Monday, May 2, 2011

An Incredible Backyard Scene


Most of you, my blogger friends, are living in residential suburbs with not much biodiversity around. Those who have wide gardens and neighboring forests might have wildlife around them, yet i wonder if you have already seen what we saw in our backyard. 

We were wondering that morning why the crows have been coming and going so often,  maybe 20 meters south of our house. They have been so noisy, we thought they might be watching my mother's newly hatched chicks again. Our curiosity was well paid off! This is what we saw!

an electrocuted snake!!!  Foul play or suicide ?

Apparently, it climbed up the coffee tree near the upper wire, then it traversed about 2m along that line northwards. When it sensed another plant near the lower wire, it got closed to it to transfer to the tree. The upper half with the head is already at the lower line, while the midsection  and the bottom with the tail still on the upper line.  Snakes might not have been taught by their mothers or their schools that electric lines are arranged like that, with the + and - lines separated.  Electricity just function when the lines touch and any living thing containing water will be a very good conductor of the power passing the 2 lines. Maybe they see birds alighting on them, which are not harmed. Of course birds only alight on one line. This snake did not have the time to learn its mistake, it died immediately, electrocuted! It was already almost dry and toasted when we saw it. Apparently it is already a big mature snake.

Who says this snake could have committed suicide? 

If anybody has seen this scene before please tell me. Maybe there should be a poll to count how many had such experience. Who knows this might be a world record. Hahaha!

I searched on electrocuted snakes and found only one by an electric fence in Africa, another one in Japan which climbed a pole of the train station, and another in Borneo inside a transformer. But the same case on electric lines like in our backyard doesn't have a reported incident yet.


Please visit other  Outdoor Wednesday  and Nature Notes posts

Outdoor Wednesday: Click on the picture below to learn more...  

28 comments:

  1. Like cats, dogs, chickens crossing busy roads..., some just miss the timing, a second slower...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Electrocuted Snake! Indeed a first of its kind and deserves an entry in the Guinness Book of World Record. Must have been a spooky sight.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have never seen an electrocuted snake or BBQ ones. In Malaysia, we even have human beings electrocuted while trying to steal cables or scrap metals at/near the electrical substations! Maybe Science wasn't their strong subject.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Andrea,

    Two weeks ago I was in the back room doing my taxes. I heard a pop and the lights went out. The power company came to repair the electricity and found a squirrel had walked over the top of the transformer in our yard and electrocuted itself and tripped the fuse on the transformer. Never heard of a snake doing this though.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Completely fried! The wrong thing done unknowingly:(

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow is all I can say. Never saw that one.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It isn't the snake's moulted skin, is it?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've never seen an electrocuted snake either. Sometimes see them run over on the road, occasionally see on with scars on its tail, but never one hanging from wires. Nature is never boring, that's for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hilarious post, except the part where the snake got dead. Like Randy, we've had a squirrel to blow a transformer and get himself dead.

    This is a busy time of year for snakes. One ate a squirrel here the other day.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I've seen shoes hanging on electric wires but not snakes.

    Any idea what type of snake that was? At least his/her miseries are over, he/she is now in snake heaven (if there is one)... LOL

    ReplyDelete
  11. i'm scared of snakes so this sight is pretty disconcerting to me.

    ReplyDelete
  12. NOT an electric snake. Poor guy. That was an interesting post.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Bangchik and Kadah - Bangchik i can see you already officially put Kakdah's name here, haha! This snake death is more difficult than on the roads or in the transformers!

    Ever Green Tree - I saw that the one in Africa was posted in "something" believe it or not, and i laughed at it. I will put this in our "Farm believe-it-or not" too!

    Autumn Belle - yes we have them here too stealing cables, but snakes walking on wires! Nope.

    Randy - something inside a transformer is common, and it's easier to get in than the electric wires. It is amazing how they can traverse on them!

    Keats - yeah, very well done!

    Donna - i wish we have garden mags to write it in!

    One - the skin almost coming out is not molted but its normal skin, coming out because it got so dehydrated, very toasted!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Kathy G - this show lasted for a week in our area, as every passers-by looked, amazed, scared or whatever!

    Nell Jean - yes hilarious, and snakes try to walk on wires too during their year! Maybe this is the time they should show their prowess, who knows the others might have successfully went thru without our knowing!

    SR - yes it is now in snake-heaven. I hope its tribe will not hold vigil anymore!

    Photo Cache - we were so afraid of snakes too, and we just got thankful one this big was lost from our paths in the property!

    Sandy Carlson - thanks for finding this post interesting!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I've never seen an electrocuted snake, but a bird did dive straight into our car window while we were speeding down the highway last week. Shocked the heck out of me.

    -----------------------------------
    My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!

    ReplyDelete
  16. My first thought was a bird dropped it from above...I hate snakes having grown-up in outback Australia with some of the worlds deadliest ones...We have a motto, only good snake is a dead snake...Though now living in FL,I am learning to live with the big rat snake we have here, but only because his presents deters the rattle snakes.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Really beautiful photos!
    So glad to have found/followed your wonderful blog!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Robin - birds slamming car windows and house windows are common, but snakes doing acrobatics in electric wires are not, haha!

    Kelsie - at least we dont have ratlesnakes here, i hope. I am not familiar with snakes, i just see them once in a while.

    Linda Makiej - thank you very much for following this site, i am also frequenting your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Nope, never seen it before but it is really something to even see a snake climb onto wires.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I thought I had already left a comment here. Must not have saved properly. Or the ghost of the dead snake (do snakes even have ghosts?) got it. LOL!

    I'm actually amazed that the snake appears to be somewhere in the middle and not dead beside a pole. You'd think it would have fried much earlier.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I don't like to see dead snakes or any animal, but this is sort of amazing. What a site to see a snake up high like that. I wonder if he might have been thrown or so hungry he wanted a bird?

    ReplyDelete
  22. Poor snake! We get birds and squirrels on the wires, but they seem to be fine. I see one your commentators had a squirrel electrocution tale, though.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Tina - yes Tina, my mother is 81 and she hasn't seen something like this too!

    Crafty Green Poet - you are the first poet to visit my blog and i really appreciate it.

    Bom - actually we had a long time discussing about it, figuring out how it got there, until we all had stiff necks. We had many trees in our backyard and they normally transfer thru the trees rather than on the ground. Besides, more predators are on the ground so they are safer on the trees. Once my sister was sweeping the leaves and a small live snake fell near her, which elicited a very loud shriek from her! We actually realized the time the snake was electrocuted because there was a brown-out that night.

    A piece of news - yes it was really a sight having something like that in our backyard.

    Leora - it was a pity for the snake but we are thankful it is one less for us to be scared of!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Poor snake.

    Wonder if the crows are smart enough to get the snake without getting toasted, too.

    Great shot, Andrea.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I have never seen a sight like this one! bats are common here but snakes...yikes, no. Glad you got the picture!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Barb -this is your first visit here, thank you so much and for the appreciation.

    Kanak - we have snakes, and sometimes my mother kill them, but i am scared. My mother is really brave that she can do that!

    ReplyDelete
  27. We don't have big snakes here in NY, but an occasional raccoon will get electrocuted and people lose power...
    Michelle

    ReplyDelete

Your comments inspire me to post more, and our conversations make life and gardening more meaningful.

However, Anonymous comments and personal back links give me problems, so i don't publish them. Anonymous + back links = SPAM = DELETE

Related Posts with Thumbnails