"Rattlesnake" in Shelbyville newspaper was a hoax
Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 2:41 pm
EDIT: Link below is not working for most people, especially mobile users. I added screenshots of the article a few posts down.
Some of you may recall an article in the Sentinel News about a lady finding a rattlesnake while cleaning brush behind her house last year. She took a picture of the rattlesnake and submitted it to the Sentinel News. They didn't question the validity of the story because the Fish and Wildlife "sent a local guy over that collects snakes" to remove it. So a "professional" did in fact lay eyes on a snake at this woman's residence.
Well I discovered that it's a lie on her behalf. A hoax if you will.
In the paper the State Herpetologist identified the snake in the picture as a Massasauga Rattlesnake, while the guy who handled it swore it wasn't a "poisonous" (in quotes because the word should be venomous) snake. How could the two fellas reach such differing conclusions I wondered. So I did some digging. It didn't take long.
A quick google search for "massasauga rattlesnake" brought me to an exact matching photo of the snake this lady submitted to the paper. When I clicked the image, I expected to be linked to the Sentinel News' online article. I was in for a surprise.
Here is the link to the Sentinel News article including the submitted picture below this paragraph. My next post will include the pictures from my google search. Pay close attention to the date of the Sentinel News article and then the date of the scientific blog article that will follow. Then look at the pictures of the snakes and tell me where this lady got her picture from...because she didn't take it with her phone or camera...
http://www.sentinelnews.com/content/rar ... y-crossing
Some of you may recall an article in the Sentinel News about a lady finding a rattlesnake while cleaning brush behind her house last year. She took a picture of the rattlesnake and submitted it to the Sentinel News. They didn't question the validity of the story because the Fish and Wildlife "sent a local guy over that collects snakes" to remove it. So a "professional" did in fact lay eyes on a snake at this woman's residence.
Well I discovered that it's a lie on her behalf. A hoax if you will.
In the paper the State Herpetologist identified the snake in the picture as a Massasauga Rattlesnake, while the guy who handled it swore it wasn't a "poisonous" (in quotes because the word should be venomous) snake. How could the two fellas reach such differing conclusions I wondered. So I did some digging. It didn't take long.
A quick google search for "massasauga rattlesnake" brought me to an exact matching photo of the snake this lady submitted to the paper. When I clicked the image, I expected to be linked to the Sentinel News' online article. I was in for a surprise.
Here is the link to the Sentinel News article including the submitted picture below this paragraph. My next post will include the pictures from my google search. Pay close attention to the date of the Sentinel News article and then the date of the scientific blog article that will follow. Then look at the pictures of the snakes and tell me where this lady got her picture from...because she didn't take it with her phone or camera...
http://www.sentinelnews.com/content/rar ... y-crossing