Sveta yelled yesterday from the yard at the village house. I ran out to see what was up and found Sveta and Boza hugging a tree and a bad attitude snake being very aggressive with them. It seems that Boza heard the snake first as it crawled toward Sveta as she was reading. Sveta knew what the snake was right away but I did not. To me it was identical to a blacksnake in America…
But I have learned that in Russia things are not the same as in America. Looks can be deceiving. As my grandma would have said…
Having grown up on a farm and lived in the country most of my life. I was use to snakes. Rattlesnakes, copperheads, coral snakes and cottonmouths to name a few. But I have never seen a blacksnake act like this one. It was aggressive and tried to attack. That was my first clue that this was not common American blacksnake. Well I keep sticks for just such interesting occasions and decided to see what this ornery critter was up to. The second he sank his fangs into the stick that I put in front of him, I knew that this was no common Midwestern blacksnake that I use to play with all the time growing up. This snake had an attitude that would rival a Rattlesnake…
It is called:
Vipera berus, the common European adder or common European viper, is a venomous viper species that is extremely widespread and can be found throughout most of Western Europe and all the way to Far East Asia. Known by a host of common names including Common adder and Common viper, adders have been the subject of much folklore in Britain and other European countries. They are not regarded as highly dangerous; the snake is not aggressive and usually only bites when alarmed or disturbed. Bites can be very painful, but are seldom fatal. Read More >>>
While not very dangerous as far as poisonous snakes are concerned. (As I found out later by Wiki) That did not make any difference at the time that I was encountering the snake. He had a real bad attitude and was looking to kick some butt, any butt. He did not run away as they are suppose to and I realized that there was no way that I would allow him to hide in the yard. While we might not be hurt as bad by the vipers bite I am sure that Boza would have a bad time if bitten. Since Boza is so small…
Two colors of the snake…Sveta could not understand why I did not get all excited over the snake. She said that if the village people would find out that we killed such a snake, that they would all go into a heart attack. They would be so scared of more snakes around. I did not want to kill it but realized that it (snake) was trying to tell us that he considered our yard his yard and we were trespassing on him…
I am trying to figure out why the snake was so aggressive, as the information available says that it is not an aggressive snake. Well you could not prove that to Sveta, Boza and I…
That is why I just love Russia. A new experience everyday…
Kyle and Sveta and Boza…
Windows to Russia!