‘What a beast!’ Massive snake found by hiker along creek’s edge in South Carolina

A South Carolina woman out for a hike stumbled onto — and nearly into — a massive snake hidden along the edge of a creek, photos show.

Meredith Langley snapped the pictures of the serpent during a Tuesday hike at Jeffries Creek Park in Florence and shared them to Facebook, capturing the attention of reptile lovers and haters alike. As of Thursday, the post had been shared over 1,000 times.

“Note how well he blends in with his surroundings,” Langley said of the snake, which appears to be several feet long and thicker than the tree root it’s sprawled across.

“This was a good teaching opportunity and example for my own kids who forget not to run ahead of me on trails!” she said.

Many are in awe of the snake’s size.

One person jokingly commented: “He’s probably swallowed somebody child already,” adding, “I ain’t going on NO trails period.”

“What a beast!” wrote one.

“This looks like something you’d see in the Amazon jungle,” said another, sharing the post.

Another simply stated, “Dats a whopper.”

Though intimidating in appearance, is this “whopper” of a snake truly dangerous? Some speculated it’s a venomous cottonmouth that “has been eating good.”

But according to Sean Foley, curator of herpetology at the Riverbanks Zoo & Garden, it is a harmless watersnake, “most likely” a brown watersnake.

Cottonmouths and watersnakes are often confused, according to the University of Florida, though there are several ways to tell them apart.

While watersnakes are considered harmless, they do their best to convince potential threats otherwise, Foley told McClatchy News.

“If they are cornered or attacked they will defend themselves by flattening their heads, striking, and shaking their tails in leaves,” he said. “All these things make them appear dangerous to would-be predators in the hopes that they will be left alone.”

Foley added that the size of the watersnake Langley encountered “is not unusual,” as some species reach between 4 and 5 feet in length.

“It would take several years to reach that size,” he said.

Venomous or not, most snakes are best appreciated from a distance.

Or as Langley advised commenters on her post, “a good rule of thumb is to just steer clear of all of them if you can help it.”

This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 12:34 PM with the headline "‘What a beast!’ Massive snake found by hiker along creek’s edge in South Carolina."