Snake that looks like a stick

[Guest motonut]

Late last year I was walking my dogs in the undeveloped area behind my house when I saw a snake that had made itself look like a walking stick. Both of my dogs had walked over it (and not noticed it) but the snake had not moved. I looked it over closely and knew it was a snake. Took the dogs back home so I could go back for the snake but it was gone.

I've searched trying to find out more about the snake but not having any luck finding it. A couple of weeks ago I found a video on a woman's blog that showed the exact snake but she didn't have any info on the snake itself.

Does anyone know what snake I'm talking about? It's name? I'll try and find that video and post the link here. I think my neighbors think I had one too many beers but I know what I saw.

I don't kill snakes unless they're poisonious (I know it's against the law in TN), snakes don't bother me. I would like to know what it is though.

[Sam1]

Pretty much impossible to say without having a picture to ID it with. What color was it and did it have a pattern or lines?

[94user]

Moses staff

[Oh Shoot]

Hoopsnakes do that once they've rolled downhill.

- OS

[Guest motonut]

Emailed TennSnakes.org to see if they knew what it might be.

Can't seem to find the video I found before, it looked exactly like the snake I saw.

[Jonnin]

Do you have anything else at all to go on? Almost any snake can look like a stick .... they are both long tubes so all the snake has to do is sit still and be straight instead of coiled. As for playing dead, not many types do that either, but it could have been happy in the sun and sort of sluggish when you first saw it.

In short, not much to go on here.... any brown or black snake in a straight line could do it in the right lighting etc. None of the ones here look all that much like a stick as any sort of camo or on a regular basis, though, at least none that I am aware of.

[Guest motonut]

I think this was it's self defense mechanism, this was not just a groggy or sleeping snake. Long (about 4+ ft) and straight as a walking stick. As I said, both my dogs walked right over it and I looked at it (very closely) for 2 min. or so and it did not budge. Took me about 3 min. to take the dogs back home but when I got back to the location it was gone.

I'm pretty familiar with snakes as I lived in Fla. for 35 yrs., saw and caught many but never saw one do this.

Edited September 4, 2012 by motonut

[Dennis1209]

Not enough info.

I usually see allot of snakes stretched out straight on my driveway or road getting warmed up.

As a matter of fact, last week coming home on our two lane country road, the wife and I saw a limb across the road about 100 yards in front of us. As we got closer we realized it was a snake about the length of the road (8 feet), straight as a stick can get.

We stopped and got out to look at it because we thought it had been run over. Looked at it closely and didn't see any squish marks, tongue not flickering, etc. Round eyes (not slitted), small non arrow shape head, black and speckled, at least seven foot long.

All of a sudden, the tongue starts flickering, head turns slightly to look at me and moves slightly. Wanted to show off to wife and pick it up off the road but it scampered off on its own non two legs.

Got home and looked it up in my wildlife book. Was a Common King Snake.

So far this year I've seen a bunch of Rat snakes, a few copperheads, one Cottonmouth, one Rough Scale Green snake, one Rink neck snake and a whole bunch of snake skins on my property.

Law or not, I don't kill any snakes. With the amount of field mice & rats around here I appreciate their service. Only exception to killing a snake is if it's poisonous and aggressive. But I've never ran across an aggressive snake yet. At times water moccasins can be pretty ornery and need dispatched though.

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

I found this one on the website.. i think maybe these are all of the snakes we have around?

That is actually a neat poster to have around.. I am thinking I need a copy..lol

http://www.tn.gov/twra/pdfs/snakesposter.pdf

[Guest G23FM]

If I saw a snake that looked like a stick... I could name it...

Dead Snake.

Snakes give me the heebie jeebies.

[dralarms]

I saw a snake that looked like a stick once, laying across the road. After I slammed on my brakes it looked like a bow tie.

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

I saw a snake that looked like a stick once, laying across the road. After I slammed on my brakes it looked like a bow tie.

LOL

[Oh Shoot]

I found this one on the website.. i think maybe these are all of the snakes we have around?

In East TN, yeah.

Few more state wide maybe, this source claims 33 in all:

http://www.tennsnakes.org/

- OS