A quick note about sizes of reptiles.
A good friend of mine and his now ex-wife used to run a reptile rescue, I helped them to teach educational classes about reptiles at colleges, schools, etc.
Countless times we received calls that we went to pick up thousands of snakes, lizards, crocodilians, turtles, etc. In all but a handful of cases the size of these reptiles was not just slightly, exagerated, but wildly exagerated. Personally being a long time reptile keeper Im not sure how that happens, but the average size iguana we were called to pick up was said to be from 5-7ft, the actual size of the lizard when we got there was actually from 3-4ft at most, snakes (wow the exageration is just as bad), alligators were the worst (owners told you they were 5,6,7,8,9, 10 ft long, the actual animal in all but one case was 2-3 or 4 ft for one).
I cant imagine how you mistake the sizes, maybe being used to handling a 9ft male alligator, and 7ft female regularly, a 6ft western diamondback, a 6ft cobra, 5ft canebrake, several 2-3ft copperheads, not including hundreds of nonvenous snakes.
I agree with the common exageration of the 5ft copperhead, heard that one many times, the largest copperheads are around 3ft, a very very few rare examples have ever made it to almost 4ft.
Lesson one on snake handling, snakes can only strike 1/3rd or less of their body length, so a 3ft snake can only strike 1ft. I have a claw thats 4ft long, its designed to handle king cobras, why the largest venommous snake in the world averages 9-12ft, so a 4ft claw puts you out of reach, if not just out of the longest of their reach.
Also when I hunted snakes in the south, I killed rattlesnakes, copperheards, water mocs, you name it, and never fired as shot. I simply pinned the head, and either broke the neck, or cut the head off.
Snakes are very very vulnerable to predators, in fact consider that a snakes entire body is backbone, and ribs, their ribs are soft, almost like soft fish ribs bones, in fact you can easily eat snake ribs when cooked. If a snake sustains a fall of even a few feet from the ground they break one of more ribs which cause problems for them. Consider that they cannot grab you with claws, they cannot scratch you, they have only one weapon, a mouth.
The primary reason humans fear snakes is the shape which we dont associate with similar animals to us, its a ancient fear, automatic which causes us to see something bigger and worse than it actually is upon first sight. Spiders cause the same automatic reaction to all primates as snakes.
For reference, heres my little girl at 6ft 9 inches, actually a bit longer than the average female komodo gets in the wild, but not as massive or heavy.
If anyone is interested I can find loads ofpictures of other big creepies, and crawlies.
Just be careful for falling, and drowning hunting invasive snakes in Fla, Id be more worried about alligators.
But it was coiled up like a rattlesnake and was so large that I took a minute to look for rattles. It had the body shape of a rattlesnake which is why I looked for rattles. I don't know how long it was as I left it alone. I don't kill poisonous snakes unless they are in my yard which would be a rarity and has never happened. I've never been bitten, but have had them strike at me from time to time and I don't mean strikes that I illicited by messing with them.
