Wednesday's Forked Tongue

Copyright 2015 AJ Horton  Do not use without written permission

Hello on Wednesday.  Last week, when I was walking along the path and checking out my photos on my camera near the dinosaur exhibit at the Asheboro Zoo, I was abruptly stopped by a zoo keeper.  She told me I could not go any further along the path.  I had been to the dinosaur exhibit on an earlier visit and as I was about to tell her so, she pointed  down the path and, well, now you get to see what I saw.  This snake, ladies and gentlemen, is a Copperhead.  I've read that these snakes are the most common that we see, and they're the most common ones to bite and, they give no warning signs that they're preparing to strike!  However, their venom is rarely fatal to humans.  Does that make you feel better?  Yeah, it doesn't make me feel any better either.   Especially when he's sticking out his forked tongue.  You can learn more about copperheads at http://www.livescience.com/43641-copperhead-snake.html.

The zoo keeper called for a snake "handler", but that person had not arrived by the time I stopped photographing the snake.  And, as I went beyond the snake, he began to unfurl and move off the path, which, I believe, will make it more difficult for the handler.  I didn't stick around, though.  I wanted to go to another part of the zoo.  I'm very grateful that I was stopped and not allowed to pass too closely to the copperhead.  I'm also grateful that I was allowed to take photographs to show you.

I hope you had a wonderful and grateful Wednesday.  Thank you for looking.  See you tomorrow.