An absurdly huge and pregnant copperhead was found and killed right outside the door.
Employees of the C&C Tree Service in Canton, Georgia, got the shock of their lives when they were removing some dead timber on the back of the company’s property. Two huge copperhead snakes were uncovered, one that turned out to be a pregnant female carrying nine eggs inside of her.
The big venomous snake was subsequently killed and then measured to some 32-inches in length.
“Our employee was back there loading trucks, and two (copperheads) came out,” said Amber Barnhart, co-operator of C&C Tree Service in an interview with the Cherokee Tribune and Ledger News. “They were able to get one, and they ran over the other one, they thought, with the Bobcat, but it went back under one of the woodpiles.”
Barnhart said that there was no doubt about the decision to kill the snake as she and her family reside on the property.
“We have a 7-month-old daughter,” she said. “It’s not worth risking my child. It’s not worth anybody around here getting bit. We have a huge family, and we all live here. Our grandmother lives even closer to the wood pile.”
As for the veracity of the claim to such an oversized copperhead, well, it’s been verified to be the real deal. Here’s more:
A 32-inch copperhead is definitely above average for the species.
“On average adults are about 30 inches in length,” Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Biologist Thomas Floyd said. “The way the copperhead is being held in the associated photo gives the impression that the snake is much larger relative to its actual size.”
Floyd reiterated that of the 24 different snake species in the area, only three are venomous: timber rattlesnakes, pygmy rattlesnakes and copperheads. He emphasized that while he completely understood the killing of a venomous snake so close to proximity of humans, but that the taking of much of the state’s wildlife is illegal without a permit, including venomous snakes.
Vigilance and identification are the best bets toavoid run-ins with wildlife that could be deemed dangerous.
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