One Mad Snake

I saw this gal one day here in the Red River Gorge. I was able to get close enough to blow on her and all it took was a few taps of a stick to make her strike at me. Even though this snake is not a viper, I still wouldn't want to be on the receiving and of one of these. My friend sent me the following: The snake in question is an Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis), from what I can tell from the photo it appears to be a female (thick bodied), they are generally larger than males as they give birth to live young thus needing a bigger body cavity. They generally aren't too awful hard to piss off, if you pick one up they will most generally "musk" you and bite as well. They are one of the first snakes to emerge in the spring, and usually hibernate in mass (hundreds to thousands of indvidual snakes not uncommmon) at a den site and they all usually emerge at the same time, I've seen pictures and it looks crazy...snakes everywhere.