If there’s one thing that most of us want to do when we are on vacation, it’s relax and enjoy ourselves. We may also like a little bit of adventure, but we certainly don’t want any surprises that are going to put us in harm’s way.
When Roxanne Flanagan went on vacation to Ocean City, Maryland with her family, it was just another family trip. Everything was going fine until her little girl began screaming.
Flanagan said: “I ran down there to see what was going on. As I’m running, all I hear her scream is, ‘It’s a snake, it’s a snake.’ And I’m like, ‘No, it’s probably just a stick that had just washed up from the shore.’”
The little girl was absolutely correct to think that she was dealing with a snake. It wasn’t a stick, and she panicked, as most people would if they saw a snake on the beach.
As it turns out, however, there was no reason for her to be frightened. What she saw was an Eastern hog-nosed snake, a type of snake that is relatively harmless and can, at times, live on the sand.
Eastern hog-nosed snakes are not dangerous and in fact, they are reasonably shy. You don’t have to worry about them attacking you, they’d rather run and hide or even better, simply play dead.
According to Beth Schlimm from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, “[They’re] so non-confrontational that they frequently roll over and play dead when they encounter humans.”
I can attest to this because we found one when we were land surveying in West Virginia. The snake flipped over on its back and even if we put it back on its belly, it would flip back over again.
Schlimm knows a lot about the snakes and says that they are often found in sandy areas. The little critters that they eat tend to hang out in that area.
They are also named because they have an upturned nose, similar to something that would look like a shovel. It is used to dig in the sand to find food.
People who understand something about the snakes realize that it was no surprise they were at the beach. Since they were so close to humans, however, it may make you wonder if they are actually shy.
As it turns out, it is thought that this snake was probably close to humans because it was a mistake. After they gave the snake some distance, he tried to swim out into the waves. Eventually, they called local experts.
The team members from Ocean City Animal Control arrived and relocated the steak safely to a suitable habitat nearby. It allowed the snake to continue to have what it needed but took it out of harm’s way.
Schlimm continued: “The biggest threat to the eastern hog-nosed snake is loss of habitat. he best thing that people can do to protect the eastern hog-nosed snake is help preserve the wild places that these snakes call home.”