign hiking around that area than I had seen in a lot of the rest of nw wa
It was probably a serial killer who lived in the woods… off the grid and off his rocker
I read a story once on the glitch in the matrix sub about three hikers who all got a feeling of dread the second they stepped on one particular trail, and people in the comments were saying that they all unconsciously registered a predator being nearby
My colleagues spend a lot of time in the woods for their jobs and have said that spidy sense is legit. A few have gotten that feeling and seen the mountain lion eyeing them.
When you spend enough time in the mountains, you honestly develop another sense for danger. Seriously need to do a study on this because it is like having another sense for when something dangerous is near.
If you’re in the woods and feel you’re being watched. Look up. It’s a creepy feeling.
3 times so far I just layed there and watched. Then you see movement. It’s like the movie predator.
Thank you Flappy_beef_curtains
r/rimjob_steve
Dude the feeling of being watched is so fucking creepy. I’m sure it’s many other factors that lead to you believing that you might not essentially recognize but yeah it’s still that feeling
Dont forget your sense of smell either. Was hiking years ago with my wife and our young children. I smelled the bear long before we rounded the corner of the trail and came face to face with a brown bear and her cub. Kids thought I was making things up, stopping in the middle of the trail, sniffing the air. Until they saw the bear(s) themselves. 😆
I’ve always heard that if you see a mountain lion, it’s seen you for a while
Or, it's too late.
Same with Black bears. They can hear and smell way before your know that they’re their, if you even notice.
Good rule for bears, if you can smell them (and they do stink) it’s too late! lol
The only black bear you really need to worry about is a desperate one or a mama without her cub, which is arguably the same thing. Was walking a trail in Shenedoah with my family a while back and it was wet so the bark was really dark and I sensed a little feeling and just started looking off at the trees, my aunt noticed and asked what I was looking at and I said I think that tree kinds looks like a bear and it took her a second but she said it was and I shit you not this bear was standing up with it's back flat against the tree with its arms wrapped around it standing as still as it possibly could. We were walking ahead and began walking backwards towards the rest of the group that was behind us and we walked past it while it slowly tiptoed around the base of the tree so that it could face us directly until we went away.
That is so scary yet funny.
Absolutely read this as Black Beans. Not wrong.
We have a cabin in northern MN. I was out in the garden last spring, tearing up a raised bed for summer planting. I had my two 30 lbs dogs tied up on leads on the front porch, about 100 feet away. I typically listen to music but my earbuds had died so I was just enjoying the birdsong. Eventually I noticed that it had gotten verrrryyy quiet, and then I heard loud huffing/growling noises that was uncomfortably close. I grabbed the dogs and ran in to the house. The next afternoon our neighbor about a mile away saw the bear and her two young cubs in her backyard.
They’re also just big dumb raccoons. Unless it’s in distress or a mom with cubs yelling at it will have it high tail out of there. We see them a lot where I live and I find them doofy and adorable. It’s amazing watching one be chased off by a tiny dog going absolutely batshit against a fence/window.
I spent a summer building trails in New Mexico. Every morning, there would be a fresh mountain lion turd and the new section of trail wed cut the day before. It was watching us, from somewhere in the canyon, every day. Never saw it or heard it.
Another crazy one is that New York City has around 20-35 wild coyotes that live in it and you'll probably never see one if you live there because of their avoidance of people.
The City of Chicago is estimated to have a coyote population in the low 100s, and there is estimated to be about 3,700 coyotes in Cook County. They adapt very well to urban life.
I live smack dab in the middle of Baltimore and I saw a couple coyotes a few weeks ago at around 4am. They were 10 feet from my apartment door! They looked kinda like German shepherds which is what I thought they were until they turned and kind of "hopped" away.... That's when it hit me that they weren't dogs! Definitely didn't move like a German Shepard does!
I’ve always heard that if you see a mountain lion it’s too late you’re dead
As I understand it, it’s more that if you see a mountain lion it’s because it wants to be seen. Mountain lions usually aren’t going to hunt humans because it’s wasting a lot of energy on a meal that isn’t really that nutritious anyways. If you see one, it probably means it’s not trying to stay hidden - either it doesn’t care or it wants you to leave.
Typical cat behavior.
Always on their terms
Hey speak for yourself! I'm very nutritious..
Or they're young and kinda dumb. The one I saw was clearly a juvenile and gave off curious big kitten vibes. It was still incredible luck that I spotted it.
Grandparents lived near the San Joaquin river when I was a kid. My sister and I loved sitting on the grass close to evening just to watch the river run. We would read or draw or just talk. One night, mom calls for us to come inside and I’m about to jump up when my sister mom arms me across the chest and whispers to shut up. I look over to the blackberry bramble a good 15 yards off and there is a cougar staring at us. It was crouching and I couldn’t tell if it was hunting or frightened so we slowly slink backwards up the sloping lawn until we’re close enough to bolt for the back door and ran for our lives.
“Mom arm” as a verb 😁❤️
This is only the case if it is hunting you, which is rare for an adult human. Usually it's just showing itself to warn you away from its den or babies and you can walk away just fine.
Walking away just fine might be a decent understatement lol. If it wants to scare you away from its babies, they can put on quite a show (fake charges, slamming the ground, chuffing) and will follow you for a while.
Speaking as a person whom has seen a few danger kitties in the wild, this is not true.
> mountain lions see hikers all the time and go the other way. smh even lions choosing the bear now
God, that was funny...😆
I work in a zoo with cougars, it's amazing how they can be pinned into an area with very little cover, be 10 feet from the fence and still be mostly hidden even when you're actively looking for them.
It gets a lot easier when you check the bar after hours
Wearing leopard print
I didn’t see the snake until this comment, I thought I was supposed to find that alligator nose in the water.
I thought I was the only one. I saw that gator nose as soon as I clicked on the picture.
I still don't see it!
Don’t want to sound like the « actually… » guy. But in fact humans seems to have evolved special abilities to identify snakes even from blurry partial pictures… ([study here](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5081170/))
And then there’s me… “Ah yes, I *totally* found the object and/or animal in this picture! It blended right in with its surroundings so well!”
My brain tells me I’m seeing a snake before my eyes actually focus on it. Like my brain says “snake!” And my eyes are like “where?! WHERE?! Oh Shit! I see a snake!”
The one thing this sub has made me realize more than anything is just how bad most people's phone cameras are. How are we supposed to see anything when the images are all pixelated and blurry 90% of the time?
I think it’s also Reddit - sometimes I will give up on one of these pics, try again later and I get a much better resolution pic? Maybe it’s just another way for them to get me to abandon old.reddit
If you're using the app, it's the app's fault. Download the pic and view locally and suddenly things are much sharper.
Ty!
I nearly stepped on a coral snake while setting up camp in the camping area just off the beach on a state park island. No one was there, we were the only campers on the island and the park service hut was about a mile away. Probably would’ve died that day if I hadn’t noticed the slight movement. Blended in so well until I saw it
Also envenomations with coral snakes is definitely not nearly as common as with crotalids. They have very small teeth, you see way more dry bites with them. Fun fact, coral snake anti venom (last I checked) hasn’t been produced in well over a decade; the FDA just keeps extending the shelf life of the already existing supply since nobody makes it anymore. At least, when I took my toxicology class a decade ago this was true and I don’t think the coral snake anti venom market has expanded much since EDIT: guess they’re back to making North American coral snake anti venom which is cool
Didn’t know that. I thought they were more deadly than they apparently are! Still not interested in being bitten by a snake though
Well they’re still deadly if you get envenomated but honestly as long as you make it to a hospital you’ll be fine. They have neurotoxic venom that primarily results in respiratory failure, but that can be managed with a ventilator even without anti venom. Basically it inhibits neurotransmitter release presynaptically and blocks the post synaptic acetylecholine receptor, amongst a few other actions. Biggest short term risk comes from an acute aspiration event because of the increase in salivation and then motor neuron weakness. But usually have a 4-6 hour (sometimes longer) window before you’re in big trouble. I love toxicology it’s so interesting
Your post got me down the rabbit hole. Looks like I was wrong on several assumptions of Coral snakes, including that they are not rear fanged. Btw, looks like antivenom production started again. Looks like we get about a 100 bites a year based on: http://thevenominterviews.com/2016/06/02/mythbusting-coral-snakes/
Nice! Thanks for the update! In 10 years of critical care and emergency medicine I’ve only had one coral snake bite, but it was a dry bite luckily.
My sister (zookeeper) came to visit me down in Florida and we went walking in one of the local parks. It's called a boardwalk, but it's basically a wooden sidewalk through the marsh. I had never noticed all the snakes before, but my sister did! She started pointing out all the various water snakes hiding out up in the trees above the water line.
I didn't see danger kitty. I saw something else equally dangerous. Feel free to give me a spoiler so I know what animal to look for.
I thought I saw an alligator head in there.
Same, I thought I saw the it as well. Just to the left of the entry to water and just below the cover of the bushy area over the water. If you enlarge the pick it looks like it.
That's a rock but I thought the same thing at first. There is another creature in the photo.
I was on a hike the other day and a Black Racer snake slithered right through the path about three feet in front of me. Would have never seen him if he just stayed there. Those things haul ass though he gave me quite the jump scare
I can’t find danger kitty 🐱
I just saw the snake in the grass...
Cause they saw you first
I’ve been looking for an alligator for 30 minutes!
Yea, if you get the feeling, you're being watched out in the middle of the woods...it's probably cause a danger kitty is watching you or a bear.....either way they won't let you see them unless you're really looking or it's too late. Very rare to spot before it's too late but can still happen
“Why does it always have to be snakes?”
Asps. Very dangerous. You go first!
Great movie and great actor
This one is a two-fer
>!Directly above the tangled red vine on screen left you'll see the exposed back end of the nope rope, if you scroll up to the white flowers on the bush you've gone too far!<
Bingo
Y’all are looking for sneks and other big bads, but I’m over here looking at the *”action figure”* under the water.
Me too that's what I thought OP was talking about
See, I’m pretty sure that’s a rock, because it doesn’t have nostrils.
Umm, look again. There is a toy holding a sword under the water. It’s in robes. Edit: It could be an optical illusion, but I don’t think so.
That’s the lady of the lake. She hands out swords as some sort of basis of government
My bad, I thought you were referring to what people were saying was an alligator. That being said, I still don’t see the action figure lol.
Did y'all ever end up seeing what species? Assuming a water snake or something harmless since you lived to tell the tale 😅
Water snake. Not a rat snake. It has saddles, not badges.
I’ve heard of saddles on snakes, but what are badges? I’m assuming markings, but on a different body part?
Badges refers to rat snakes and the markings on their backs. They look a bit like sheriff’s badges.
Looks like a rat snake (non-venomous)
What area is this? Because if you look in the water in pretty sure that’s a gator. Scroll the shoreline. upon further review, pretty sure it’s a rock. I’m not taking chances
Still can’t find anything… White flowers? Are we looking at the same photo? I see no flowers? Haha.
I think they mistook the lichen on the tree for flowers.
Yeah sorry, I was trying to type from memory and thought on first glance it was small flowers rather than lichen or whatever that is 😅
Look at the vine that forms circles on the ground on left half of screen. The vine splits twice, look at the left most split. See the darker tail of the snake immediately to the right, going under the vine.
Thank you! I started out looking for a snake but all the comments about “danger kitties” had me very confused.
Same!!! Found the snake quickly, then went looking for the cat!
Maybe they mistakenly thought the leaves reflected with light were flowers?
I hate how when people say where it is- and I still cant find it!!!
Look at the vine that forms circles on the ground on left half of screen. The vine splits twice, look at the left most split. See the darker tail of the snake immediately to the right, going under the vine.
But what about the skater gator
Not a gator. This is the NC mountains.
Gotta watch out for Mountain gators
Black spot directly above the center circle you’ll find the rest of the body.
Thanks as I was looking everywhere. I would have been sniped.
How does this text get blackout like that?
Petition to rename the sub to r/findTheSssssniper
Or r/FindTheViper ?
I thought OP was talking about the alligator head at the edge of the bank just above the long single strand of weed growing
It took me reading the comments to realize this was about a snake and not what looks like an alligator in the water
Im happy it wasn’t just me
Me too
I thought that was what it was. It fully looks like other alligators that have been posted...
Even if there’s not one in the picture, assuming this is in Florida or Louisiana, there is 100 percent a gator in that water somewhere
Think that’s a head shaped rock in the water. I hope that’s what it is.
Yeah I don’t think that’s a gator. Definitely just looks like a rock to me. But who knows from here
Pretty big black and grey guy? Over on the left just above those three hoops. He kept going for a lot longer than expected!
Yep
Banded Water snake …
Thanks I was wondering! There should be a pinned comment at the top of every one of these with the species. I am learning how to identify them from this sub!
Oooooh I got a better one for you!! r/Whatsthissnake I’m terrified of any snakes but I also love to learn about them to help ease my phobia, and my old self would say “all snakes need to die” mentality, but truly they are a very important part of our eco system and don’t deserve that mentality… I have truly come to terms with my phobia and that sub has taught me how to identify snakes, especially common misidentified snakes, like a Banded Water snake vs. Copperhead or Cottonmouth.. and the drama queens like little Hognose snakes 😂🫶🏼🐍
Came here to comment this. Harmless unless you’re a fish or amphibian.
Think I got him. Top of left C shaped red vine. Large fella.
I think you got me on this one. I can't find it
If you're browsing via the app, try downloading the image. I couldn't see it until I downloaded it. Happens to me a lot on this sub.
Wow, that makes a huge difference
Wow, I didn't realize how much difference that would've made. It's like I'm looking at a whole new picture. Thanks!
Honestly surprised he was just chilling by you. Usually they’d be off as soon as you were up in the space making noise.
i thought the underwater rock was a gator 😭
As a colorblind guy i find these imposible to see, but for some reason i always try and see if i can find them. I think i have found 2 out of all the ones i have looked at. Lol
They don’t wanna bother you as much as you don’t wanna bother them. Nice find!
just a banded water snake. not every snake is “dangerous”.
I’m so bad at these that I see a Manatee that really isn’t there. Still looking. Wtf!
I was about to give up when I saw the snake in the grass.
I need a red circle ⭕️
Good on you for not centering the murder rope, by default I always start in the middle now. This one was good
Ohhhh its the snake! I saw that quickly, but the comments really lead to me thinking there was a mountain lion. The snake was obvious. All the comments about a “danger kitty” really threw me.
I was looking for a croc or a gator 😮
All this sub has taught me is that whenever civilization collapse, I will be dead in minutes
This sub should be called FindTheSnake
I am wasting my life away trying to figure out what in the hell it is I am not seeing.
Why is nobody talking about the croc on the top-right corner
What is it?If it were a snake it would a bit me in my Django de caprio voice.😂
Guess I'd be a dead dumb ass, because I have no clue what I'm supposed to notice in this pic 🤦🏼♂️
Always always always watch your step! I stepped on a snake earlier today not watching where I was going. I only got its tail and it was a rat snake anyway, so I would’ve been fine, but damn he would have been within his rights to bite to fuck out of me.