Police dog bitten/snake ID needed

[guidofatherof5]

Today I received a call from one of my fellow Deputies. He is one of our K-9 handles. He told me that one of the City Police K-9 handles thinks his dog was bitten by a large snake and was concerned. I explained to him that we don't have any poisonous snakes in the area but to be on the safe side he should have the other officer call me so that I can try to ID the snake. A few moment later he called, he was still at the location the bite occurred so I asked him to describe the snake to me. I could tell he was looking at the snake but he said he could only see its head. He said the head was brown and triangular. Not a description of a normal area snake. He was only about 15 miles away so I drove to the location.
The head was black and everything but triangular.
His dog had disturbed a 4 foot beautiful female Bull snake. I was able to pull her out of her hide and gave her a quick check over. She appeared to be in good health and her weight seemed normal. I released her back into the shelter. She repeatedly tried to thank me for the experience

[infernalis]

Steve to the rescue!

[charles parenteau]

Very nice Steve!!!

[Jeff B]

Good thing your fellow deputy knew you were a snake guy and called you first, rather than shoot the snake and ask questions later, huh? Which is what I would guess most people do when they see a big snake if they don't have someone that knows snakes to call, they would just kill it first then try to figure out what it is, sad but true, however this story had a happy ending. Great job Steve! By the way I am pretty certain that bull snakes are protected in Iowa, so it would actually be illegal to kill it or capture and even disturb it, but I am not sure most people are aware of that and probably a lot of bull snakes are killed in Iowa every year mistaken as rattlesnakes.

[cowsymbola]

Nice save! People usually give very poor descriptions of snakes. Good thing you were able to go to it.

[ssssnakeluvr]

great job Steve!! glad they called you!!

[Stefan-A]

Nice save! People usually give very poor descriptions of snakes. Good thing you were able to go to it.

Tell me about it. Afew years ago, there was a huge news story in Sweden about people having spotted a bright green snake about 2 meters long, which people speculated was a "green mamba". Well, it turned out to be a quite ordinary grass snake.

[infernalis]

probably a lot of bull snakes are killed in Iowa every year mistaken as rattlesnakes.

Ironically here in NY it is illegal to kill a rattlesnake.

A local den site near my home is fenced with heavy chain link fencing to keep people away from the dens, To protect the snakes.

The D.O.T. even closed a highway rest stop because gravid females were basking on the asphalt.!

[gregmonsta]

Excellent ... it is worrying how easily some people blow things out of all proportion out of fear.

[drache]

a good story to wake up to