{"id":257,"date":"2018-05-26T10:19:35","date_gmt":"2018-05-26T17:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/?p=257"},"modified":"2018-05-26T10:25:20","modified_gmt":"2018-05-26T17:25:20","slug":"is-this-picture-of-a-snake-in-a-shoe-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/science-and-education\/is-this-picture-of-a-snake-in-a-shoe-real\/","title":{"rendered":"Is This Picture of a Snake in a Shoe Real?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the latest picture to be passed around social media to milk reactions from the snake-fearful. Yes, it is a real photograph, but the details you’ve read are probably way off.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I first saw this photo in a local community group here in Phoenix, Arizona, where it was quickly misidentified as a Gophersnake. It showed up on another soon after, misidentified as a rattlesnake. It’s since been appearing all over the internet, with more misleading information placing it in many states across the country, and even overseas.<\/p>\n

What is it and where is it from?<\/h2>\n

This is not from Arizona (or almost all of those other places). The pattern and smooth, keel-less scales indicate that this is a Ratsnake; a harmless constrictor that is common across much of the mid-to-eastern US. (I’ll work on getting a more specific location by asking some more ratsnake-savvy friends).<\/strong><\/p>\n

“My Uncle Found This”<\/h2>\n

More interestingly is the social context that this provides, and another peek into the cultural freak-out that happens whenever a snake shows up in unexpected places. When this photo appears, it very often does so with a claim by the poster that this is somehow tied to them directly and personally. This is “their” shoe, or the shoe of their brother, or co-worker, etc. Similar to stories that are passed around of “giant rattlesnakes” that really aren’t, this image seems to be a useful tool for some personality types.<\/p>\n

Does snakes really show up in shoes?<\/h2>\n

Yes. Any place that can be used to hide may be used. This is a good case for keeping your shoes indoors if you live in a place where snakes do and you aren’t a fan of surprise snakes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the latest picture to be passed around social media to milk reactions from the snake-fearful. Yes, it is a real photograph, but the details you’ve read are probably way off.\u00a0 I first saw this photo in a local community group here in Phoenix, Arizona, where it was quickly misidentified as a Gophersnake. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[52,50,51],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-and-education","tag-fact-or-fiction","tag-social-media","tag-viral-images"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262,"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions\/262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}