Cryptid Giant Snake Shot & Sank
Posted by: Loren Coleman on June 21st, 2008
Chad Arment, author of Boss Snakes: Stories and Sightings of Giant Snakes in North America, passes along this intriguing new case.
The python [sic – no actual scientific identification occurred] snake that was spotted on Lake Sinclair [Georgia, USA] earlier this spring [2008] was killed by a Putnam County Sheriff’s Department deputy last Thursday [apparently June 12th, 2008; as June 19th, probably would have been referred to as “yesterday”].
The deputy shot the snake three times with a shotgun and the creature then sank to the bottom of the lake. No pictures were taken.
Repair crews were in the Twin Bridges area on Thursday working on some downed lines. The deputy was on hand helping to direct traffic, according to PCSD Chief Deputy Russell Blank. A repairman then walked up to the deputy and said, “Ya’ll are looking for the snake, right?” The deputy then spotted the snake and retrieved a shotgun.
More than a month had passed since the python [sic] had last been spotted. Pythons are a tropical, non–native species and the snake likely was released into the lake by its owner or escaped confinement.“Snake on the lake killed” ~ Baldwin Bulletin, Milledgeville, Georgia, June 20, 2008.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
My God folks! Lay out something the size of a small cat (like a New York sewer rat) for it to catch and eat and the thing would have laid there for quite awhile. There was no need to kill it. Grant you it might have taken a few of you to carry it, but think of the number of people visiting the zoo to see “The Snake of Lake Sinclair!” Especially if the snake was rather huge.
Sounds like somebody has watched too many bad SciFi Channel movies…
I guess they felt it necessary…
Sad story.
Unfortuntately, not everybody is as “informed” as people here.
Great script material, tho, if it survives…
“Swim With Care in Lake Sinclair”
Redneck Cryptozoology: “Well, it’s dead, whatever it was!”
Man, the attitude of people… “its a snake and its gonna take over the world… let me saaaaave the day! …bang! bang! Bang!”
“Oh your sooo brave mister snake shooter, where did u learn to shoot like that?”
It’s shameful that a higher value is placed on institutional convenience than on life.
this is one of the few times that i agree with local law enforcements actions regarding out of place wildlife. it sounds like this ‘giant’ snake might be a Burmese python, recently migrated from Florida.
these snakes can grow up to 20 feet and weight 200lbs, and with no natural predators beyond the American alligator. they can produce between 60 and 80 offspring a year.
From 2002-2005, 201 pythons were captured or found dead in and around Everglades National Park. In 2006-2007, the number more than doubled, to 418. Everglades biologists have estimated the population at more than 30,000.
species on the pythons’ prey menu include rabbit, gray squirrel, fox squirrel, domestic cats, raccoons, bobcats, white-tailed deer, white ibis and the American alligator. in other words…anything that moves.
a bounty needs to be placed on these snakes by Florida and other nearby states before the population get out of control (30K already sounds out of control) and more American wildlife is place on the endangered species list. if they make it to the Mississippi river there will be no stopping them.
it is only a matter of time before one of these snakes kills an infant or small child, and then there will be an outcry to have these pests removed.
all i can say on this matter is – ” good shooting deputy!”
Unless it is a true cryptid, this isn’t a natural species cut down in its prime. It’s an invasive species. Just look at the everglades. There isn’t enough money and zoo space to keep these animals.
Redirect your anger at the people who create these scenarios by buying/freeing these creatures into the environment, not the law enforcement officials who have to clean up the mess.
And even if they catch it what do you think happens next? Ever been to the humane society? Ever wonder what they do with all the kittens and puppies?
i think the point is, now we won’t ever know what it was. if they had tried to capture it rather than shoot it–and not even bother to retrieve the body–then we could have easily found out if it was just a python. if it was, then unfortunately killing it is generally the approach taken. but we can’t be sure now…