In the late 60’s my parents still owned a lot of property, in fact they owned over 350 acres and milked about 75 cows a day. One summer day I found something that I will never forget, in fact almost 40 years later the incident still remains strong in my mind.
On a lazy afternoon in August, I was out in a field with my dad, watching him work on a tractor’s PTO shaft, when suddenly my dad yelled for me to come over to him. He made me get on the tractor and listen to something. Listen to that whistle he said, listen… Sure enough, I soon heard what sounded like a wolf call, like when teenagers see a pretty girl go by, they whistle at them, Will, this sounded like this. The noise seemed to come from the top of the field, which was quite a steep hill. Dad, he said, they do it a couple of times to try to lure people out in the open, or to get close to them, before they attack.
What is? I asked dad, a hoop snake, she answered. I’ve seen them twice in all my years here on the farm. Growing up to 5 feet long and thicker than a normal snake, they crawl to the top of the fields and sit there quietly watching for any farm animals or even humans roaming the fields below them. Once they detect a target, they will begin a series of hissing sounds that can mimic humans, often causing the target to approach the snake to investigate the source of the hissing.
The snake will then tense its muscles and bend into a circle or hoop shape, and begin rolling down the hill using its body and gravity to propel itself towards its intended target. When the snake is close to the target, it jumps and thrusts its tail towards the victim, at the end of the snake’s tail there is a very sharp hook or spike that can pierce a piece of wood. Inside this barb is a strong venom, even stronger than a diamondback rattlesnake.
Dad and I made a list and clearly heard 4 distinct hisses coming from the field above, soon we could see a snake rolling across the field in our direction. Dad started the tractor and waited a bit while the snake got closer, as it got closer to us, Dad moved the tractor forward just as the snake passed and dove in our direction. He missed us both, but his tail barb had embedded itself deep into one of the tractor’s big tires, blowing a hole in it that allowed air to escape. Dad was quite upset that tires were very expensive and often difficult to patch, so he got off the tractor and killed the snake with a rock while it was attached to the tire. He took out his pocket knife and cut off the spike, for me to see. It resembled a backbone that he had seen before in catfish and catfish.
I have never seen a hoop snake after this incident, but to this day some people in this area still mention them. I think they are now very rare and rarely seen. Like the little green snakes that live here, my brother and I saw one years ago, but never again. Some people say there is no such thing as a hoop snake, well they are wrong, I saw one firsthand, and I still have the spike that was embedded in my tractor tire in the summer of 1969.
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