Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Giant Gaboon viper

Got this pict in an e-mail today from Elton R. Snake is from northern Zambia. Difficult to tell how big it really is, but it surely isn't a small one.

Who is Elton R. Snake?

Sorry, I couldn't resist

Paul

WOW! He is a good sized one! I've only seen 4-5 footers in the zoo.

OR, maybe the guy holding him is only 2" tall.

The guy is holding him way out towards the camera on the stick. He might be a bigun though.

how long would you have to live after the bite???

gabby's hold the distinction of being one of the only venomous snakes that even after they had their venom glands removed have killed people......believe one of the people was a gal in Colorado.....anyways they have the longest fangs of any snake.....atleast one gal had the venom glands removed to make it "safe"......snake struck her in the arm, force of the large snake hitting the arm with fangs sunk deep completely tore open the artery in the arm and she bled to death before getting to the phone to call for help....

drop for drop the venom is about like a eastern diamondbacks.....not good....

would love to have the hide off that thing as well as the skull.....have the hide off a smaller one that died in captivity

If this one gets you by the throat, rips out your esophogus and smothers you with body weight you'll have about 30 seconds

Saddest part is that it's been killed and will have gone through that guy's digestive system by now. Sure is the biggest one I've ever seen.

True about the longest fangs and typically adder they are lazy and people tend to step on them more than anything else. Mostly prevalent in Natal as far as SA goes and I have never come across one in the wild...as far as I know.

the guy doesnt look particularly tall, granted its hard to judge but i would guess that snake is just a few inches short of 6 foot making it close to the upper range of their biggest documented size.....are reports of some just over 7 foot but of course no ones brought out a live(or dead and whole) one that size for official measurement....

Sheridan and I are of like mind when it comes to this kind of thing....

Damn...thats a gorgeous snake!

I'm kind of like Indy -- I don't like snakes!!

I love snakes!!!Dont think I would like to come across that one though...............

It looks like the head on the snake is actually moving and not hanging down like one should if it is dead!!

The neck looks kinked and likely broken from my view?

Regardless of size, vipers are bad news. In the PH academy we learned with videos showing a man getting bitten by a small Puff adder in a snake show, going to the hospital, with the video crew along with him. The next day his arm was about 3 times the size and he was pumped so full of anti-venom his body could take no more.

They decided to amputate the arm, but it was too late he died within 48 hours. This non-public video tape was to show that even a small adder was nothing to fool with.

One of my long time PH's was bitten on the index finger tip with barely a pin prick from a single fang.several hours later he could feel his hand throbbing. Later that early evening his finger began to swell and he was feeling feverish and nauseous. It was decided better safe then sorry lets get him to the hospital.

By the time we arrived he was very sick and swelling up fast. They gave him a good dose of anti-venom. Almost instantly he went into cardiac arrest and was flat lined, the paddles came out and revived him, twice more in the next hour he had cardiac arrest and the paddles were used to bring him back.

He was one of the 10% allergic to the anti-venom and had anaphylactic shock. Had the anti venom been given in the field he would have died there in the bush.

By night fall he was about 100% perfect with no effects from the paddles, the anaphylactic shock or the venom. He was back hunting the next day!

One of my School mates in RSA is a doctor in Natal. He told us that most of the snake bites he sees in his practice are from black kids running bare foot. Most lose a foot or leg below the knee from adder bites. The cytotoxic nature of the venom digests the flesh around the bite, and causes loss of blood flow with the massive swelling. This kills enough tissue that amputation is the last resort but all too frequent.

He also made note that he had never seen a adder bite above the knee. Most are assumed to be stepped upon and react by biting the nearest thing on them. Fortunately most snakes grandstand a bit before the strike. The Rinkals cobra may be one exception along with the Black Mamba during the breeding season. These two seem to bite first and ask questions later. Outside of the Breeding season they more remind me of a squirrel. They tend to go up the first tree they can reach. I've seen many more mambas in Trees then on the ground. same with the Rinkals. By the way, that Rinkals cobra goes through the branches about as easy as a fish can swim. They can go thru the trees faster overhead then a man can walk on the ground.

Anyway, I have plenty of stories and experience with snakes, too much to go into here. I've never cared for them, but I don't usually kill them "just because" either. I figure it's just bad Karma and hope they will give me a pass in the future for all those I have let go by in the past.

I want a pair of gabby boots!!

JJ:

When is the black mamba breeding season? I want to NOT be in the bush at that time.

For what it's worth, I've seen puff adders sunning themselves on paths in May and June and a black mamba in June. My PH killed a 10-foot black mamba in his garden in northern RSA in late May.

That thing is a hoss. There is a huge one at the Memphis Zoo's herpetarium too.

puff adders have very nasty venom, as far as flat out tissue destroying venoms go its about the worst....alot of those that die from puff adder bites dont technically die from the venom, they die from going septic from the dead tissue.....not a nice way to go....

I was classified as septic with my Staph infection this past January. Nope, not pleasant at ALL. Easily the sickest and most miserable I have ever been and I cannot imagine being sicker. Since I nearly crossed over a couple of times, I think this means that I really could not have GOTTEN any sicker and been here to type about it.

As far as seeing big snakes in the wild, I genrally am of the mind to shoot first and would love to have some big snake skins as part of my trophies display. I have been exceptionally fortunate to have not had any run ins so far.

I'm with Sheridan and ingwe, that is a gorgeous snake; it's dead.