Re: [Paddlewise] ... Cotton Mouth's

>Fred,
>Thanks for the word up.  It  definitely crossed my mind as I was 
> >performing my antics in the swampy water, whether or not I was going to 
>attract the attention of a poisonous snake.  However, I
>would imagine that, like rattlers, they seldom actually go after
>humans and attack them(?).  The biggest threat would likely be
>stepping on one or disturbing it while it was napping.

Well, thrashing around in the water is likely to disturb it...

>I was wondering what other creatures/bugs were lurking in the weeds,
>but none bothered me.

You'll be happy to know that the Houston area has the distinction of 
overlapping territory for all four types of NA venomous snakes - rattlers, 
water moccasins, copperheads, and coral snakes.  I'm not clear whether the 
alligator's range has re-expanded to include Houston, but I saw a couple in 
the bayous back when I was a kid.

Once you hit the Gulf you have tiger, bull, blacktip, and hammerhead sharks 
to deal with, but don't worry about them, worry about the sting rays!  (an 
old friend of our family stepped on a ray and got hit with a spine that 
entered the calf, went through the knee joint, and out the inside of his 
thigh.  Very impressive scar...)

KeS


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