I have just come back from walking the dogs and we came across snake on the path. The dogs had just trotted on and the snake was making its way from one side of the path to the other. It was a pretty little thing, maybe 40 cm long and when it rested against a wall I had a pretty good look at it. I am pretty sure it was a false smooth snake (Macroprotodon brevis). If this is what it was it is really nothing to worry about. We only have a couple of venomous species around here, the lataste´s viper and the montpelier snake.
My encounter with that little snake brought to mind a closer encounter that Steve Lawler had on Saturday evening.
There is something about Steve that seems to make him attractive to other nearby vertebrates when he is out on the water. You may recall that it was he who was approached by a naked woman in Slovenia when he was in the middle of the river minding his own business.
This time he proved equally attractive to a snake while out in his float tube on Concepción. The reptile in question that had been out swimming across the reservoir when it saw Steve and decided to swim between his legs.
He tells me he let out a terrific holler – one of those that could potentially have set off avalanches on the nearby mountainside. Even so I did not here him, having paddled about a million miles in the opposite direction.
The snake thought better of hanging around and buggered off leaving Steve understandably a little shaken but otherwise unharmed. He was not sure what kind of snake it was which, again, is quite understandable. His immediate priority was to dissuade the thing from docking in his groin rather than to pin it down with a scientific name.
So there you go – another strange tale from Concepción.
This is not my photo but I believe it is the kind of snake we came across this evening – a false smooth snake. The photo comes from this source: http://amiralles.com/imagemaroc/macro2.JPG
fishydreams 
Great article. Lovely little snake and quite docile used to have them in my garden.
All snakes can of course “bite” with their little fish like teeth but nothing serious …cannot even pierce the skin…just a bit scary if you are not ready for it.
Mentioning the two venemous snakes I think it is important to educate the kids and stop them killing snakes on sight.
The Montpellier is rear fanged which means it can only inject its venom when something is at back of its mouth (frog ,cockroach etc) so very unlikely to use venom on a human. In addition the venom is weak….severe wasp sting level and would not kill a healthy human unless there was an allergic response which can also happen with bees wasps etc.
The Latastes viper has a more potent venom than the Montpellier but still not going to kill a healthy human. Snakes are more frightened of us and in more danger from us than we are from them so encourage everyone to leave them alone and enjoy them.
The little Viperine snake that swam past Steve was of course totally harmless unless you were a minnow or a damsel fly nymph!
Apologies in advance for the long post but as you know I am passionate about my wildlife!
Couldn’t agree more, snakes should not be killed and just left alone, my scream was more in shock seeing a snake swimming between my legs, a bit ‘girly’ I know but not what you expect on the water sitting in a float tube!
Give me a naked Slovenian woman any day 🙂
Steve
Yeah, and I´ll have one too while you´re at it!