Back in the late 60’s my parents still owned a lot of property, in fact they owned over 350 acres, and milked roughly 75 cows per day˳ One summer day I encountered something that I will never forget, in fact almost 40 years later the incident still remains strong in my mind˳
On a lazy August afternoon I was out in a field with my dad, watching him work on the PTO shaft of a tractor, when all of a sudden my dad hollered for me to come to him˳ He had me climb up on the tractor, and listen to something˳ Hear that whistle he said, listen…˳ sure enough I soon heard what sounded like a wolf call, like when the teenage boys see a pretty girl go by, they whistle at them, will, this sorta sounded like that˳ The noise seemed to be coming from the top part of the field, which was a pretty steep hill˳ Dad, said, they do that a few times to try to lure people out in the open, or to come closer to them, before they attack˳
What is it? I asked dad, a hoop snake, he replied˳ I’ve seen them twice in all of my years here on the farm˳ They grow up to 5 feet long and are thicker than a normal snake, they crawl to the top of fields and lay there silently watching for farm animals or even humans to wander into the fields below them˳ Once they spot a target they will start a series of whistling that can mimic a humans, this often causes the target to wander closer to the snake to investigate the whistling source˳
Then the snake will tighten it’s muscles and will bend it’s self into a circle or hoop shape, and being to roll down the hill using its body and gravity to propel it’s self towards the intended target˳ As the snake is near the target, it leaps and thrusts it’s tail at the victim, on the end of the snakes tail is a very sharp hook or barb that can pierce through a piece of wood˳ Inside this barb is a strong poison, even stronger than a diamond back rattlesnake˳
Dad and I listed and we clearly heard 4 distinct whistles coming from the field above, soon we could see a snake come rolling down the field in our direction˳ Dad started up the tractor and waited a bit as the snake got closer, as it neared us, Dad moved the tractor forward just as the snake passed by and flung it’s self in our direction˳ It missed both of us but the barb on it’s tail had become deeply embedded in one of the large tractor tires, punching a hole into it, allowing air to escape˳ Dad was quite upset, because the tires were very expensive and often were difficult to patch, so he climbed down off the tractor and killed the snake with a rock, while it was attached to the tire˳ He pulled out his pocket knife and cut off the barb, for me to see˳ It resembled a spine I had seen before in bullheads and catfish˳
I have never seen a hoop snake after this incident, but to this day some folks around this area still mention them˳ I believe they are now very rare and seldom seen˳ Just like the small green grass snakes that live here, my brother and I saw one years back, but never again˳ Some folks say there are no such things as hoop snakes, well they are wrong, I seen one first hand, and I still have the barb that was embedded into the tractor tire back in the summer of 1969˳
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