In yet another example of the Kind of People Who Probably Should Be Watching American Idol Instead of Visiting a Park, the Underground brings you the Biggest Wildlife-Related Non-Story since Bambi was released on DVD:
TOWNSEND (WATE) — A huge snake that was swallowing a fish whole startled swimmers and tubers at the Townsend Wye last weekend.
Teresa Wood tells 6 News the snake was laying on the rocks near where her family was swimming in the Little River.
Wood says “it’s unbelievable” how big the the snake was and her family won’t be going back.
What’s “unbelievable” is that a water snake - which had the gall to actually eat a fish in its own habitat (”whole” - as if a snake can eat any other way) - warrants news coverage.
Even better is the we “won’t be going back” response by the victims. I mean, who would have thought they’d find real, breathing wildlife in the wild?
As always, the snarkatorium floor is yours, Undergrounders.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Kentucky Jim 08.27.08 at 12:58 pm
Ok, so where’s the P.E.T.A. people to chastise the snake? Isn’t nature disgusting?
ijsouth 08.27.08 at 2:05 pm
A long, long time ago, when my parents were house-hunting, I, being a 9-year old kid who was curious, wandered in back and took a look at the drainage ditch behind the house. I saw a good sized cottonmouth, his mouth busy with a good sized goggle-eye bream (or warmouth bass, if you prefer)…man, was I excited - that meant there was fish in that canal, and I would soon be fishing there every day! Sure enough, my folks bought the house, and I was soon fishing every day, both there and the swamp that it flowed by. Great days - I wish my kids could have carefree summers like that.
The point is, my snake was POISONOUS, and neither I nor my parents freaked…in fact, they thought it was kind of neat. The water snakes in the Smokies are harmless, if maybe a bit crabby from all the tourists gawking at them. They do have rattlers, but I have (yet) to run across any.
Orlando 08.27.08 at 2:11 pm
Hah! At least it wasn’t swallowing one of their kids!!!
SmellsLikeFish 08.27.08 at 4:40 pm
Teresa Wood sounds like the perfect candidate for a little “glamping.” Hey Ron, got a live one for ya’!
oatka 08.28.08 at 2:25 am
That’s nothing. Once during a hot July my father and uncle thought it would be fun to go to the Everglades. While there not only did I see live mosquitoes, but they ate me….whole!
Don 08.28.08 at 9:37 am
“There are only three kinds of snakes I hate. Snakes I can see, snakes I can’t see, and sticks that look like snakes.”
–Robert A. Miller
Garnet 08.28.08 at 10:17 am
The odd thing is that these people — who think nature should be a sanitary playground, and who jump at the first sight of a snake — are the same kind who put their children on bison in Yellowstone for a snapshot.
“I had no idea the buffalo would have gored little Timmy like that! Oh the horror!” Who woulda thunk it, huh? Wake up people.
Tom Chandler 08.28.08 at 1:53 pm
Welcome to the “Disneyfication” of the outdoors, where the animals talk and act like humans because… well, that’s what they do in the entertainment media, right?
Extra points for the gratuitous glamping reference.