What caused all these snakes to attack in Kentucky?

I saw this on the late news last night. It was explained in more detail on the news then in the news link below.
It is really weird. Campers were around their campfire when copperheads just started coming out of the woods and toward their campfire to attack the campers. There was even a rattlesnake and a water snake with the copperheads.
The campers have been going there for years and this has never happened. To make it all weirder, the campers say it was like the snakes were purposely coming out of the woods to attack them at their site. Snakes don't do that and they really do not travel in large groups like that. The campers started shooting at the snakes and then the snakes just kept coming at them instead of retreating.
The campers ended up killing over 25 snakes, all posionous.
Does anyone else not find this weird? What caused these sankes to travel in such a large group and then what cause them to actually go on the attack afteer the campers?
Also there is a video link of one of the campers talking about. The video link is at the top left of the news link below.
www.wkyt.com...




[edit on 31-7-2005 by GREGNOW]

Snakes are cold blooded and may have felt the heat of the fire on a cold night. It may have been the season for mating or the were just party crashers. Interesting though.

ISEEYOU, i know i thought the same thing, but then the fact that they were in such large groups like a gang and the fact that after being shot at they'd would then come after the shooters instead of retreating is really weird though, you know?
The campers ended up firing over 150 rounds.
also it says that copperheads usually travel at night to hunt so you'd think they'd be more used to the cold of the night. Also if they like to move in the night (darkness), why come into the light?



[edit on 31-7-2005 by GREGNOW]

Snakes have very sharp sense of smell, maybe someone had some new food or something else which lured them.


Or then maybe it's just nature is getting angry in regard to this destructive pest... it would be high time to keep little restoration of discipline for this specie.

E_T, that still would not explain why they were in such large groups and why they went after the campers while they were shooting at the snakes. The snakes should have been scared and retreated, but instead they were aggressive and started coming after the shooters as they were firing at them

[edit on 31-7-2005 by GREGNOW]

It had to have something to do with mating but Im sure it was a combination of factors to produce such a result. But when snakes are in the mood it sometimes turns into a big orgy. I have seen balls of snakes and piles of them all wraped up together in one big lovesnake fest. I would go and check for the babies because there would be so many born around the same time. I would help them all across the road when I was a kid cause they couldnt make the curb and theyd end up like fried worms in the sun.

Well i guess that could explain the large groups then if you have seen it before.
But waht would make them so aggressive and actually come after the shooters as they are being shot at. would'nt the gunfire do the opposite and make the snakes retreat instead of actually going towards the gunfire?

There's also old (1800's-early 1900's) reports of snakes like that in Texas. I don't think it's unique to Texas -- I just happened to be reading a J. Frank Dobie book about Texas and they were talking about snakes being so thick on the ground that they were dangerous to you and your horse. You literally couldn't walk more than 5 feet without finding a snake.

Could be mating. But we're so far removed from nature nowadays that we wouldn't recognize something natural. Like that post earlier today when someone thought that a picture of the moon was a picture of a UFO.

Originally posted by xxKrisxx
It had to have something to do with mating but Im sure it was a combination of factors to produce such a result. But when snakes are in the mood it sometimes turns into a big orgy. I have seen balls of snakes and piles of them all wraped up together in one big lovesnake fest. I would go and check for the babies because there would be so many born around the same time. I would help them all across the road when I was a kid cause they couldnt make the curb and theyd end up like fried worms in the sun.

I agree with the mating theory, I've seen it myself, kind of a creepy sight.
It actually freaked me out a little when I first saw it.

i'd be curious to know that if the campers MOVED out of the path of the snakes if the snakes changed direction to follow them????

i think it was the perception of the campers that the snakes were following them.

have you not seen the programs about garter snakes and rattle snakes both nesting in dens where there are 100's and 100's of snakes? they all nest together. it might be other snakes too but i know those 2 types do that.

when tarantulas migrate annually in arizona they move across the hwys and roads by the thousands and thousands.........like one big giant mass of spiders............

i'm not saying that the snakes were migrating.

but i think there's probably a good explanation and it is NOT that the snakes were trying to attack the campers.

where's jeff corwin or the croc hunter when you need them!!!!

CRIKEY MATE..........look at the size o this specimen......es' a real BEAUT idn't he!!!

angie

also you were thinking the snakes would be scared of the gunshots.

if i'm not mistaken snakes don't hear. they FEEL vibrations but they don't have a true "hearing" sense.


angie-

Quite correct, snakes don't hear in the same manner that we do, they feel vibrations and are attracted to lower frequency vibrations, Copperheads, moccasins and rattlesnakes are also pit vipers, with the heat sensing pit area as the primary visual method for hunting. If mating or molting, they would have reacted very aggressively towards any heat sources at close range. There is also a matter of a couple less layers of brain tissue, and a less developed cerebral cortex. It's very likely that they are unable to correlate gunshot as something to be avoided as opposed to other animals.

Here's a bit on snakes in Kentucky. www.kentuckysnakes.org...

I looked over the news item and a few things struck me as a bit off. First off, these "campers" all had plenty of ammo close at hand, and the one interviewed said he had a light on his head. Also the second night a few days later, they went deliberately looking for snakes that got away. Also to be noted is that other than a one-line quote from a F&W officer, only those campers themselves are the source of the story, with no independant witnesses or corroboration.

I have a feeling that this is a bunch of guys that went out snake hunting, which is a common pastime in Kentucky, to get together fow a few beers and let off some ammo, and then cooked up a bit of a tall tale.

Either that or they misunderstood some normal facet of snake behavior, which the interviewed camper admitted he'd never seen poisonous snakes before.

Originally posted by madhatter

I agree with the mating theory, I've seen it myself, kind of a creepy sight.
It actually freaked me out a little when I first saw it.

Same here

It sounded like a bunch getting ready to mate.

ok, i guess all the above sounds pretty resonable. just nature doing it's thing. One thing the campers did say though is that they have been going there for years and NEVER saw ANY poisoness snakes before. Now this year though there are a ton of them.
Where all of a sudden did they come from?
That's the last question i have on this.

Copperheads are very common in Kentucky. The snakes were likely there in large numbers all along, but except for when mating or molting, will avoid human contact. There's also a possibility that there's an abundance of food in the area has drawn more than usual.

Another possibility is mass migration, which is common enough in snakes, but little is known about migration patterns and behavior. That may also be an explanation for non-experts to misinterpret the snake's behavior.

Well all explained then, thanks.

Snakes don't normally mate in groups of different types. Also, I've done a lot of camping and I've never been attacked at the campsite by one snake, let alone a platoon of VC (venomous Charlies).
I'm going with the "drunken snake-hunters' wild tale" theory for a thousand, please.

My personal experience is that snake never attack unless that is the only option. Every snake I have ever seen will do its damnedest to get to where a human isn't. Of course, I have no experience with boa constrictors or cobras.

THOMAS CROWNE, if you saw the tv footage they actaully showed all the dead snakes they killed. Even if they would'nt have, in the link i provided the article quotes a ranger saying it is unsual that all those copperheads would be out there in such large groups, so they must have been since a ranger is confirming it and he is not one of the "drunk campers".
also only 2 differnent sankes were with the copperheads i rattlesnake and 1 water snake.
The campers even said themselves that they have been going there for years and have never even seen any poisinous snakes at all until this time. I doubt the campers just brought all those snakes with them so they could shoot them and make up the story, you know?

GREGNOW, we do not doubt that the snakes were swarming. They could very well have been in their mating season. What I have considerable doubt over is the supposed attack.

It is possible that the swarm freaked them out and they thought that they were under attack? Was anyone actually bitten? Is it possible that these campers were in the snakes migration path? Did they try to run away and the snakes followed them? Why did they go "camping" with so much ammo?

I think the campers just overreacted.